CULBERSON That’s what I was going to say.
To me, that’s impossible. I can’t do that. I
don’t have the time, or the energy or the
creativity.
RIZZO I customize my speeches, but not
my humor.
CULBERSON I spend the first five minutes of
my program commenting on the previous
speakers in a funny way. That’s similar to
what Dale does, but it’s my intro into my
prepared material. That endears me to the
audience for two reasons. First, they know I
was there. I didn’t just show up to do my
speech. And, second, I’m commenting on
things that they’ve all experienced.
Customized humor is the best humor for
an audience. But few people, such as
Dale, can do that all the time.
FUTCH Well he’s working his unique talent.
It’s surely all customized, but it’s different
and shorter than a whole speech.
CULBERSON Exactly. It’s different than what
we do. We come in with a presentation
and, yeah, we’re going to pull in stuff from
the conference, but I’m bringing in about
95 percent of my own material, as
opposed to their material.
RIZZO It’s 100 percent of mine. I very rarely
talk about the audience and their convention. I just do my thing.
FUTCH I realize it’s different for Dale,
because what he does is totally different
every time, but I know speakers who say, “I
never give the same speech twice. I customize everything I do.” And I think, to
myself, “Well then, you can’t be very
good.” If you create something new every
time, you haven’t honed it.
RIZZO And if you haven’t honed it, you
haven’t owned it.
