Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?
Back in my working days, I used to write articles that would be published in various business and industry publications. As a result, I would periodically be invited to speak at conference and seminars to make oral presentations on one of my papers or on related topics.
Another part of my job was to demo our software products to prospective clients and to discuss how they would affect their internal administrative processes. Often this required me standing in front of a large group of people and doing my song and dance. Not literally, of course. I can neither sing nor dance.
I was a pretty effective speaker, even if I do say so myself. Well, with one big exception. I was the speaker immediately after lunch at a large annual conference in front of about 400 people consisting of both clients and company associates. I spent most of the morning practicing my presentation in my hotel room. I had a light breakfast at around 7 am and a large carafe of coffee. I decided to skip lunch to do one last run through of my presentation.
The time came. I climbed onto the stage, stood behind the podium and started my speech. Next thing I knew I was in an ambulance being transported to a local hospital. Apparently about three minutes into my presentation, I passed out and took a dive off the stage, which knocked me unconscious.
Turned out, drinking five or six cups of coffee and skipping lunch was not such a grand idea. My blood sugar had dropped, and I fell like a tree onto the hard wood floor. Fortunately, I learned from that experience and never had another calamitous incident like that one.
I retired at the end of 2016 and have not had an opportunity to get up on stage and to make a presentation since then. Which is probably a good thing. A very good thing, I think.
Written for today’s WordPress Daily Prompt.
This, That, and the Other 
I’m glad you lived to tell the tale. 😊
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It was strange, but never happened again.
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I spoke many times but always had a week of restless nights before the event. I found it very hard to do.
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Public speaking can be intimidating.
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Ouch, low bloodsugars can be a pain
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Wow. I’m glad you don’t have to worry about that anymore!
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Me too!
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Always take jelly babies with you. They serve two purposes: you can throw them, or take a moment to chew on a sticky question. I like the throwing bit best, mind you, the only people I got to present to were … um, not good listeners, and only there by compulsion.
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I think I’d like the throwing aspect too!
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Ouch! I’m glad it wasn’t something serious. Hypoglycemia can be dangerous.
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#1. I bet you can too sing or dance, and I hope you do often (given how often you post musical snippets). Whether you might get paid to do it, or whether anyone would request you do it is another thing entirely. But we all CAN sing and dance. And should do so as often as possible!
#2. I bet that was the most memorable speech people had experienced in a long time.
#3. I saw Leonard Bernstein conduct a concert in Chicago once when I was in graduate school–Beethoven’s 5th. He came back on for the second encore as we were all applauding wildly, and when he turned to step back off the podium, he missed a step and fell face down. He remained down for minutes and the EMTs brought in a stretcher and took him away as we all stood in horror! OMG we watched Leonard Bernstein die! It turned out he fell on this medallion he was wearing, and it bruised him so hard, he thought he had a heart attack. He lived for several years afterward. As did you, hurray!
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Yes, it was memorable, but not in the way I would have wanted it to be!
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oops! What a disaster! I’m glad it only happened the once!
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I was a speech major in college. I was good at it too, as long as it was a LIVE audience. I hated being filmed.
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Had to take speech class in high school – hated it. Took speech during my one year of college and it was tolerable. I am not going on the speech circuit any time soon.
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