Randy Pausch Guest Speaker Critique I have chosen to do my guest speaker critique on Randy Pausch’s presentation he gave on Oprah. I am glad I did, Randy gave an amazing presentation that kept me watching intently for ten minutes straight. I had never heard of his story before, but I felt as if I had known him for a long time. I found myself taking notes on some of the things he was doing in his presentation that made it so strong. I am going to strive to be able to speak in public like this one day. Randy’s introduction was extremely attention gaining and thought provoking. He gave a hypothetical question on the topic of a last speech given to students, if it was the speakers last before death. He then surprised me to admit that this was actually a situation he was in, and I automatically wanted to hear what he had to say. He transitioned into the main part of his presentation using a power point. I noticed that in between slides there was a slight pause. This was not a bad thing at all, as it led the audience to collect their thoughts and anticipate what Randy had to say next. There was a prevalent use of stories and pictures used to describe a target lifestyle for successful living. He was very clear in connecting his personal anecdotes to the point he was trying to get across. There were a few minor things that I noticed, just nitpicking a couple of actions. There were times where he would put his hands in his pockets and start walking around. However, it seemed very natural and he stayed very conversational in his delivery with the audience. Also there were times where he appeared to be looking up, though it could have been to maintain eye contact with audience members in the upper levels of the venue. Overall, this was an excellent speech that caught me from the beginning and entertained throughout. Pausch’s story and advice was very motivational, and his delivery of his message was strong enough to impact members of the audience, as well as myself. I will definitely use this presentation as a tool for bettering my speeches for the future.