Al Gore’s We Day Speech

Al Gore, another We Day speaker, comes to Manitoba with the purpose of teaching about climate change. This is sets him apart from the other activists, like Martin Sheen, who are focused on human rights. Other than this, the structure and style of the two speeches were very similar. For me, I was very interesting to compare two speeches on the same topic, one by a politician and one by an actor. I found that Al Gore’s speech had some minor problems. The speech wasn’t very concise, and was a bit monotonous. However, other than this, he did very well in writing his speech to fit the audience.

Firstly, I felt that Gore could have been more to the point. The fact is that we all know he was an environmentalist and was there to tell the audience about climate change. He starts by mentioning sports; not the best move. This is because Canadians are not as big on football, and those who are prefer to follow American teams. After, he repeats the story of the origins of Free the Children. Also not necessary, as any one is dedicated enough to go to Winnipeg for We Day would already know the story. In reality, he doesn’t mention “climate change” till four minutes into the speech. That’s more than one third of the speech.

Also, He was very monotonous with his speech. This is where being an actor would be useful. He didn’t have many pauses between phrases, and didn’t have much tone and volume variation. Martin Sheen, who is an actor, was exactly the opposite. He had long dramatic pauses in between sentences and line, but also started his speech at a normal volume and ending shouting. And the difference shows; Al Gore had respectful applause and Martin Sheen got standing ovations.

Lastly, He did suit to the audience. This is something that they had common. He spoke about sports, which is not as an effective in Canada as I explained, but is better than just starting with statistic, considering that the audience is full of teens and kids. What he doesn’t have in tonal variance, he makes up with interesting stories and passion in his subject. He tells stories that seem to be irrelevant, but tie it to his point in the end. For example, his Michael Jordan story.

Overall, I still like Martin Sheen’s speech better. He voice was more interesting than Gore’s, and got to the point of his speech earlier. However, both speakers had interesting personal stories that kept the audience entertained. After watching both Sheen’s and Gore’s speeches, I would like to someday go to We Day in person and experience it for myself.