Own the Room: Business Presentations that Persuade, Engage, and Get Results

8Physical GrammarMovement as Punctuation

Chris Rock related in a television interview that as a young comic, he would plant himself behind the microphone and never move. One night, his idol, Eddie Murphy, was in the audience. After the show, Eddie recommended to Chris that he incorporate movement into his routine. Eddie mentioned that early in his own career, he’d noticed that the audiences in clubs would look away and talk during his jokes, which really frustrated him. But he figured out that the audience assumed he would be in the same position whenever they stopped talking and looked up. To keep their attention, he began to pace back and forth during the jokes. It worked. Chris took Eddie’s advice and is now in constant motion, not only bleeding ...