kay, so not so much writing as communicating and identifying a new (or somewhat old) trend.

I recently watched an impassioned message by comedian Sarah Silverman on Facebook. She’s making the pitch for Bernie Sanders. Yeah, I like her and I like Bernie – I voted for one of them recently, not sure which.

This issue here is not political, though. It’s toastmastersical. I noticed, as I watched the video through, that the stream breaks and breaks and breaks, as if they shot it a number of times and pieced something together. To me (with my boomer viewpoint) this appears unprofessional and unrehearsed, like they just sat down and shot a bunch of yabber and glued it all together into something that resembled a coherent speech.

I’ve given speeches before. I did two minute speeches for a Dale Carnegie class (I think I was the only person that rehearsed – that really pissed me off, those timewasters. “Um”). I could tighten it down and run it straight through, two minutes on the dot. I also did a forty minute speech at the library after Early ReTyrement came out (thanks to all who showed up for that event), one that I practiced for a week and nailed. I think that was the best speech of my life; I was sharp and witty and polished. So, yes, a four minute speech which is going to be viewed by millions – I think I could make it through in one take.

Then I started to think. This isn’t the first place I’ve seen this. I’ve heard it in the car, on commercials on the radio. There, a professional hawker clips through his ad, the breaks obvious.

It reminds me of Max Headroom (look it up, you millennials).

And that’s when I realized that, maybe, this is done purposely. Maybe this, in millennial-POV, is seen as “honest” (the same way that MTV camera-jerk was seen as “honest”). Firefly fans will remember how many of the external ship shots had that cam-jerk for the action scenes, as if the cameraman was in deepspace furiously spinning his lens out, trying to focus (and even though it was CGI every step of the way). This made things feel “realistic”, which makes it feel more “honest”.

So I’m left wondering if Sarah really invited a cameraman (or a friend with a camera phone) to sit comfortably on the floor of her den while she chatted about Bernie and it was all “tidied up” afterwards, or if it was slickly put together, the format lending “truth” to the message.

I’m not being cynical. Simply observant.

And the reason I bring this up in a writing blog is that communication is communication, be it by books or videos or lip-to-ear transmission. In a literary world where hooks, fake-likes, gorilla-marketing and every other little trick play out, one should always have that third eye open.

Original video HERE. Not for you, mom.

>>>AND ORIGINAL BOOKS. HERE. I’M HONEST. VERY HONEST. BUY. A BOOK. PLEASE<<<