Commencement Speech BY Jim Carrey

The MUM Commencement Speech by Jim Carrey

The MUM commencement speech by Jim Carrey is roughly 25 minutes long. Since he works as a comedian, he is introduced as one of the funniest men on the planet. He claims that the purpose of this graduation commencement address was to help him welcome the graduating students into the post-educational world. There is a lot of humor, symbolism, and personal examples from Jim Carrey’s life in this motivational speech. The presenting style is exceptional; it exudes a lot of optimism about self-acceptance and encourages the pursuit of personal fulfillment while pursuing one’s objectives. The inclusion of humor in an otherwise serious conversation, especially when talking to graduands in an academic institution expresses that life should not always be a serious affair. This is my reason for selecting this speech.

Strengths of the Speech

Organization and dramatization are a skill that seemed to be very natural for the speaker. Jim Carrey, coming from the field of performing arts, is expected to communicate efficiently with both actions and words. Right from the start, the speech appears to have been planned all the way to the end. For instance, when he mentions a painting, many people in the audience may hardly have known that it was right in front of them because it was large and covered. As he says, it took him thousands of hours to paint, meaning that selection of its use was not a random decision but a carefully planned one. The dramatization of the removal of the painting’s covering at the 16th minute and the dimming of lights to allow its fluorescent display signify meticulous rehearsal. The level of organization deserves commendation.

Non-verbal communication includes mimicry and non-verbal shouts, stage movement and effective use of body language. The speech is presented with a lot of dramatization with bits of storytelling from the beginning through to the end. As Carrey narrated, there was a lot of tonal variation, pauses, and variation of pitch. This kind of delivery helped to keep the audience focused on the speaker, thus effectively grabbing everyone’s attention. This is evidenced by the fact that the majority of the people were laughing for the major part of the time. All the tools of communication effectively helped to drive the message home, about how one should be confident about himself or herself and that

Articulation is highly paramount in any speech. It shows confidence in the mastery of content as well as its truth or reality. The main content of the commencement speech was that everyone in the audience should choose love over fear and “risk being seen in all of your glory” (Carrey, 2014). It was also about trouncing that inner voice that makes people feel insufficient to shine one’s light to discover the limitlessness of one’s fate. All these points are voiced confidently with accurate articulation, with Jim ending the speech with the phrase, “Hope walks through fire, faith leaps over it” (Carrey, 2014).

Weaknesses

One major weakness exhibited in the speech is that the speaker added a lot of humor in the speech, which may have side-tracked the audience’s attention to comedy instead of the contents of his words. This is seen as the people in the audience laugh through most of the time allotted for the speech. Considering this fact, it is hard to determine the level of delivery of the purpose of the speech to all in attendance.

Conclusion

Jim Carrey showed a lot of stage mastery in the delivery of this commencement speech. The exuberance shown through humor, stage movement, dramatization, and body language throughout the speech show how confident he is as a speaker. He manages to grab the attention of the audience through his use of humor and storytelling and vocal variations. The speech contains a powerful message of believing in oneself and asking the universe for one’s wishes, which fulfill the purpose of a commencement speech.

References

Carrey, J. (2014, May 30). Full Speech: Jim Carrey’s Commencement Address at the 2014 MUM Graduation (EN, FR, ES, RU, GR,...). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V80-gPkpH6M