The magnificent, consistently funny blaxploitation spoof movie Black Dynamite is an unexpected source of sophisticated public speaking insight.

The hero of the film is Black Dynamite himself, a laconic unstoppable African-American kung fu master who is enraged when hard drugs even get into the orphanage – yes, the orphanage – and he decides to follow the trail of wickedness right to the Very Top.

Which is where he ends up: battling the evil villain (and his wife), yet managing to stay righteous.

Along the way he meets beautiful Gloria, a radical woman in a Black Panther-type group who is battling to improve the community. He watches her give a supposedly militant Power to the People speech in which she denounces the corruption of one of the community’s own leaders, Congressman James. Whereupon that same leader gets up and quickly wins the audience back round to supporting him.

Here is most of this utterly wonderful scene:

How exactly does Congressman James get results?

He starts strongly, by talking in rather personal terms (of sorts) straight to each audience member:

Y’all know me …

He then swings into a series of absurd rhyming couplets. Empty but steadily more rousing folksy platitudes, propping up wildly impossible political ambition:

You can’t just stick it to The Man – you also got to have yo’self a plan!

… We gotta go from the poor house – to the White House!

In no time at all he has regained complete control and ends on a note of soaring optimism:

Let’s take this thing from sea to shining sea!

The difference between the two speeches?

Gloria was focusing on where she wanted the audience to go, namely her vision of radical change. Congressman James had a clear sense of where the audience actually was. He planted his speech and its amusing delivery right there with them in terms they immediately understood.

Gloria was talking. Congressman James was communicating. 

Black Dynamite tells the deflated Gloria as she stalks out that the audience did not know what she was talking about: “At least they could put his to a beat“.

She gets flustered. And watch how Black Dynamite in turn gets the better of her:

Superb technique. Practical speechwriting point? Think about what this audience on this day in this venue want to hear. Start there. It’s not just about the speaker. It’s about the speaker’s relationship with the audience as they are.

Solve your Christmas gift problems. Buy this movie for everyone who likes some fine kung fu, dastardly baddies, rude stuff, bad language, cars exploding for no reason,  and masses of laughter.