The Voice

The use of the voice is another key part of creating an effective presentation that keeps the audience's attention.  Many different qualities of the voice individually contribute to the way a presenter can convey his or her message.  The simple details, such as word choice, pronunciation, tone, inflection, and timing, all affect the message that the presenter is delivering.  Comedian Louis C.K. is a perfect example of a master of the voice as an elocutionary instrument.  His bit on learning that everyone eventually dies puts his voice in several ranges to create a unique, hilarious experience.  Throughout the bit, Louis C.K. portrays several different people with his voice in different manners to distinguish each of them.  Through multiple imitative tones, he creates and angry grandfather, a dumb child, and a mother trying to avoid a deep, heavy, conversation with a little kid.  Each of these voices have different levels of cheerfulness and understanding to create new experiences for the audience.  The most masterful quality of Louis C.K.'s humor lies in his timing and his pauses for breath.  Whenever Louis C.K. delivers a punchline he pauses for breath with a timing that allows the audience understand and laugh at his joke as much as possible.  This is a textbook example of the elocutionary expressive pause, which conveys a "preparation for important emphasis", which is highly effective in the anxious state in which the audience is stuck ("Elocutionary Manual", the Principles of Elocution, p. 116).