In my continuing quest to be a better performer, I’m still trying to slow down while I perform. Personally I’ve always had a fast rate of speech, I remember that was always a note on the presentations I gave in elementary school. During my shows I have to make a conscious effort to not talk fast, it’s rough.
What I try to do is to put out the verbal information in chunks. I say a bit, then I take a slight pause to let what I just said sink in with the audience, then continue talking. This seems to work. I’m not just throwing information at people and not giving them time to process it.
Working slower applies not only to verbal but to physical things as well. I’m taking more pauses to display things.
I’m happy with the results of doing it this way. It still takes a effort on my part to do. I think it’s easier with newer routines as I’m learning them this way, where older routines I learned them and have done them too fast for years and need to break that muscle memory.