It isn’t easy being the best. However, the Bradley Speech Team makes being the “most successful extracurricular team in history,” according to the Associated Press, look effortless.
Last Friday night, I watched one of four performances hosted by the Bradley Speech Team as a preview of what these students will take to their national competitions. Never having watched the Speech Team before, I attended the 9 p.m. performance, R-rated for language, with low expectations and a worry I wouldn’t understand what was on the stage before me.
I was partially right. There is no way I will ever understand how all six performers gave such thought-provoking and culturally relevant speeches while still managing comedy in the right places. As for my expectations, I was wrong to set them so low.
The first performance, a duo from juniors Matt Friedhoff and Greg Huber, was almost too believable. Presenting a speech about empathy and sexual assault, the connection these two speakers shared, along with the in-sync choreography and their emotional performances, was gripping.
“I felt like I was drawn into their scene because of their amazing acting capabilities and chemistry,” junior public relations major Ruth Bertram said.
There could not have been a dry eye in the house after the pair told a story of individuals connected through the sharing of a similar trauma. In ten minutes, these two alone took my viewing experience from hesitance to completely engrossed.
Throughout the remainder of the show, I was never disappointed. Not when sophomore Brenna Fuhr pulled off an impromptu speech about accountability and trust based on the audience’s quote of “b*tch better have my money,” nor when sophomore Cassie Edlund performed a powerful prose interpretation about weight and the struggles of negative self-image. I couldn’t take my tear-filled eyes away from junior Megan Magee’s poetry interpretation, where she expertly blended several poetic pieces together to craft a beautiful and devastatingly real story about cancer.
Each of these students gave a different view on the world – the content was real, relatable and in some cases, heart-wrenching. Yet, even when these speakers were presenting topics that were hard to bear, they had the audience’s rapt attention. They deserved it; they commanded it.
“[The performance was] something I didn’t know I needed,” junior psychology major Alex Wyman said. “They tackled real life problems that very much spoke to me and made me think, without crossing a line.”
The night ended as shockingly well as it began. Senior Sarah Brashear delivered an after-dinner speech about white women and privilege with perfect comedic timing. Her enthusiastic and snarky call to action for white women to get out their planners and start making a change in their lives was the perfect mix of pointed and hilarious, overall a great wrap to the night.
It takes an abundant amount of skill, preparation and talent to discuss such controversial and emotional topics while still leaving an audience happy, but the Speech Team effortlessly delivered a night of laughter, tears and a refreshingly honest dose of the real world.
