I have an improvised dream...

Martin Luther King’s speech is already an impressive speech, but the most shocking thing to me is that the speech was largely improvised. He draws on such elaborate metaphors throughout his speech which would require a genius to dream up on the spot. Instead of analyzing this speech’s message, which I believe King conveys quite clearly, I am going to focus on what improvisational techniques he uses.

I have been to a few improvisational shows and seen many on television, and one thing I notice is that their acts are very interactive with the audience – they sample what the audience likes based on their response, and use it to continue. I watched Martin Luther King’s speech and noticed that the audience gave frequent and loud responses. They applauded frequently, and would often chant “Yes!” or “My Lord!” in unison.

I noticed that whenever King received response for a phrase he said, he would often start into a parallel-structure list of similar ideas (“We must…. We must…”, “I have a dream…”). Sometimes, when such a list was not appropriate, he would simply elaborate deeper on a metaphor, or just give more examples of how his metaphor was accurate (We’ve come to cash this check (‘Yes!’) …riches of freedom (‘Yes!’) and security of justice. (‘Yes!’) [applause]”).

King is actively listening to the audience, and really giving them what they want to hear. I’m sure if there had been a lulled response when he started his “I have a dream…” sequence, he would have moved onto something else, but since his audience responded so loudly to his first dream claim, he continued making more and more, generating more and more energy until he climaxes with a biblical illusion “…that the glory of the lord shall be revealed”.

Compare this speech to another speech which generates a lot of dynamic response – the State of the Union. The president recites his speech regardless of what response he gets from whom, and as a result it usually ends up being rather dull. This speech, on the other hand, seems so much more active simply because King listens to the audience and uses their responses to generate energy.

In this improvised speech, King generates impressive phrasing on the go. One part of his speech that particularly impressed me was his list of geographic locations in his concluding “Let freedom ring…!” section. He managed to dynamically list landmarks all over the country to include everyone. King not only shows himself to be a visionary, but a genius.