Persuasive public speaking is all about connecting with your audience. One of the quickest ways to heighten your audience connection is to use a theater acting technique called ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall.’
One of the reasons you go to the theater is to be transported to a different time and place and experience something magical. Of course you know it’s a play (or a movie), you paid a ticket to see it, but once there you’ve suspended disbelief.
Picture two characters on stage having a passionate argument. All of sudden, one character freezes. The other turns to the audience and remarks: ‘You think he’s angry now… just wait until the second act when he discovers I’m sleeping with his wife!’ The audience LAUGHS. The actor then goes back ‘into the scene.’
This is called ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall.’
In this instance, the character is drawing the audience into the scene more by giving them information that the other character is not privy too.
