MASTER STAGE PRESENCE 169
put his hands into his pockets and proceeded to deliver his com-
ments in a low-key monotone. Worst of all, he pulled note cards
out of his jacket pocket and started reading from them word for
word. As a result, Sigman’s delivery became more halting, and
he lost all eye contact with the audience. He continued for six
long minutes that seemed like thirty. Observers were fidgeting,
waiting for Jobs to return.
A post on CNN’s international blog read: “Sigman... read
stiffly from a script, pausing awkwardly to consult notes. By
contrast, the silver-tongued Jobs wore his trademark black tur-
tleneck and faded blue jeans... Jobs is one of the best showmen
in corporate America, rarely glancing at scripts and quick with
off-the-cuff jokes.” Bloggers were relentless during Sigman’s talk.
Among the comments: “Who’s Mr. Note Card?”; “Blah, blah,
blah, and blah”; “Painfully bad”; and “A snoozer.”
Sigman left AT&T that same year. Macworld.com wrote:
“Sigman is perhaps best remembered by Apple fans as completely
negating Jobs’s Reality Distortion Field in an incident which left
almost half of the entire keynote audience sound asleep. He has
been sentenced to a cruel afterlife of being the butt of roughly
99 percent of Scott Bourne’s jokes [Bourne is a Mac pundit and
podcaster]... And what will Stan do in retirement? Word is he’s
STEVE’S WORDS STEVE’S GESTURES
“It is the most incredible product we
have ever made.”
Picks up computer and
opens it“The new seventeen-inch PowerBook. It’s
amazing. Look at that screen.”
Holds up computer to show
screen“Look at how thin it is. Isn’t it incredible?
It’s beautiful, too.”
Shuts computer and holds
it up“This is clearly the most advanced
notebook computer ever made on the
planet. Our competitors haven’t even
caught up with what we introduced two
years ago; I don’t know what they’re
going to do about this.”
Smiles and looks directly at
audience