STAGE YOUR PRESENTATION WITH PROPS 143
exchange elicited a huge laugh. Jobs had literally crank-called
a Starbucks as part of the demo. Jobs has so much fun show-
ing off new products that his enthusiasm leaps off the stage and
rubs off on everyone in attendance. It is precisely because he
has fun that people enjoy watching him.
In another prime example of having fun with demos, Jobs
took some quirky photographs of himself while introducing a
feature called Photo Booth on October 12, 2005. Photo Booth
is a software application for using a Web camera to take photo-
graphs and video.
“Now I want to show you Photo Booth,” said Jobs. “This is an
incredible way to have some fun. I can just go ahead and take
my picture.” Jobs looked into the built-in Web camera on the
computer and smiled for a few seconds as his photograph was
snapped and appeared on-screen. He said, “Isn’t that great? Let
me show you some pretty cool effects.” Jobs proceeded to snap
comical photographs of himself using features such as Thermal,
X-Ray, and A ndy Warhol. “But it gets even bet ter,” Jobs said as he
smiled and rubbed his hand together. “We decided to put in the
Internet can instruct on a deep, intellectual level, but it can
also make the most mundane tasks easier.- Make use of your skills onstage. Montemagno is a former
world-ranked table tennis player and works that unique skill
into his presentations. He invites another professional player
onstage, and the two hit the ball back and forth quickly and
effortlessly. As they do, Montemagno, speaking into a wire-
less headset, compares table tennis to the Internet.
Steve Jobs has elevated presentations to an art form, but
few of us will ever introduce a product as world-changing as
a revolutionary new computer. This fact is all the more reason
to find new, exciting ways to engage your audience. To see
video clips of Montemagno in action, visit his site: http://mon
temagno.typepad.com/marco_blog/blog_index.html.