---
name: audience-and-occasion
description: "Load before drafting any speech, toast, or remarks to profile the audience, calibrate register, and honor occasion conventions and taboos — covers toasts, eulogies, commencements, keynotes, stump speeches, award acceptances, and apologies, plus a copy-pasteable intake checklist."
---

# Audience and Occasion

## Overview
A speech that ignores who is in the room and why they came will misfire no matter how polished the prose. Profile the audience, calibrate register, honor the occasion's conventions and taboos, and run an intake pass before writing a line. Do the analysis first, then let it constrain every later choice.

## When to Use
- Starting any speech, toast, or remarks without a clear audience/occasion brief.
- The speaker's natural style clashes with what the event demands.
- The event carries strong conventions or landmines (funeral, apology, rally, religious or multicultural setting).
- You must hit a strict time limit or a required set of names, sponsors, or thank-yous.

## Instructions

**1. Run the intake checklist first.** Copy this, fill it with the speaker, and do not draft until every line has an answer:

```
SPEAKER: name, role, relationship to audience, comfort with humor/emotion
AUDIENCE: who, size, what they already believe, what they fear, what they want
OCCASION: event type, formality, cultural/religious context, what comes before/after
GOAL: one sentence — what listeners should feel, believe, or do afterward
CONSTRAINTS: time limit, teleprompter vs notes, live/broadcast, language(s)
MUST-MENTION: names, sponsors, milestones, thank-yous
DO-NOT-MENTION: taboo topics, sensitive people, jokes that will land wrong
```

**2. Analyze the audience.** Segment by what divides them (age, insider vs newcomer, believer vs skeptic). Name the belief you can assume, the objection they hold, and the emotion they arrived with. Write to the median listener, but include one line for the skeptic in the back row.

**3. Calibrate register.** Formal occasions want fuller sentences, fewer contractions, restrained humor; intimate ones reward first names, second-person address, and specific shared memories. Use insider jargon as a bonding signal for insiders; define or drop it for mixed rooms. Match the speaker's authentic voice — never write words they cannot say aloud without embarrassment.

**4. Honor occasion conventions and taboos.**
- **Wedding toast (2-4 min):** one warm story, one genuine compliment, end on a raised glass. No exes, no drunk anecdotes, no jokes at the couple's expense.
- **Eulogy (4-6 min):** specific, humanizing memories over generic praise; acknowledge grief; humor only if it honors the person. Never air family conflict.
- **Commencement (10-15 min):** one memorable idea, not five; earn advice with a story; keep it about them, not you.
- **Keynote (18-40 min):** single throughline, signposted; deliver value before self-promotion.
- **Stump speech:** repetition, cadence, a clear ask; land the local reference that proves you did your homework.
- **Award acceptance (1-2 min):** gratitude first, brief, name who made it possible — not a phone-list of everyone.
- **Apology:** name the harm plainly, take responsibility without "if" or "but," state the concrete remedy. No self-pity, no blaming the offended.

**5. Respect length and pacing.** Budget 130-150 words per minute spoken. Cut to the assigned time; overrunning at a wedding or funeral reads as selfish.

**6. Stay inclusive.** Do not assume shared religion, family structure, or nationality. Prefer inclusive framing ("those we love") over presumptive ("your husband"). Test idioms and humor against the actual room.

## Pitfalls
- Writing for the speaker's ego instead of the audience's need.
- Skipping intake and discovering a must-mention or taboo after drafting.
- Copying a template tone onto the wrong occasion (jokey eulogy, stiff toast).
- Overrunning the limit "because the material is good."
- Insider jargon or in-jokes that exclude part of the room.
- An apology hedged with "if anyone was offended" — it undoes the apology.
- Assuming a homogeneous audience when age, belief, or culture actually splits it.