How to Convince an Audience

This is the seventh in Authentalk’s series about how to write subject matter-specific speeches. Call it “Contrariain”.

I started getting interested in debate in 2009, when my partner Kevin and I won our first league championship. We wiped out at the state tournament, only advancing to the first elimination round. I felt bitter enough to want to get better.

And we got better—closing out Cal Lutheran with Nick, Will, and Kevin in 2010!

I became much more interested in the rhetorical structures behind persuasion than the content of any particular topic, so I started looking into channels like Intelligence Squared, which records debates with public intellectuals in front of audiences. The winners are determined based on the change in beliefs based on polling before and after the arguments.

To this day, I think this is the best way to determine how persuasive someone actually was. I am not interested in the Jubilee/Surrounded-style debates, where influencers try to create viral moments with yelling over each other/rage bait. They kind of suck, with the notable exception of Dr. K using group therapy techniques to help a group of depressed patients. Preaching to the choir does not require any skill in persuasion, just performance.

One of the best Intelligence Squared speeches comes from public intellectual and humorist Stephen Fry, who debated against the motion, 'The Catholic Church is a Force for Good in the World.’

To summarize Fry’s case: the Church claims unique moral authority without justifying its edicts. When that authority is wrong, it harms vulnerable people at scale. Therefore, while the church does engage in acts of charity, charity does not outweigh the structural damage.

Here’s the speech, which is one of the best I’ve seen at connecting with a neutral audience. It brilliantly answers the why you/why me/why now questions, moves from problems to harms to solutions, and integrates refutation with a deep awareness of his opponents’ best and worst points.

These are eight key lessons we can take from his oratory.

1. The opening

He starts with a literary quotation from The Importance of Being Earnest, which flatters the educated audience.

Then he immediately lowers himself: “I am very proud to be here but also very nervous…”

This is called dubtatio, a technique where a speaker appears humble to connect with the audience.

Next, he uses tricolon (a power triplet, now overused by LLMs): “it’s not a joke, it’s not a game, it’s not just a debate.”

2. The disclaimer

Before he attacks the Church, Fry creates a firewall between people and institution. He says individual believers are welcome to their sacraments, reliquaries, Virgin Mary, faith, comfort, and joy.

He knows the obvious response: “You are attacking Catholics.” So he answers it before they can make it.

This is also why the speech works emotionally. Fry does not sound like someone sneering at faith from the outside or like he’s looking down on people. He does what standup comedians call ‘punching up’ (attacking the powerful).

3. The thesis

Fry frames his belief system as “the Enlightenment” and “the eternal adventure of trying to discover moral truth.” This sets up a clear contrast: the Enlightenment searches for truth, but the Church claims possession of truth.

Every example afterward fits inside that frame. (Galileo. Limbo. Purgatory. Intercession. Missionary violence. Thomas More. Child abuse. Homosexuality. AIDS.)

In every instance, he furthers the thesis that an institution that claims spiritual monopoly is cruel, because it controls instead of persuading.

4. The clash

One of his best refutation moves is his treatment of history. The other side said that past harms are irrelevant because the Church now does charity work. Fry answers with: “History whines and quivers and vibrates in all of us…”

Then he localizes it: “this Hall,” “this square mile,” London, people burned for reading the Bible in English. He makes history feel physically alive in the room.

5. The humor

When Fry jokes about purgatory as needing prayers to “turn left when he enters the airplane of heaven and get a first class seat,” he is making theological intercession sound like a commercial transaction.

I haven’t forgotten his sex joke (which gets the largest applause of his speech) in the last 15 years. It’s so well-phrased. “The only people who are obsessed with food are anorexics and the morbidly obese, and that in erotic terms is the Catholic Church…”

6. The pathos

The most powerful emotional moment is the quieter section where he talks about being gay.

He says it is hard to be told he is “evil” when he thinks of himself as someone “filled with love.” Then he says: “That’s not nice. It isn’t nice.”

After all the historical and theological machinery, he reduces the harm to something a child could understand.

7. The climax

Until he mentions AIDS, much of the speech is about historical violence and hypocrisy. AIDS lets him say this is happening now, to real people, with bodies, hospitals, suffering, and preventable death.

He gives himself credibility by saying he has made three documentaries on AIDS in Africa and loves Uganda.

Then he concedes part of the other side’s argument: abstinence works; faithfulness works. He is not saying Catholic sexual ethics are 100% useless. He is saying the refusal to support condoms, and worse, the claim that condoms increase AIDS, is morally indefensible.

8. The ending

He says the Church could become a force for good if it gave up wealth, hierarchy, and imperial power and returned to the essence of its professed belief. That avoids pure nihilism and makes him feel more reasonable.

I debate a lot. A few months ago, I won my eighth public speaking national championship (my 91st title since high school). Last week, I was proud to be featured in a showcase debate about Michael Jordan v. LeBron James against highly respected national champion competitor/coach Lindsay Dudede.

But I can always get better. And one of the best ways to improve is to break down the structures of the greats, both in and out of academic argumentation.

Whether you are stepping onto a competitive debate stage, pitching a startup, or handling a difficult conversation (ah, the classic tricolon!), you should spend a lot of time thinking about how to be more persuasive.

Break out of your echo chamber, engage the opposing side at their highest ground, and defend your point of view without being boxed in to arguments you don’t actually believe.