The Speech Doctor’s Life: Doug Gamble
August 05, 2015
"I can't make a bad speech good," says Gamble. "But I can make a good speech better."
Doug Gamble has been injecting what he calls โapplause lines, word pictures and anything that gives zip and colorโ into clientsโ speeches for more than three decades. โMy job is to reinforce a speakerโs points in creative and memorable ways,โ Gamble said during a conversation with Vital Speeches from his California home.
โI do my best work with good speechwriters. I cannot make a bad speech good, but I can make a good speech better,โ he added.
A former PR man who also worked in broadcasting and wrote a weekly humor column for three years, Gamble moved from his native Canada to Los Angeles in 1980โto pursue a comedy writing career. For Gamble, the road from Toronto to LA would open up a path for him to Washington, DC.
โAt first, I hung around the LA comedy clubs and wrote for Joan Rivers, Rodney Dangerfield, and Phyllis Diller. In 1983, I was hired by Bob Hope, and I continued to write for him until 1993โit was an honor to be among his last group of writers,โ Gamble recalled.
Around the same time, radio legend Paul Harvey delivered an on-air reading of a short piece of political satire that Gamble had sent to him.
โTalk about the American Dream!โ Gamble said. โSomeone at the White House heard about this broadcast and contacted me, and asked me about providing humor to President Reagan for his speeches. Iโd been in the country for just 3 years, and now I would get to write for the President!โ
Gamble snail-mailed some material to the White House, and then later heard Reagan deliver it in a clip that played on TV news.
โI had a subsequent call from the White House saying: โyour stuff isnโt just funny for the sake of being funny, itโs funny while making a political point.โ And this got me thinking about the range of applause lines and sound bites that can be added to a speechโnot just humorous lines, but lines that help to creatively and memorably reinforce a point a speaker is trying to make,โ Gamble said.
Gamble is talking about something light years away from the old-fashioned โopening jokesโ of yore, unconnected in any way to a speechโs themes, the occasion for it or the audience gathered to hear it.
โI am not for gratuitous humorโitโs never a case of just inserting something for the sake of being funny. In politics, if youโre not going to use humor in a self-deprecating way in a speech, to show the audience that you are the opposite of pompous, then any humor you include should reinforce an idea,โ Gamble said.
A sampling of Gambleโs work as a speech doctor follows below:
โข โI want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.โ (Ronald Reagan used this line to reassure viewers of an October 1984 presidential debate that concerns about his age were overblown.)
โข Asked to write a line that would show a stark contrast between Democrats and Republicans in the 1984 presidential election, the line Gamble came up with and used by President Reagan was: โThey [Democrats] believe in an America where every day is April 15th [tax day] and we [Republicans] believe in an America where every day is the 4th of July.โ
(A variation of that line is currently being used by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination.)
โข โDeath and taxes may be inevitable, but unjust taxes are not.โ (From a 1985 speech by President Reagan on tax reform.)
Gamble continued his speech doctor efforts during George Bush the Elderโs presidential campaign and single presidential term. Working with Peggy Noonan on Bushโs 1988 nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Gamble recalls contributing several applause lines, including:
โข โI’ll try to be fair to the other side. I’ll try to hold my charisma in check.โ (A self-deprecating jab at Bushโs own charisma deficit.)
โข โBut when you have to change horses in midstream, doesn’t it make sense to switch to the one who’s going the same way?โ (Noonan reports that President Reagan saw Gambleโs metaphor as, in her words, โthe single best statement of what was at issue in the 1988 campaign.โ)
Gamble recounted how another line he wrote for Bush during the 1988 campaign excited the ire of columnist Mary McGrory. In an effort to sharpen the differences between himself and Dukakis on defense issues, Bush was heard to say: โI wouldnโt be surprised if [Dukakis] thinks that naval exercises are something you find in the Jane Fonda exercise book.โ Michael Kinsley also blasted the line in the Washington Post.
Gamble also recalled a couple of lines he added to Bushโs 1992 State of the Union:
โข โI see the Speaker and the Vice President are laughing. They saw what I did in Japan, and they’re just happy they’re sitting behind me.โ (A self-deprecating reference to Bushโs bout of nausea during a state banquet in Japan.)
โข โYou know, it’s kind of an American tradition to show a certain skepticism toward our democratic institutions. I myself have sometimes thought the aging process could be delayed if it had to make its way through Congress.โ
Effective use of an applause line depends on both the material and the delivery, Gamble said. If you are not confident in your delivery, you can practice. You can take the time to get a line right, to make sure youโre putting emphasis on the right word, Gamble advised. As an example, he shared that he had once provided some delivery coaching to Vice-President Dan Quayle ahead of a Washington Gridiron dinner.
In Gambleโs view, while most politicians readily understand how self-deprecating humor helps to build audience rapport, corporate leaders donโt often see things that way. Gamble wonders if corporate leaders are more inclined to see self-deprecating humor as an admission of weakness, or diminishing their professional standing. (Gamble acknowledges that self-deprecating humor wonโt work for everyone. Itโs hard to imagine Richard Nixon using it, for example.)
โA common practice with corporate clients Iโve seen is, prior to delivery, to water down the creative lines or jokes to make sure no one can be offended. I once provided some lines for a speech being delivered by a corporate executive, and they edited one of them by adding the word โnotwithstanding,โโ Gamble said.
“All writers think, of course, that their product should never be changed. But people have to do what is feel is best for themโI understand that. My advice is, however: have it be funny, or donโt do it all,โ he said.
In addition to his work as a speech doctor and news commentator, Doug Gamble is a long-time writer of song lyrics; and he also writes regularly for nationally-syndicated comic strips. You can learn more about his wide-ranging career by visiting: http://www.douggamble.com/