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Gabriel Ferrante was a competitor for the Iona Preparatory School in New York. He was last year’s Catholic National Champion. In addition, he was an extemp finalist at Yale, Bronx, Villiger, and a champion at the Columbia invitational. He was a competitor at the Montgomery Bell Academy Round Robin and New York Sate Champion in 2013. He will be attending the University of Pennsylvania in the fall, studying Chemistry and Philosophy. Gabriel agreed to sit down with Extemp Central for a two part interview to share his thoughts on extemporaneous speaking, reflect on his career, and provide advice to future extemporaneous speakers.
How did you get started in extemporaneous speaking?
I got started in extemp because my father did it (a very, very long time ago). My team’s president was a little shocked I knew what it was when I showed up to my first practice. Though I had some success on the local circuit in JV, I didn’t love extemp until the New York State tournament my freshman year, after dropping in the semis of the JV division, I went to watch the Varsity final. It was so packed my teammate and I were literally hanging off a bookshelf in the back. The last speaker was Mike Barton, a senior at that point, who had won Harvard that year. The speech I saw not only won him the tournament, but remains the best I ever saw, and that was what made me stick with extemp, and push myself as hard as I could.
Explain what the New York extemp scene is like for those who are unfamiliar with it.
The New York extemp circuit is a very diverse one, and one I absolutely loved competing in over four years. Extemp is very much viewed as a speech category, and the grace period is used far more than on the national circuit (a fact which hurts NY extempers at invitationals a lot). That said, almost every school has a very distinct style, so watching rounds is a lot of fun, because the mix of humor and analysis, as well as the organization and sources in speeches varies from speaker to speaker.
What were your coaching sessions like? What really helped you improve as a speaker?
I gave a huge number of practice speeches to literally anyone who would listen (often including the beleaguered interpers on my team), after which my audience would point out all my flubs. I really thought what helped me the most was giving “impromptu” speeches with a minute or so of prep time, because it got me used to memorizing useful sources and really cut down the amount of time it took me to write speeches in prep. I also think that doing a lot of interp and oratory, which I enjoyed enormously, helped me a lot in extemp, not only with fluency, but by helping me figure out how to make my speeches more fun to listen to.
During your time competing, what was your favorite tournament to attend?
It was probably a tie between the Catholic National Tournament and the Villiger tournament, both of them had a lot of spectacularly talented people at them, and were run remarkably well.
What is the best piece of advice that you ever received?
“Breathe.” I had a nasty habit of getting the jitters in big rounds, and before my CFL semi, someone told me I looked white as a sheet, and needed to breathe. It was the advice that took me to my first CFL final, and every subsequent final I took part in.