A number of readers who also attended the Woody Guthrie concert in Los Angeles last week remarked on the video I’d posted of Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, winding up the Occupy crowd with a rendition of This Land Is Your Land.
Attentive audience members noted that the way he ended the song at the concert was exactly the same way he ended it at Occupy: same words, same pauses, same cadence, same delivery.
“Doesn’t that feel premeditated?” someone emailed me.
Sure it does. Because it works.
Tom is a consummate professional. He has honed his delivery by practicing it hundreds of times, and when he gets it right, gets it to the place that motivates his audience, he sets it in stone.
That’s exactly what I do when I’m pitching a movie project. I practice it over and over – the opening, the pauses, the exact words. When I see that my pitch gets people to edge of their seats again and again, I lock it and don’t vary it a millimeter.
Watch Tom again, especially the last minute of this video. You’re witnessing a pro at the height of his game.

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