Page 72 - How to Develop A SUPER-POWER MEMORY

76 Speeches, Articles, Scripts and Anecdotes
that you feel are necessary to remember. Perhaps, if you use
my systems, you will fall into the first class of readers in
American educator, William Lyon Phelps' two classes. He
once said, "I divide all readers into two classes; those who
read to remember and those who read to forget."
The same system of linking Key Words can be used
for remembering lyrics and scripts. Of course, in this case
it is usually necessary to memorize them word for word.
You will have to go over them more often, but the Key
Word idea will make the job that much easier for you. If
you have trouble memorizing your cues in a play, why not
associate the last word of the other actor's line to the first
word of your line. Even if your cue tells you that you must
perform an action, instead of speaking a line, you can still
associate it. If the last word of the line prior to your action
happens to be, say, "walk"; and the script calls for you to
stoop down to pick up a cigarette butt—make a picture in
your mind of yourself walking along and continually stoop-
ing to pick up cigarette butts. (In this way you will never
walk on another actor's lines.)
I'll mention one other use of the Key Word idea, before
leaving it entirely. How many times have you wanted to
tell your friends some jokes or anecdotes that you recently
heard, only to find that you've forgotten them completely?
You can hear a whole batch of really funny stories one day,
and have them all, or most of them, slip your mind the
next. Well, according to Irvin S. Cobb, "A good storyteller
is a person who has a good memory and hopes other people
haven't."
Your memory for stories and anecdotes will improve
immediately if you use the Key Word system. Just take one
word from the story, a word from the punch line is usually
best, that will bring the entire joke to mind. When you
get your Key Words, you can either link them to each other