Junior Paul Meissbach never signed up to be in forensics. Due to a scheduling fluke, Paul found himself surrounded by people talking about rules and competitions he had never heard of. He wanted to transfer out, but his mom refused to let him.

Then he went to his first tournament.

“I was did a duo with Brian Thimmesch, and we won,” Meissbach said. “I was like—hey, I actually love this.”

Public speaking comes naturally to Meissbach.

“I’ve always been a talker, so I wasn’t nervous about the speaking aspect,” Meissbach said. “I was just worried about the rules.”

Just a year later, seasoned forensicator has qualified for state in the Informative Speech category. (See a list of all the forensics state qualifiers here) In Informative Speech, the speaker is to give a speech about a topic of his/her choice for 8-10 minutes. The topic should be something the audience has heard of but is not well versed in. The speech must be memorized, and the speaker may not use notes or visual aids.

Meissbach’s speech is entitled “The Psychology of Music.” Meissbach had trouble picking a topic at first.

“Mr. Plinsky asked me what my hobbies were, and I said ‘debate,’” Meissbach said jokingly. “He said ‘what else?’ and I told him I liked music. Then I started thinking about studies where music improved test scores or people’s moods, and I just went from there.”

Meissbach spent six hours reading sources and writing his speech. Then he was coached by Plinsky for a couple hours.

“I felt like I was really doing it for the first time once I got to the tournament,” Meissbach said. “It just worked.”

Meissbach said his main criticism from the judges is that he talks too fast and does not enunciate enough. One recommended that Meissbach talk with a pen in his mouth, and then take it out to improve his diction. Meissbach plans to work on this before the state competition.

Meissbach hopes to qualify for state in for Impromptu Speaking at competition in the next two weeks.