You’ll dehydrate quite quickly as nerves can make you feel hot and bothered, and sustained speaking is quite a physical activity.

Dry mouth feels and sounds nasty, so top up before you speak and make sure you have a drink to hand as you go on. But –

Milky drinks like lattes and milkshakes can have a gunky mucus-forming effect.

Acidic fruit drinks such as orange juice can affect your throat.

Fizzy sugary drinks can cause sugar highs and embarrassing burps.

Too much caffeinated tea and coffee can give you the shakes.

And is it ever a good idea to have ‘just the one, to steady my nerves…’?

Alcohol affects your judgement, physical control and personal image.

You may think you’re more fluent, confident, relaxed and amusing after a drink.- but no. You’re not.

This is you making a judgement while your judgement is impaired.

So why do people want to drink before speaking, and what effect does alcohol have on the speaker – and their audience?

The only reason people really want a drink before standing up in front of an audience is to deal with the fear, and numb those nerves.

But any performer needs to have that frisson, that ‘sense of occasion,’ the feeling that they are about to leap off the edge of a cliff. Kill that energy with alcohol and it will never have the chance to power your performance.

Alcohol relaxes muscles, yes, and being able to relax in a controlled way is important for the public speaker.

But it’s control over the complex muscles that govern your breathing, speaking, diction, gestures and so on that you’ll start to lose as soon as you let some of that control go out of your hands and over to alcohol.

And with it will go that all-important sharp thinking and focussed concentration that the public speaker needs.

If you lose control of these to any degree you’ll lose control over the presentation, to the detriment of both your image and your message. The audience will be able to see, hear and even smell that you’ve been drinking.

So if you want an alcoholic drink, have it as a reward after you’ve given a sharp, clear-headed and clearly-delivered speech. If it’s a social event, the guests may be too drunk to notice, but you’ll perform better for it.

And of course any video of the event will be a permanent record of you doing well.

Ice cubes in any drink can give your throat a shock, jingle merrily and possibly bump you in the nose if your hands are shaking.

So what’s left?

Plenty of still, room temperature water in a chunky glass or mug that you can’t knock over your notes, the keyboard, your clothes …

(PS Go to the loo just before, though – and do check everything’s done up).

Choosing to drink smart will help you feel, look and sound better.

Speaking Well in Public offers public speaking courses at all levels, which address how best to deal with nerves.