We practice our Toastmaster skills every fortnight. Preparing speeches, participating in Table Topics, and trying our hand at a variety of different roles to try and make sure that we have a well rounded set of public speaking and leadership skills. But how to you know how we’ll you’re doing?
Luckily for us all, Toastmasters hold contests every 6 months, and last tuesdays meeting was designed to test our humour and ability to think on our feet.
Sam, our Contest Master for the evening, kicked off in style – welcoming everyone and getting the energy levels up raring to go. He kicked us off with the Table Topics contest with an intriguing question – “You wake up in the middle of the night to find that there’s a party going on downstairs in your house! Who are these people, what’s the party about, what do you do?”
Dimos tackled this tricky conundrum first with gusto – describing a secret birthday party, followed quickly by Nikola dreaming of a “Vodka Party”. Ga Lok told us how Justine Bieber stole his hamster, and Christine gave an amusing tirade on her noisy neighbors. Finally Tej partied with the cockroaches invading his apartment!!
Following the break we had a question to answer! Just how funny can a Toastmaster be? With 4 entrants into the Humorous Speech Contest we couldn’t wait to find out. Christine led the way promising revenge on her practical joker friends. Ed came next, extolling the frustrations and virtues of Toaster Pastries. Ga Lok told us about his supercleaning superhero antics, and finally Dee made us all giggle by describing her office mishaps!
Since these were both official Toastmaster competitions we had judges watching our every move! They took notes, and casted votes. The winners of this competition at club level get to go on and compete at Area and District levels, and if the contestants get through those they get the chance to see if they are the best in the whole of the UK.
So the votes were tallied, and it was time to see who would have the honor of representing the club in these contests at higher levels:
For the Table Topics contest: Dimos took the third place, Nikola took the 2nd, and our president Christine had shown us all how to do it – taking first place.
In the Humorous Speech Contest Gal Lok took 2nd place, but was narrowly pipped by Ed.
It was a truly great evening, and very funny. Turns out the speech skills we’ve been learning can be turned to add a giggle and a surprise!
The next round of the competition is on the horizon, and the caliber of the speakers (and the humor) will increase. With Christine and Ed through though, City Speakers have a great chance to smashing the competition and heading for the final!
Make sure you come and support our speakers at the next levels of the contest:
The Area 58 contest will be held on Wednesday 2 Oct 2013, arrive before 6:15 for a 6:30 pm start, at the 1st Floor The Bunch Of Grapes pub, 14 Lime Street, EC3M 7AN (Inside Leadenhall Market near Monument and Bank Station).
The Division K Contest will be on Wednesday 16 October 2013, London Trustmasters, 50 Bank St, Canary Wharf E14 5NT.
See you there to support our City Speakers…
