Introductions
The meeting began with the club president Swarajit sharing his experience of his latest trip to the dentist. He had his mouth numbed with anesthetic in order to have some dental work and, as a result, was unable to speak properly for a short while. Swarajit was frustrated by this experience and realised the importance of speech and proper articulation, without which we are often misunderstood.
Swarajit handed over to the evening’s Toastmaster Bronia, who had come up with the creative theme of inner soundtracks. As we each go through life, battle our challenges, reach our goals and face our fears, we often have a song playing inside of our head. Bronia asked each speaker what song they would choose as their life’s soundtrack and then played the tune as each speaker came on stage.
Timekeeper Glen stepped in to the role at the last moment in place of Sinead, who he claimed to be his alias name when he dresses and preforms as drag queen on Friday nights. (Please note that he was in fact joking….we think.)
Grammarian Joe stressed the importance of choosing your words carefully when speaking. He selected an appropriate word ‘vivacious’ for the club members to use. He also tried to achieve the highest number of uses for his chosen word by asking the audience to repeat it several times before he left the stage.
Prepared Speeches
Peter spoke on the topic of poetry. He began his speech with a quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette and then spoke of his struggle to understand poetry in his youth. Through many struggles to learn the art, Peter overcame his fear and began to embrace poetry of all kinds, especially Kubla Kahn by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Barnaby delivered a passionate speech about his love of classical music. He disproved the misconception that many have about the classical genre, for example that it is extremely expensive, and not at all relevant to the world today. He explained that there is no need to see the likes of Beethoven or Bach as elitist, as they are as accessible as every other type of music. Classical music speaks worldwide truths and touches the hearts of every soul who has ever felt pain, struggle or inspiration.
Hari cleverly used quantum physics to explain the concept of connectivity. He described how two particles that where once connected will always have an effect on one another. Using two golf balls, Hari demonstrated how when one particle spins, the other will also move. Considering the Big Bang theory for the creation of the universe, all particles were once entangled with each other, which therefore must prove that all of us – humans, animals and the environment alike – are interdependent and must be treated with more respect.
Renars delivered an advanced speech about communication. He began with an example of the effort it used to take to send a message to each other 20 years ago, and then compared it to today when it takes seconds to send words or photos to thousands of followers. He also demonstrated the downfalls of some modern technology such as ‘auto-correct’ which is often the culprit of some embarrassing messages via text. Renars kept the audience laughing with amusing autocorrect bloopers. He finished the speech by explaining how important face-to-face communication is and not to rely too heavily on technology.
Evaluations
Each speaker was given an evaluation by a fellow club member.
Helen gave a thorough evaluation of Peter’s speech. She praised his style as delightful and natural, describing him as someone who immediately puts one at ease. She liked his hand gestures and appreciated his recovery when he momentarily forgot his place in the speech. Her general recommendation was that Peter did not state his objective for the speech. Was it meant to inspire, educate or entertain?
Ahmed evaluated Barnaby’s speech. Ahmed was impressed with Barnaby’s stance on the stage, his body language, and the passion with which he spoke. The audience could hear Barnaby’s intense appreciation for classical music. His main recommendation was for Barnaby to stop using notes throughout his speech because it takes away his focus on the audience, losing the connection with them.
Femi evaluated Hari’s speech on connectivity. Femi was enticed by Hari’s ability to explain such a complex concept within science and physics. He believed that it was a clever way of getting his point across. Femi also liked the props and the examples used to make the concept easier for the audience to understand. Femi’s recommendation was that Hari could have threaded the speech together more clearly to avoid losing anyone’s attention.
Finally, Joowon evaluated Renars’s advanced speech. She felt that Renars reached all of his objectives and was excellent at engaging the audience. Her recommendations were for Renars to make eye contact with the entire audience, rather than only one section of it, and in addition be careful not to repeat the same hand gesture too frequently.
Table Topics
Table topics were led by Rufina who chose some extremely morbid questions for the speakers. One may even say dark and dismal questions. Nevertheless, the speeches turned out to be really humorous as each speaker rose to the challenge.
Jo effortlessly gave an evaluation of all the table topic participants. She summed up each person’s commendable attributes and followed by a helpful recommendation. Throughout her evaluation, she showed grace and exuberance.
Awards
Closing the meeting Swarajit handed out the awards based on votes from the audience:
• Best Evaluator award went to Helen
• Best speaker was Hari
• Best table topic went to Sam, a visiting toastmaster from King’s Speakers
Next meeting
Our next meeting is our Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest on Monday, 16th September, upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start, although contestants and functionaries should aim to arrive no later than 6:15pm.
