Written by Svetlana
Introductions
Our President Jo opened the meeting, reminding the audience that Toastmasters is a place where we constantly receive reassurance and support and where the only threat is probably to be slightly embarrassed if we underperform, and we can deal with it in a humorous way. She shared a fresh example of her own experience at another club, which had a different structure in proceedings that caught her unawares. Her story was met with warm laughter and applause. She then introduced the Toastmaster of the evening Carrie, a very enthusiastic member.
Carrie provided a very clear and thoughtful introduction, an overview of the agenda and rules. The theme of the day announced by Carrie was “most embarrassing moments of our lives”. She led by example sharing with us her very personal story of a crash, which she made sound quite amusing. Carrie then introduced Ash, the Timekeeper, who explained the timing rules and importance of abiding by them. Peter L was the Grammarian, whose embarrassing story was related to a situation which happened to him when he ran out of money a few days before his salary – a point, which all of us could concur with, therefore, laugh and cheer. Peter L introduced the word of the day “incisive”.
Prepared speeches
Emma (whose embarrassing story happened to her when she was happy and carefree during her holidays in an exotic country) devoted her No.2 speech to “Why Meditation is Good For You”. Emma compared meditation to push-ups for the brain and talked about many benefits of meditation with examples of personal stories as well as scientific facts and memorable quotes. Her speech was quite inspirational as well as instructive.
Emily, whose most embarrassing and funny episode happened during the weekend prior to her speech and ended up with a broken toe, gave her Speech No. 2 “(Not So) Fantastic Mr. Fox”. Emily told us her quite controversial experience of foxes, especially the noises they made, and neighbours’ reaction to them. Her very entertaining speech was interrupted by laughter many times and was met with a very warm round of applause.
Faith-Rose, gave her No. 3 speech entitled “It’s Just Hair”, which was a personal story of self-acceptance and appreciation, which she earned through the multiple metamorphoses she experienced when she experimented with her hair. The happy end of that story was delightful as she learnt that the best hair was her own natural hair that allowed her the luxury and enjoyment of being her own self. She impressed the audience with poetic and artistic style of narration.
Egor, whose embarrassingly funny moment was when tried to leave a taxi through the window, delivered his Speech No. 3 “A Brief History of Mobile Robotics”. In a was highly informative speech, Egor took us on a journey through the history of this particular technology.
Before the break, Sergeant at Arms Michelle led the guest introductions.
Evaluations
Rebecca proved a detailed evaluation of Emma’s Icebreaker speech with reassurance, commendations on the manner, smile, eye contact, engagement with the audience through rhetorical questions, content and structure of the speech, as well as her own advice for improvement.
Peter F, whose embarrassing moments were related more to his female friends’ stories rather than his own, evaluated Emily’s speech as very well organised, with good vocal variety.
Swarajit, who didn’t have any embarrassing moments, which he could remember, evaluated Faith-Rose’s No. 3 speech as very informative and poetic, interlaced with beautiful devices. As a recommendation Swarajit advised Faith-Rose to try and get to the point.
Ahmed, evaluated Egor’s speech and commended him for sincerity, good preparation, and interesting facts, however he advised Egor to have a more structured approach, use more eye contact and try not to use his notes in order to make it keep the audience engaged.
Table Topics
Joe, whose most embarrassing moment happened when he was drunk and felt very sick on the Underground and so bolted out of the train straight into the wall and ended up in A&E, said he was probably lucky because otherwise he could have been sacked. The theme of the evening introduced by Joe was “challenging situations”.
If you were a Prime Minister and if your son was involved in drugs and smoked cannabis, would your party approve of it? Svetlana said she would act as a politician and show her human side and connect with electorate by drawing attention to NGOs working with young people and helping them overcome bad habits and would use her family’s troubles to connect with families going through the same difficulties.
Ex-footballer Tony Adams used to drink heavily and was cautioned by police, the story got into newspapers and he was at the point of stepping down. Miguel said he would use the story to psyche out and intimidate the rival team at the next match.
President of FIFA Sepp Blatter was suspected of accepting bribes from Qatar as he appointed them hosts for the next World Cup. What would you do if you were Sepp Blatter? Robert said he would maintain his cool and he would insist on having World Cup in Qatar in 2022 and in the future. After all, Winter Olympic Games were held in part of Russia, which never had snow although many other parts of Russia have it in abundance.
You are standing for election as a Prime Minister and you’ve been snapped drunk at a party. What would you do? Rihanna was sure that at the time when social networks are full of personal pictures having a picture at a party on a beautiful beach would attract some attention, which she would need anyway as a candidate standing for election and would also mean that she is with people.
You are Boris Johnson who came out of men only lap dance night club with your Etonian friend, and reporters take your photo. What will you do? Rufina would say that everybody has the right to have fun every now and then, and being Boris Johnson she mingled with people from all walks of life. If as a politician I defend the rights of the gay people how she can do that if she doesn’t know them.
Rounding off the session, Nathaniel provided a thorough, analytical, and reassuring evaluation of all the table topics speakers.
Conclusion
Grammarian Peter L returned to deliver a very interesting report on how rhetorical questions and many other stylistic devices were used skilfully and appropriately by all speakers, after which Kaveh, President of Clerkenwell Speakers gave a very enthusiastic general evaluation with a balance of commendations and advice for improvement for all functionaries.
Awards
The best prepared speech award went to Emily for her No. 2 speech. Best evaluator award went to Peter F and best impromptu speech award to Rufina.
Next meeting
Our next meeting is our Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest on Monday, 8th September, upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 22nd September.
