Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers hosted its Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest this Monday with the president Swarajit kick-starting the meeting by introducing the agenda for the evening and the Contest Chair Nazia. Nazia welcomed the judges and outlined the procedures for the contestants as well. The first half was the Humorous Speech section and the second half was be the Table Topics section, each consisting of 5 contestants.

Humorous Speech Contest

Setting the pace with his speech entitled “Grumpy Brits” Joe reminded us of how grumpy London Underground users can be. This grumpy trait ceases to exist if they happen to be in a Wimbledon queue where politeness takes over. However when using the Underground, 3 rules apply – no eye contact, no smiling and no eye contact! Everyone pretends to study their Kindle, phone or the tube map no matter how many times they have made the journey.

Joe receiving his award

Second Speaker Renars in his speech entitled “Do you get me?” shared his fascination with the English language, particularly how one word in English can have different meaning in several countries. Two examples cited were: “How are you?” in Canada simply meant “Hi”, not an open door to give an account of your day. Lastly the use of filler words such as ‘Right’ and “Do you get me?” after every statement. The moral of the story was to be mindful when you use the English language in another country.

Renars’ award

The third Speaker was Peter with his speech entitled “Running Demon”. Peter explained how he has become accustomed to hearing voices telling him things to do such as to move to Haiti, engage in public speaking or to take part in a marathon, which he always obeys. During his training, other runners kept overtaking him and even a little dog stopped and shook his head at him with sympathy. Despite the challenges he successfully completed a 10-mile run in preparation for the marathon.

Peter receiving his award

Samuel, with his speech entitled “Disco Dancing””, started by entertaining us with some dance moves. He took us on a journey to his childhood in the 80s, at 11 years old where he had his first disco experience. Samuel went on to show us three of his top moves – the Kissing Cobra, Monkey Magic and Dragon’s Whip. In conclusion, although he enjoyed and still enjoys disco, he has now retired from it.

Samuel receiving his award

Hari the last speaker for the first section shared his experience and challenges of handing out fliers for his upcoming fitness workshop. Despite choosing a distribution point near a gym, the task did not prove any easier. Instead he observed various reactions. There were those who pretended to be on the telephone, some were in a hurry, others were scared, etc. In spite of the challenges he knew with persistence success will come your way.

Table Topics Speech Contest

In the second half of the meeting, Kate introduced the table topics contest, where each contestant was required to give a 1-2 minute response to the same question:

“Some people think aliens created the pyramids; what are your thoughts?”

Hari vivaciously informed us that aliens created much more than pyramids with one, Lector, hiding in our basement. All any doubter needed to do was hit the Google search or find out from our very own alien.

Hari receiving his award

Emotionally-charged Glen wanted to know who these “some people” were. Could they in fact be right? With all the mystics about pyramids has anyone built one or know anyone who has? That someone was audience member Kaveh, because he raised his hand.

Glen receiving his award

Renars convinced us that it’s not hard to believe they built the pyramids. It all started when bored aliens in their language communicated among themselves drew a plan and started putting up the structures together.

Joe informed us that although no one knows how they did it, those little green monsters thriving in magma with many hands drilled, burrowed and delivered huge stones to build the pyramids.

Femi took us back to ancient times when ordinary people without special skills did extraordinary things. He argued that the Egyptians built the pyramids but we in today’s society cannot imagine how ordinary people with primitive technology built the pyramids; rather we reason there must be some mysterious about them, that they must be aliens.

Results

When the judges’ ballots had been counted and checked, drum rolls were provided by the audience and with suspense built up by the chief judge the results were announced.

In the Humorous Speech contest:

• Third place went to Hari
• Second place went to Samuel
• First Place went to Renars

In the Table Topics Speech Contest:

• Third place went to Renars
• Second place went to Hari
• First place went to Glen

Chief Judge Gary reads the results

Contestants pose with the club banner and president Swarajit

President Swarajit presents flowers to contest organiser Jo

Contestants and organisers pose with contest chairs Nazia and Kate

The Next Round – Area 34 Contest

Congratulations to all our contestants and particularly to Renars and Glen who will now go on to represent the club at the Area 34 contest on Thursday, 26th September at 55 Broadway, directly above St. James’s Park tube station. If you would like to attend (and we encourage everyone to do so!) please e-mail president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk to get your name on the guest list.

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.

Hello and welcome to the September newsletter!

It’s a busy period for Bloomsbury Speakers and the autumn contest season is starting to get underway at clubs around London, so we have plenty to look forward to in September.

Details of our own club contest are below, but do also check out the plethora of events taking place around the capital, handily summarised on The London Speaker.

If you don’t have time to read the whole newsletter, you can skip to the bottom for a short summary of the main points.

What’s happened since the last newsletter?

August was a short but eventful month with three members (Rajeev, Rufina and Carrie) passing the half-way point in their competent communication manuals at two meetings run by advanced members Glen and Michael in the role of Toastmaster. They were each rewarded with ribbons to mark their achievements.

Encroaching into September, we had a marathon night of table topics to help our members prepare for the upcoming contest. There were four rounds in all, including strange inventions and past contest topics. Thanks to our members Hari and Carrie for preparing and running the event so successfully.

What’s planned for September?

After a relatively quiet August, we’re back in full swing for September with two meetings and two contest nights to look forward to, but see last month’s newsletter for a full list of upcoming dates for your diary.

• Monday, 9^th September – Regular Meeting – We have a full agenda for what promises to be a very interesting first meeting this month, though there are still some pre-bookable table topic slots available. The theme set by the meeting’s Toastmaster, Bronia, is ‘music that lets you own the stage’ – and Bronia plans to play the speakers’ choices as she introduces them!
• Monday, 16^th September – Bloomsbury Speakers Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contests – Time is running out to sign up for the contests, so if you plan on entering then get yourself booked in on ClubPlan as soon as possible (or e-mail education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk). There are also one or two functionary slots still available, but whether you’re taking part or not, make sure you’re in the audience for what is always one of the most entertaining nights of the year.
• Monday, 23^rd September – Regular Meeting – The programme for this meeting is nearly full, with just a Timekeeper and General Evaluator needed. Contact education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk to get yourself booked in.
• Thursday, 26^th September – Area 34 Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contests – The winners from our club contests will go on to compete against winners from the other clubs in our area of London. The event will take place from 6pm onwards at 55 Broadway, London, SW1H 0BD (directly above St. James’s Park tube station). Our area governor Graeme is looking for help with organising the event, and assisting with a contest can count towards your competent leadership award – contact president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you’d like to help.

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Club Social at SUDA Thai Café Restaurant

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, club member Hari is organising a dinner social. We now have a time and venue which will be 7pm on Friday, 4^th October at SUDA Thai Café Restaurant, St Martin’s Courtyard, 23 Slingsby Place, Covent Garden, WC2E 9AB. This has become something of a regular haunt for us now as it has a varied menu and a nice atmosphere for conversation and socialising.

Both members and guests are welcome, so e-mail info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you’d like to attend. This will allow us to book a table at the restaurant for the appropriate number of people.

First invitations issued to membership waiting list

As you may know, our membership has been frozen for several months now, but we opened up a waiting list in August and are now pleased to be able to invite people from the list to officially join.

If you have received an invitation then please respond as soon as possible so that we can inform others on the waiting list of the situation. Each invitation comes with a deadline, so if you don’t respond in time then your place will be offered up to the next person on the list.

If you would like to be added to (or removed from) the waiting list, please e-mail info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk. If you’re not invited this month then you will probably be invited in October or November, but if you can’t wait that long then we recommend visiting our sister club Clerkenwell Speakers who are taking on new members.

PechaKucha 20×20 – The art of concise presentations

Club member Helen is looking at putting together a joint event with Clerkenwell Speakers based on the idea of “PechaKucha” – Japanese for “chit-chat”. PechaKucha is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for precisely 20 seconds each before being automatically advanced (a total of six minutes and forty seconds). The presentation can be on absolutely any topic of the speaker’s choosing and it’s a fun and challenging format that really makes you think about your pacing.

The planning for this event is in its early stages, but at the moment we’re trying to find out whether there is enough interest to hold one with a tentative timing of November. Please email Helen – me@yafetica.com – to register your interest. As soon as we know how many members want to participate, we can set a date and a venue.

You can read more about the PechaKucha concept on its official website and the Wikipedia entry.

Tip of the Month: Don’t delay, contact your mentor today!

Our VP Mentoring, Rajeev, is in the process of revamping the club’s mentoring scheme, but why not contact your mentor directly in the meantime? While the scheme has seen some success in the past, the relationship between mentor and mentee can peter out over time through no fault of either party.

Even if this has happened to you, the benefits of the mentoring relationship for both the mentor and mentee are well worth giving it another shot. Your mentor can provide you with advice and ideas for your speeches and roles and tailored feedback based on individual goals that you’ve shared with them.

From the perspective of the mentor, while the experience of helping your fellow members can be very productive and rewarding in itself, you can also claim credit towards your competent leadership award which, once completed, will entitle you to discounts on your future membership renewals.

It’s easier than you think to meet up with your mentor as well. If you live or work close to each other then perhaps you could meet up over lunch somewhere locally. If not, you can meet immediately before or after one of our regular meetings or other events. Failing that, why not take advantage of some of the modern technology at your disposal, such as Skype video calling? However you decide to communicate, the benefits are there for the taking.

Who should initiate contact?
It doesn’t really matter which one of you initiates contact, but this month’s tip is aimed at mentees in particular to contact their mentors since one mentor can have several mentees while most people will only have one mentor, which means each of you only initiating contact once.

How do I contact my mentor?
If you don’t have their contact address, the easiest way to get in touch with any other member of the club is via the e-mail icon next to their name on ClubPlan.

What if I don’t have a mentor or know who my mentor is?
Simply contact Rajeev and he will let you know who your mentor is. If you don’t yet have a mentor then he can also help you find one and put you in contact with each other.

How do I contact Rajeev (our VP Mentoring)?
You can contact Rajeev directly at mentoring@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk.

Where can I read more about mentoring within the club?
Have a look at the mentoring page on our website. We welcome your feedback on any aspect of our mentoring programme.

That’s all for this month. See you at a meeting soon!

Swarajit Das
President
Bloomsbury Speakers

Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know

• We have two regular meetings in September. There are still some table topic slots up for grabs on Monday, 9^th and timekeeper and general evaluator slots on Monday, 23^rd. Sign up on ClubPlan.
• Our Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest is on Monday, 16^th September. There is still time to enter and a handful of functionary roles remain to be filled on ClubPlan. Either way, come along and be part of the audience!
• The winners will go on to compete at the area contest on Thursday 26^th September from 6pm onwards at 55 Broadway, London, SW1H 0BD (directly above St. James’s Park tube station).
• Our club dinner social is confirmed for 7pm on Friday, 4^th October at SUDA Thai Café Restaurant, St Martin’s Courtyard, 23 Slingsby Place, Covent Garden, WC2E 9AB. All are welcome, just register with info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk.
• We’re looking for expressions of interest from members to take part in a “PechaKucha” night jointly run with Clerkenwell Speakers, most likely in November. Contact Helen via me@yafetica.com.

Introductions

Our President, Swarajit, started the meeting by getting everyone’s energy flowing with a humorous anecdote. He reminded us that public speaking often requires us to embrace our inner two-year-old by letting ourselves be embarrassed rather than fearing failure.

Swarajit then introduced, Mike, who despite being an advanced speaker, was performing the role of Toastmaster for the first time. The theme of the meeting was “Sale day” and thus Mike introduced each functionary and each speaker with a brief story about his or her experience of sales and shopping in general.

• Peter – the Timekeeper – explained the use of the green, amber and red lights using the metaphor of a journey, warning us that the gavel indicates that the speaker has, “just fallen off Beachy Head”.
• Renars – the Grammarian – introduced the word of the day, “cohesive”, which he had chosen somewhat by accident (he had initially had “coherent” in mind).

Prepared Speeches

Rufina spoke first about varying interpretations of time across cultures. The title of her speech – “4:00, 4:30, 5:00 GMT” – was a reference to the flexible interpretation of 4:00 in her native Ghana to include 4:30 or even 5:00. Rufina introduced the concepts of monochromic and polychromic time, as well as giving humorous personal anecdotes to illustrate her points. She concluded that she treats individuals according to how they treat time – an attitude of patient flexibility.

Marie gave a very informative speech on meditation, presenting a wealth of scientific evidence of its benefits. She quoted studies that demonstrated that meditation can improve immune response, change the grey matter in the brain to reduce the experience of stress, and increase electrical activity in the areas of the brain associated with happiness. She invited us all to give meditation a try, especially since as little as one minute per day can be beneficial.

Carrie began her speech quite provocatively by introducing herself and then asking the audience whether we would choose her as a friend, or as an employee. Her opening highlighted the power of first impressions, and of intuition as a whole. Carrie went on to give tips on how to become better attuned to your intuition, concluding by pointing out that only 5% of the mind is conscious thinking, whilst the other 95% goes on without you knowing.

Samuel spoke about Shaka Zulu – aka “Ishaka” – whom he described as a, “vicious totalitarian warlord”. His speech was peppered with humour which helped make the uncomfortable subject matter more palatable, without detracting from the seriousness of the atrocities Shaka Zulu committed. In researching the topic, Samuel learned a lot about Shaka Zulu and indeed formed new opinions, contrary to those he had acquired whilst growing up. These he shared whilst tracing the life of the warlord from birth to death, showing a drawing of him to help us visualise him.

Evaluations

Glen opened his evaluation of Rufina with a great deal of praise. He found her calm and confident, with fantastic eye contact and varied gestures which punctuated the content of her speech. By way of recommendation, he pointed out that her notes, which she held in her hand, may have limited her hand gestures somewhat, and that the purpose of her speech was not entirely clear. Overall, though, he found the speech enjoyable, with a very interesting idea at its heart.

Joowon evaluated Marie by explicitly stepping through the objectives of her speech. She commended Marie’s choice of topic and the thoroughness of her research. Joowon recommended a better summary but was nonetheless satisfied with the speech’s structure. She suggested that Marie could work on her transitions a bit more rather than relying as much on, “so…” though her body language was very good and her voice was clear.

Nazia did not hesitate to point out that Carrie had met her objectives with her speech – she used a comfortable stance, appearing relaxed on stage, and her gestures were pertinent to the point she was making. Nazia found Carrie’s speech engaging and well balanced between facts and figures and personal anecdotes. Her main criticism was that the speech ended abruptly – Carrie could have given us tools on how we could develop our intuition.

Joe described Samuel’s speech as a masterclass in keeping it simple. While in many cases, speakers can get lost in the analysis of a #7 speech, Samuel told an informative story with well-placed humour. Joe suggested adding a touch of theatre – perhaps illustrating the use of a spear through mime. He also thought that the humour Samuel used could have gone a bit further, because Samuel is a naturally funny guy.

Table Topics

Jo, our Topicsmaster, reemphasised the importance of Table Topics because in real life, you often have to think on your feet (or, depending on the environment, on your seat). Her chosen theme for the evening’s topics was, “Life”.

• Swarajit was asked, simply, “Describe your birth”. He responded very humorously, mentioning that his birth had in fact been filmed, as well as his reactions to having seen the film. He rounded off the topic by saying that knowing you have a start reminds you that you have an end, and to make the most of what you have.
• Ayse was asked what she got into trouble for most when she was young. She described a youthful phase when she thought of herself as a rocker, with the clothing and the hair to match. Her parents, of course, were not impressed.
• Helen was asked for a comparison between arranged marriages and love marriages. Her humorous response focused on the pitfalls of dating and how much simpler arranged marriage must be by comparison.
• Julio, a guest from another Toastmasters club in Spain, was asked, “What is success?” His answer was that success consisted of doing what you really want to do in life, citing examples in which happy people do what they want. His advice, “Follow your heart.”
• Asked what he would do if he only had 24 hours to live, Graham suggested that we should already be living this way, quoting a saying, “Live as if you will die tomorrow, plan as if you will live forever.” He gave many humorous examples as to why we should enjoy life as it comes.
• Iva was given the question, “What would you like people to say at your funeral?” She responded that, for her, life is continuous. There is no death; there is a continuation of evolution, of which we are a part. She concluded profoundly by saying, “We are a part of the world that will always be.”

Rajeev gave an extremely well-structured evaluation of the table topics speakers by addressing them chronologically, giving a commendation, recommendation and then commendation to each in turn.

Reports

Renars confessed that grammar has been a challenge for him in the past, especially as English is his third language. He gave numerous examples of good uses of language from the evening’s speeches and evaluations, before cheerfully announcing that the word of the day had been used two and a half times.

Ayse, President of Clerkenwell Speakers, was our General Evaluator for the evening. She spoke about how friendly and welcoming our club was before evaluating each functionary and evaluator individually, giving commendations and recommendations to each.

Announcements

• On Monday 2^nd September, there will be a Table Topics workshop for members. Places can be booked on ClubPlan.
• Our Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest night will be held on Monday 16^th September; all are welcome to attend but the competition itself is only open to members.
• Members are needed to judge contests at other clubs, please contact education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you are interested in doing so.

 Awards

• Rufina and Carrie both received awards for having reached the halfway mark on their Competent Communicator journeys.
• The President’s Award was given to Mike for the excellent manner in which he performed the Toastmaster role.
• Best Table Topic went to Helen.
• Best Evaluator was Rajeev.
• Best Speaker was awarded to Carrie.

Next Meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 9^th September upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.