The pleasures of spontaneity ...

... generally better witnessed rather than directly experienced. (Wisdom straight from the rather large "Things I've learned" file.)

Red pandas say "message is important!"

Hypnotic public speaking

Lunchtime Club Leadership Training

Lunchtime Club Leadership Training was on offer for the first time this year. This initiative was the brainchild of Area E3 Director Sam Masters (High Noon Bankers, Willis Quarter, Taxing Toastmasters, BNZ Harbour Quays and Up Top clubs). Sam explains the thinking behind his push to make it available and shares what happened. 

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Why club committee members need training

The most important part of being on a club committee is being able to serve your club effectively and efficiently. The truth of the matter is we are all volunteers and the result of this is that if we can't be efficient with out time spent on Toastmasters often our clubs will suffer. This is not to say that we as leaders do sub par job, rather that the more efficient we are with our time the more we can do for our clubs. In the past I have heard people say I don't need Club Leadership Training (CLT) because if needed I can always find the right information somewhere. Although true to some extent, there is a major flaw in this logic. What happens when a members question needs to be answered or a club decision needs to be made and we don't have the time to look it up? To me, this is the issue that training helps to solve.

The quest for flexible training to fit member's needs

CLT is run to get committee members trained in how to effectively serve their clubs. When we joined Toastmasters choosing a club was driven by many factors. One factor that everyone of us would have considered would have been 'Does the meeting time suit my schedule?' We asked this question to ensure we could attend meetings and get the most out of toastmasters. At the start of my role as Area Director I realized that if Toastmasters choose their clubs based on times that suit them, surely we should be trying to train them in the same time slot. This idea was met with some serious skepticism as it was not the norm. With some persistence the idea gained momentum and we have successfully run the first ever split session lunchtime CLT with 18 officers trained.

The lunchtime format

To provide the same level of training the lunchtime CLTs were run as three, one hour sessions over consecutive Mondays with attendance required at all three to complete the training. This format allowed for all the same information to be delivered to trainees as in the traditional trainings but in a different time slot. Some Toastmasters are unavailable after work or on weekends due to family, extracurricular activity or geographical restrictions but they have spare time at lunchtime. These people are who this training was targeted at. There is no intention to replace all CLT sessions with lunchtime sessions rather to provide a range of sessions to choose the one which suits best. On the whole, these sessions achieved this purpose.

And the results were ...

I would like to say a big thank you to all those who help run the lunchtime sessions (Rob, Mike, Owen and Tim), to Gael and Larrie for believing this idea could possibly work and most importantly to all those who attended and made it a success. As a result of this successful experiment we will likely run lunchtime sessions again in February for the second round of CLT. I look forward to seeing even more of you there!

Wellington City Council Toastmasters Club - new and ready to welcome more members

Running the city of Wellington is a big job and requires lots of communication between staff working in many different areas. Fortunately, the new Wellington City Council Toastmasters club is here to help!

The Wellington City Council Toastmasters Club Committee

The club in formation has been meeting since April and now has 13 members. Meeting on Wednesday lunchtimes in the newly-refurbished Mezzanine meeting room in Wellington Central Library, the club is enjoying fun, varied meetings every fortnight.

Club President Terri Rosenstock

At a recent meeting, club President Terri Rosenstock won hearts by explaining how to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies - complete with samples for the audience to try! VP Education Chris Ortiz followed up with a hilarious speech about the hidden meaning behind the shape and contents of a traditional pinata, illustrated with photos of a pinata Chris had made herself.

"There's a very enthusiastic group," Terri said, "that's been here since the beginning. They're very committed."

Club sponsor Ian Lankow is very pleased with the new club's progress.

"The club managed [this meeting] all themselves with no help from me. They are a fully fledged club - they just need seven more members!"

Council staff interested in visiting the club can find information on the Council intranet, or by emailing toastmasters.wcc@gmail.com.

Super toastie

The obligatory late comer tip-toed self-consciously to a vacant seat as the crowd hushed.  Then there was silence, loud with expectation. It was Jarod's turn to speak. With one bound he was centre stage and fixing the audience with a mesmerizing glare, he wrenched opened his shirt, revealing the truth at last.  He was Super Toastie! Three women in the front row swooned. A man let out a whoop ... *

*Palaver aside I want to know do they do these in "women"? Or is it one sex fits all? Just a thought. Fair's fair. Equal playing fields and all that.

Tips for preparing a humorous speech

Are you funny ha-ha or funny ho-hum? 

Rob Julian

Rob Julian, DTM, member of Capital Toastmasters Wellington, shares what makes us laugh and the secrets of preparing a humorous speech. It's a topic he knows well. Rob was placed third three times in the Humorous Contest at District level before he finally won it in 2011 in Tauranga.

You can view his winning speech at the foot of the page.

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The Toastmaster Humorous Speech Contest is almost upon us. Are you entering your club contest? If not, why not? It always seems to me that joining Toastmasters to gain confidence in public speaking, amongst other skills, and then not entering a club contest is similar to a person spending hours volleying a tennis ball against a concrete wall, and refusing to play a game of tennis.

One of the major reasons given is "I am not a humorous speaker. What if I try to give a humorous speech and no one laughs?"

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the audience at a Humorous Speech contest is looking for things to laugh at. They will laugh at the weakest joke. It always surprises me how when I hit what I think is an hilarious comment, no one laughs and then when I make what I consider an ordinary mundane remark, the audience dissolves in laughter. Eh? What was funny about that?

To paraphrase a comment I recently read in The Toastmaster, have you ever heard a club member say ‘Boy, I am really looking forward to seeing (Bill, Janice, Mary, whomever) get up and make a fool of themselves at the Humorous Speech Contest?’ No? Well neither has anyone else.

Types of Humour

You will all be familiar with this list which is by no means exhaustive.

Bathos – (no, not ‘pathos’) – making a serious thoughtful comment and following it with a facetious observation. I intend to prepare my humorous speech a week in advance – yeah, right. (cf Tui Bill Boards)

Puns – said to be the lowest form a wit but everyone appreciates them. Giving a speech about chickens is a paltry eggsersize.

Epigrams – otherwise known as ‘one-liners ‘when I talk to myself, I at least have an intelligent audience’.

The Intellectual Twist – lead the audience into expecting a specific point and then giving something completely different. Book readers make novel lovers.

Topics for Humour

Over the years I must have heard hundreds of humorous speeches at Toastmasters. Invariably they relate personal experiences and observations. There have been topical speeches such as commenting on the book "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus", or "The Problem with Politicians", but I personally find these difficult. Topics I can remember mostly revolve around themes such as

• Adolescence – the pain of growing up
• Romance and courting – the agony of the first date
• Parenting – coping with teenagers, children, grandchildren
• Holiday disasters – arriving in London with your luggage in NewYork
• Keeping up with fashion – gym gear, social mores, wearing high heels, etc.
• Coping with life – the Doctor/Dentist, Bureaucracy, flatting, marriage.
• Living with a cat (or whatever)

Use your past embarrassing moments for inspiration

You will notice that these are all topics above involve you telling of experiences that were hugely embarrassing at the time.

• Your child throwing a super tantrum in the supermarket. 
• Forgetting the name of your boss when introducing him/her. 
• Finding your 18 year old daughter’s boyfriend in bed with her on a Sunday morning. (Like what on earth do you say?). 

Everyone can relate to these instances because they have all faced similar ones themselves.

In my speech at the District Final in Tauranga I related how I got distracted by my grandson Jack when helping him into his togs at the swimming pool. And then when I was relaxing in the toddlers’ pool watching him suddenly realised I had forgotten to change into my togs and was still in my underpants. People roared with laughter. But at the time it was definitely NOT funny.

So – pick a theme from above, like Life with my Husband. Think of three things he has done to embarrass you horribly. Describe each on and after each description, make a comment. After the third, draw a conclusion, with a message for the audience. Despite all this I do love him dearly. How do you get on with your significant other? Remember, it has got to be a proper speech with a beginning, a body and a conclusion.

Things to avoid

1. Sarcasm 
2. Belittling other people
3. Potty humour – poohs and wees. You might reduce 4 year olds to helpless laughter but not a Toastmaster audience.
4. Blue humour – that is dirty jokes. This is not to say risqué humour should be avoided but be careful. You may get 60% of the audience laughing, but if you get 40% of the judges offended you won’t get placed.
5. Ethnic, racist, or sexist jokes – unless you can turn it against yourself. Jewish people can make Jewish jokes but not anyone else. Insofar as my mother came from Scotland, I can just get away with a Scottish joke. But as they say What is brown, red and lies bleeding in the gutter? A brunette that has made one blonde joke too many.

What do you do about laughter?

Like what if you don’t get any? Just pause. Often it is because the audience don’t at first get it. Then, either carry on as if nothing is untoward – or, one of my favourite techniques if to hold my hand as if I am making a cell phone call and say ‘Beam me up Scotty, there’s no one down here’. Which signals to the audience that I have just made a joke and I expect laughter. It falls flat if no one can remember ‘Star Trek’ on TV.

When you do get laughter, allow it to happen. Don’t cut it off. In a larger audience, you often get two waves of laughter. The first when they know you have made a joke, and then a further wave as they fully appreciate it. If you get up to the District finals, be aware that there will be Aucklanders in the audience. And they always laugh three times at a joke. The first time when they hear it, the second time when it is explained to them, and the third time the next day when they finally get it. You can substitute ‘Australians’ for ‘Aucklanders’ where appropriate.

So go to it. Prepare a speech that is no longer than 7 minutes. Preferably 6 ¾. You will find that laughter takes up time and you don’t want to give the funniest speech and then be disqualified by going over time.

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Rob's winning speech

Speech: Rob Julian Toastmasters Humorous Speech District Convention 2011 from Toastmasters New Zealand on Vimeo.

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