Humorous Table Topics from Saudi Arabia

I participated in his one hour presentation about Communication and he gave us in the middle, as example this speech / story, of how he got out when he did not know how to answer to a Table Topic question. So the title of video is : the power of ignorance...

Mohammad Ali-Isa, ACG, ALB, showcased his speaking talents in Toastmasters, winning the District 79 Humorous Speech Contest in 2007, 2009 and 2010. A member since 2005, he belongs to the Dhahran Toastmasters in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

A reliability engineering specialist who delivers many presentations about innovation and safety. He works as a consultant for oil company Saudi Aramco. Mohammad speaks at technical conferences and leads many workshops for large audiences, including ones on communications, humor and reliability.

Humorous Speech Contest and Table Topic Contest in our Club

 The 21the Septembre our club had another great meeting. Many members and all our new members were present. Katy was the Chair of the Contest night and Chris our Chief Judge.
We had 5 great Humorous Speeches, all participating having won lots of experience, bravo!

Participated: John, Philip, Richard, Zhanna and Richard. As Richard and Julie have already won at their other clubs (Bromley and Meridian Speakers), Zhanna will represent our club in the Area Contest.

Humorous Speech Price
1st Richard  /  2nd Julie  / 3rd Zhanna 

Here Chris our Chief Judge with Zhanna.

 Zhanna gave us a funny speech about how she learned English.

6 Members of Lewisham speakers competed in the Table Topics Contest. 

A Special bravo for our newest members Serena and John, who stood up to participate in it,

John, Serena, Zhanna, Philip, Richard and Zandria here with Katy, and SgArms Eric sitting

Table Topics Price
1st Zandria / 2nd Richard / 3rd Philip

Zandria's Table Topic Speech was also very funny and

she will represent our club in the Area Contest

Thanks all who helped the Contest, Eric as Sergeant of Arms, Michael as Timekeeper and Flavia and one of our guest from Bromley Speakers as Counters; and all the Judges, some of them as Bromley Speakers President, came from far away. It was a real Team Effort.

Other Pictures, taken at the Contest Chris with Richard who Persistent, won 1st price in all his 3 clubs !

Practice practice practice, Stage time, stage time, stage time : very useful, very productive of success. Great energy and humour too.

Humorous and Table Topics contests

Next events: The 01 October Area 35 Final in Croydon 5 clubs winner compete at

15 October Division H Final in Canterbury

11th November District 71 Contest  in Glasgow

Listen, learn, participate. You did not have to have finished 6 projects from the Competent Communication manual to participate. You have to be eligible, meaning having paid your yearly Toastmaster dues. Now, that each club had a contest; the next level is the Area Contest.

You could even win with Advanced Communicators present, as Julie did two years ago, with barely half CC  when she decided to test herself. Serena, who joined just a month ago, participated in the Table Topics Contest, wonderful!

All participants win, at least, a very valuable experience.

Even as listener, audience we learn so much by being there !

September meetings at St Margaret's

For both meetings, beginning at 7 30, doors open at 7 00 pm; Contestants arrive 7 15 latest!

• 7 September - a funny meeting! And bring the annual fee, today, so all of us can be "members in good standing" at contest time

• 21 September - Humorous Speech & Table Topic Contest.

Participate! Prove to yourself that you can do better then last time.

We all learnt at the last contest: we were all better then our "usual" speech level and all levels of those having competed remained increased after the contest night.

We have already a few contestants for the Humorous Speech contest and for the Table Topics Contest: any more? Welcome! And all the others, we have many different roles - including the role of audience!

Do we win or do we not win?

 As Philip said to us, two years ago at the same Humorous Competition: ALL who participate win!

And here is what Darren Lacroix wrote about the winner of this year Speech Competition:

Congratulations to Jock Elliott, the 2011 World Champion of Public Speaking!

If you don't know, Jock had made six appearances in the World Championship finals. Not only that, but they spanned over twenty years. That's amazing! Now, there's another incredible persistence story from the contest that rivals Jim Key's victory after two consecutive second places. Jock updated a speech he used in the 1990's. It was well-done and his performance was hysterical and very conversational. The "take away" for me was what Jock said in his acceptance speech. It's a powerful lesson for every competitor in any sport.

Jock said that if he had won this award five or 20 years ago, "I might have been a richer speaker, but not a better speaker." I may not have the exact words right, but he also said, "Had I won sooner, I would not be the speaker or the man I am today."

Wow. Great wisdom! There's a reason for everything. If you have ever "not" won a speech contest, maybe there's something you have yet to learn. I know I needed to grow up a bit after my loss in 1998. How about you?

It is still time to register for next Wednesday Competition in our club!

Three books to learn Humour

They seem to be about Stand Up Comedy, but in fact they help with any kind of Humour. Between a dozen others, they are the best. Recomended to all wanting to understand more about Humour, and how to make an audience laugh.

They also complement the Entertaining and the Humorous Advanced Manual Projects. What I learnt most is funny is what makes laugh, and to know what makes people laugh one has to test it. Not everyone will laugh all the time, but if you get a laugh from a few 'test' people or audience, then it works!

So many Humorous speech hearing oportunities from now to October! Use it. Each night this week and next, somewhere to go if you have time, at the Humorous and Table Topics contest, listen : what worked and think why?

Dacre Arms Pub TT at 17 September

We got together for a drink and table topics fun and it was great. Sally gave us Table Topics but we had also warmup fun and of course, some beers. It is a really nice pub to meet.

It was so nice that we decided to do it again and more often!

Date: Sat 17th Sept Time: 3pm onwards to 6pm
This time, Sally, Jon with his family, John, Michael, Toni, Julie and Eric were there. It is also a good occasion to get to know each other better and get new ideas for the future.

Where: The Dacre Arms, 11 Kingswood Place, SE13 5BU

0.4 miles from Blackheath station 0.9 from Lewisham DLR

http://www.fancyapint.com/Pub/london/the-dacre-arms/1338

7 September : Memorable Meeting

We had a fun and interesting meeting on 7 September. It will remain in everyone's memory also as the evening when 4 guests joined our club and became our Newest Members, all the same evening.

Rosie, Beverley, Lucas and Marcella,

Welcome!

Steve conducted the meeting with swift pace, so this time we finished, well, almost, in time. He mastered the meeting and gave very specific introductions to all.

Serena, asked us for warm up which inspired us: we still have to learn to answer in 10 seconds... Flavia kept us in time, and even rang the bell at me (Julie) to indicate the end: she was right! Stephen and Jon, listened carefully to our Ahs and Grammar and best expressions.

Brian explained us in his speech "The email is ruining my day" different ways to avoid it, with a fun ending! One of course is to subscribe to this blog so you get ... an email at each new post, or just come and visit from time to time.

Zhanna in her speech "Little Apples", told us how Toastmasters changed her life in the last three years, and taught her to speak slower, be better understood and finally lead to publishing a book of her stories and even showed her the book!

Richard with this fascinating speech the "Finger of Fate", a dramatic speech as the project called for, made us all hang on his words, wanting to know how he would get out of trouble.

All three speeches made us ponder and think about their main subject, even after the speeches. They were very well evaluated by Winston, Philip and Zandria. I remember well,  two great phrases from Zandria's feedback that which stuck with me. She is becoming a great Evaluator! "His speech was even more dramatic as he told us in a contained manner" and "He was so there that he forgot we were here".

Of course, it is all about a balance to "be in the moment" when you tell a story, and to remember that you are not acting but telling them to the audience. A balance we all learn and improve on with time. Personally, as listener, I was so much 'there' in the story, that did not realise how much the speaker did or did not look at each of us. That is the Evaluators role, observing details, specifics and helping to improve even our best speakers. We all can progress using their feedback.

At the break, while we got refreshments, most members also paid the yearly fees, it is great to get that also out of the way, and go forward. Plus, we got two new members, while two others joined after we finished the meeting. Welcome all!

After the break, we had a funny Table Topics, as Cheang, held an interrogation to find out "Who really killed Humpty Dumpty". It was a fun Table Topics Session, even if it took a bit longer. Katrin gave us great evaluation of all answers, and Chris spoke about all the others, not yet evaluated, helping us to do even better next time. Julie closed with a short business meeting, with our Treasurer Jon and Sally speaking, and also a reminder of the coming Contest.

Richard got the Best Speaker holding the attention of the room,  
Philip the Best Evaluator award as he not only told but demonstrated his advices,  
Beverley the newest member, the Table Topics contest with a  humorous answer so well played out.

The Humorous and Table Topics Contest, next week, will also have the two usual parts, but instead of Evaluators the Judges will declare the winners, that go then to the Area Contest, meeting of 6 clubs the 1st of October in Croydon. More fun and learning for all!