Spark London and Lewisham Speakers

photo of Joanna by Julie70 on Flickr.

Wednesday, 29th February and 5th March, joint storytelling with the theme Change. Lewisham Speakers club toastmasters jointly organizing it with Spark London.

Joanna Yates, is a wizard, teaching storytelling in enterprises, all over UK, but also producing Spark London, so more people can tell their true tales in public.

Canal Café Theatre is one of the venues, one a month, first Monday, the public pays for to hear ! There is where we will go.

Upstairs at Ritzy, Brixton, is the second, an open mic event, every third Monday. On each places one can acquire different skills of storytelling in different environments.

The photo is Joanna, in a restaurant, a candid photography, before I told a story about "When I was 10 the war caught up with me", after wich I was invited to my first "pro" storytelling.

Collaboration Lewisham Toastmasters and Spark London

29th February, club meeting but not as "usual"Remember : you can listen to our stories, 8 of us telling our True Stories about Change (and 8 of us will be evaluating them) :

Storytellers:

Steve, Windy, Richard, Vivienne, 
Katy, Manoj, Julie and Flavia

5 March we will tell our true stories at Canal Cafe Theatre before a true live public, this event is announced by the Society of Storytelling! Like this

MONDAY 5th MARCH 7.30pm start
The Canal Cafe Theatre, London W2 6ND
SPARK LONDON at CANAL CAFE
True stories connected to the theme of 'Change.' 
This event is a collaboration between Lewisham Toastmasters and Spark London.
BOOK TICKETS: canalcafetheatre.com
Information: Joanna@sparklondon.com

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Collect stories, stories are "anchors" to your points.

"Will you tell me a story?"

Ever notice children never ask you to give them a power point presentation? Why? We love stories and it is the heart of presentations. "Make a point, tell a story."

 Stories are the "anchors" to our points.

Some stories may have multiple points buried in them, some more specific points.  

Stories are crucial to keeping our audience's interest.

The stories that we tell over and over with friends and family are the same ones we would be should be telling from the stage. We know these stories so well and the reason we retell them when we are together is they are good and usually humorous too. The reason we sometimes take their power for granted is because we forget that our audience members will relate emotionally to "family" stories and characters.

Be on the look out and collect some this end of year!

From the blog of Darren LaCroix

8 Toastmasters from Lewisham speakers will tell their stories the 29th of February 7 30 pm

Come, and listen to the true and diverse stories that come out from our Storytelling workshop, and also to the interesting the feedbacks given to each of them.

Our 15th February meeting

Sergeant at Arms Vivienne set the mood for our meeting and prepared
for all to be ready to go. We even had warm drink before we begun!

President Julie opened the meeting with her elite style then
introducing Toastmaster of the Night Phillip

Meeting theme was "Dining Out" Toastmaster of the night, Philip took

charge of the entire meeting from the start with strong emphasis on
time management. Very robust opening, clear explaining meeting
objective, I liked the meeting very much it started in time and closed
in time.

Warmup leader Lucas - Our word master warmed up our vocal cords by a good

question “what is this year achievement” and some great answer popped

up. Time Keeper Jim (Welcome back! Come again!) – Executed the role
with dogged determination. Grammarian Zhanna- Explained the
role crisply and succinctly, introduced a new word VIN which is quite

new to me at least. Ah Counter Windy, an upcoming speaker, once
again great display of listening skills and found out some good use of
language (metaphor/ cliche) and counted Ams and Ahs very diligently.

There were four speakers and it was power pack.

1st Speaker Flavia - Shown her exuberance style of storytelling skills

captivating the audience from the start. Her speech was on “How book
can change life”.

2nd Speaker Serena – Her mesmerizing voices has engulfed and drew

every one towards her with story on Journey from Jamaica to London
with some interesting and innovative wrap up pictorial slides.

3rd Speaker Manoj - His 'Baiser Amoureux' (French interpretation of
KISSING) speech has at least inspired Toastmaster Steve J & also our 

4nd timer new guest Arnold, they where very excited. During break time, they

grabbed the speaker to the corner and shared some new form of kissing
like Scottish and Franko Kiss - Of course, they have not done anything
wrong. Sadly Manoj speaker was not allowed to complete the speech as it went
out of time. Recommendation – Time is essence and keep in time.

4th Speaker Richard - Another reverting performance by Richard made

every one sat on the edge of chair and I even got goose bumps all over
the body. He finally disclosed the truth that his inspiration and
motivation model is none other than his own MIL (mother in law)

Of course, all were evaluated, feedback is so important to learn and
to progress, and even learning to listen.

Ist Speaker's Evaluator Vivian - Her clam and composed form of

evaluation is amazing and she elegantly given a very uplifting
evaluation on Flavia

2nd Speaker's Evaluator Michael - One of the fastest improving TM in the

club, every time he is on stage he is making great impact in his TM
journey.

3rd Speaker's Evaluator Chris D - First timer, bang on, I can't think
someone just stepped out and giving such great performance, touched

every angle of speech in detail.

4th Speaker's Evaluator Julie tepped in the role at the last
minute and gave some very important useful tips for Richard and all of
the other Toastmasters, too..

Table Topic Presenter Katy - Amazing, if anyone has to look for

innovation and out of the box thinking, follow Katy, every time she is

on stage, she has the passion and vigour to present her topic with
ease. She has transformed the Table Topics part into a debate style a
very unique way to get toastmasters advice on timing.

Table Topic speakers - Firstly Philip, Windy, Beverly, argumented one
of the three propositions. Then, Michael, Jim (Guest and Past Member),
Andy (1st timer guest), Dee (our Newest Member) amazing performance by
everyone, I'm sure their performance and opinion has helped the

audience and committee to take decision on the time. 

 

Interesting TMON [Philip] speaking about the importance of keeping in time,

himself went out of time, sadly it was not found out by Timer

but pointed out by audience, but anyway we all makes mistakes and

toastmaster is a learning place. Recommendation - Practice what you
Preach

Table Topic Evaluator Steve J - His humorously style of evaluation
with sandwich form of feedback was very well planned and organized and
it was a good spread of commendation and recommendation. He carried
out an honest and critical evaluation of the whole proceedings.

General Evaluator Rosie - She gave an excellent evaluation, infact
she stepped into the meeting with a intention of relaxing and

enjoying, but what is the point if you in meeting with no role - which

is better understood none other than Philip, who just throw the ball
to Rosie, she cached and run throughout the evaluation with vigor and

vitality and explained every nuts and bolts of the meeting fine points
efficiently and effectively.

Best Speaker - Flavia, I think she got a habit of winning every time.

Julie presided over the award giving ceremony, congratulated DEE for
becoming our newest member, and delivered the closing address,
reminding all that the 29 we will have a great Storytelling event.

Invite guest for it!

We all enjoyed the evening, keep coming!

Manoj Sivaraman, Secretary

Feedback, "evaluation" with loving warmth.

A few weeks ago, a young man visited our Toastmasters Club. He was excited about what he had seen and said "I want to join, I will join next time". "I want to learn to speak in public, I need to learn it". We believed him and especially as he asked so much, he was given a Competent Communication Manual in advance before he had paid for his membership and the manuals.

He never returned.

Lewisham Speakers lost a manual that cost money. He, however, lost a lot more. In Toastmasters clubs, each speech gets evaluated and each task gets feedback and that is what helps us to make progress. The loving feedback, the friendly warm words that point out our strengths and weaknesses inform us of how well we have spoken and what we could do to improve Without the feedback, we could not progress as we do. We also have coaches and mentors and we provide a supportive network to assist in each others progress. The young man who left with the manual did not understand all that he would miss. The loss of the manual compared with the loss of the supportive and caring atmosphere of the Toastmasters club - well there is no comparison really.

The fact that we surround each other and give feedback and work closely together has enabled all the speakers to grow and blossom at Toastmasters.

Storytelling Structure, Great Speech's Structure

 Nancy Duarte: the structure of all great speaches - stories.

Tonight was our last Storytelling Workshop and all present told powerful stories that they (we) are preparing to the showcase of 29th February and the outside our club storytelling event "change" at Canal Café Theatre in March, to Spark London event.

But for all, here is already, a Ted.com speech, from which all could take and learn something.

1 February 2012 Meeting

Last week Valentine’s day came early. Zhanna, our Toastmaster, with a difference, appropriately dressed in red took us through the origin of St Valentine’s. As she introduced the speakers for the evening, her introductions were cushioned with love poems and amusing jokes.
Lewisham Speakers showed their resilience and creativity as Manoj stepped in last minute to act as timekeeper (even without our equipment) and Steve J. took up the mantle of Ah counter. Windy, as Grammarian provided the word of the day “Affection” in accordance with the theme "love" and Vivienne as the Table Topics evaluator managed to incorporate into her evaluation.

Michael, gave his CC No. 4 speech entitled “Illegal drugs should be legalised” . Michael took us around the world as his well researched speech covered drug issues in Mexico, America and Amsterdam. He finally gave a comparative view and well researched opinion.

Steve had us mesmerized with his 15 minute "Pro" speech on Web crimes and well deservedly won the best speech of the night.

Julie using visual aids gave us CC Speech No. 8 informing us about the techniques adopted for storytelling and how this affected her life.

Our effective evaluators Lucas, Serena and Flavia gave constructive feedback and Lucas, who has blossomed since recently joining Lewisham Speakers, won best evaluator of the evening.

Richard as Table Topic master gave us "Choices of professions" and many guests and Toastmasters took up the challenge with jest. Jim, one of the first members to join our club 3 and a half years ago took part and we do hope he will visit us again soon.

Chris D. won the Table Topics award with his entertaining and energetic answer, as a guest - at the end of the meeting he became a member! Welcome Chris!

Next meeting, the 15th of February, Chris will already have a role as a member.

Tough times

Remember: what happened when the going went tough, give the best speeches, stories and also,

the best photos too, as here, as this girl dancing in the rain and not stopping!

When all goes well, not much to tell.

When all seems to darken, suddenly the rain fell on your shoulders, what did you do?

Tell us about those times, how you got out of it, what you learned through it, and how you came out with your head up like this girl did dispite the rain.

Dancing in the rain is not easy.
Surviving difficulty can teach others.

We will be all interested to learn, how you did it.

Next Storytelling workshop will be about Audience, their reaction and yours to them, the energy between and how to forget yourself in the moment when speaking, dancing, performing. Be all in it.

Please prepare your tale of "change" for the 7th of February meeting of Lewisham True Tales Workshop.

Ask yourself again:
1 what perspective can you offer?
2 what adversity have you overcome?