The Central Hotel filled up with festive cheer last Wednesday night as the Vox crowd gathered for the weekly round of toastmastering. First time topicsmaster Aoife got the group going with some engaging topics on the pay of professional sports persons and weather – always a reliable opinion divider! For some reason the speakers all spoke of their love of the cold, rain and snow; they must be the happiest people in Ireland at this time of year. Those of us less inclined to jump up and down about frosty mornings or walks in the rain were left pondering exactly how long it might be before there is any kind of warmth in the air again.
After spending some time considering nicknames and Louis Walsh, the debate heated up as Elaine declared that vegetarianism should be outlawed as animals had been put on the earth to be eaten. This bold statement could not be allowed to go uncontested, so up jumped Jonny to declare we should all embrace and love animals and consider their emotions.. at least I think it was animals he was talking about.. The audience was left to decide between strongly put arguments that either vegetarianism is a ‘deformity’ or could it just be that vegetarians are terrible at making vegetarianism tasty?
Jane gave us a musical ice breaker as she described her background on the violin and piano, exploring the music of other countries and deciding that ‘music makes the world go round’. John H then lowered the tone by bringing us through the streets of Temple Bar, carousing with his friend the Horse. However he’d read his audience right, he had the crowd clapping and laughing as we wished that we had been the ones dancing on the tables at Bad Bob’s when the terrible twosome hit the town.
The advanced manuals can often take the meeting in an interesting direction. Joe gave us a flowing rendition of the tale of King Solomon sending his courtier on a fruitless quest across Israel for a magic ring. John D then brought us on another journey to Vienna and Nuremberg, giving a great example of motivation to join toastmasters as he described accidentally finding himself addressing a conference with little preparation.. in German.. beware Austrians bearing gifts!
With the prospect of the Christmas party ahead few in the crowd could resist getting in some practice at the bar, confusing anyone who was watching as to whether this is a speaking club or a drinking one. My feeling is that one helps the other, but does it work both ways? Maybe the next meeting will be the time to find out!
Merrilyn Campbell, VPPR