At a toastmasters meeting, anything can happen. Speakers don’t turn up, topics contestants have ‘brain freeze’, technology refuses to work. All in an evening’s work mastering the toast!
At last Wednesday’s meeting most things went smoothly. Topicsmaster Rosie got the room up on its feet discussing summer holidays, tall tales and April Fool’s jokes. However it was the controversial subject of Easter eggs that got the opinions flowing, with Frank asserting creme eggs were the best thing going whereas your humble correspondent, on the basis of trying one once, strongly denying that they were an acceptable food substance.
Uproar! There’s nothing an Irish crowd loves more than someone dissing a favoured brand, and few things I get more enjoyment from than challenging the inexplicable Irish devotion to Brennan’s bread and Barry’s tea. So incensed was Frank that he was up again for the last word – impossible I’m afraid unless he starts blogging!
Things calmed down a little after that, as contributions on the topic of personal happiness encompassed the Dalai Lama, self actualisation and children’s ability to be in the moment. Rosie clearly wasn’t content to keep things quiet, and asked the room what would get them out rioting on the streets. While Tony took the diplomatic route, Jill described her household’s anguish at the final straw of the last Budget’s extra tax on wine, with many sympathetic nods around the room.
Sinead declared her love of dogs and felt unable to defend cats at all, while John argued the case for snow, but only in a pristine state. Despite Muna not having seen snow until his 30s, the winter of 2010 was enough to knock some of the novelty from the white stuff!
After a debate on whether anyone would pay for entertainment online anymore, Jason delivered a poem by Charles Bukowski and it was time for the speeches.
Jacinta was first off the mark to describe her attempt at crafting a speech that was bigger than her, the one that got away. Instead, she gave us an ‘ordinary and plain’ speech, delivered with minimal preparation but lashings of humour and style. Turning up to give a speech is the first achivement on any night, we all wonder what the hell we’re doing in the moments before our name is called, but Jacinta gave everyone a reminder of what is possible and that we all have a speech in us somewhere.
Joe’s story about his father’s illness had the room riveted. The phrase ‘put the bad hour behind you’ is a new one for this recent Irish transplant, as Joe described his bout of food poisoning leading accidentally (quite literally) to his father getting medical treatment that saved his life. The storytelling manual is made for you Joe!
Sharon won the club International Speech competition with her narrative on fairytales, urban myths and legends. From her dramatisation of Hansel and Gretel to Pandora letting out the butterfly called Hope, our Vice President led us through ‘stories that changed the world’ and left us with an uplifting message.
(Congratulations to Sharon and John for their performances in the Area speech and evaluation competitions the following night, both did Vox Populi proud!)
Keeping the show on the road is not an easy task; toastmaster Fergal and General Evaluator Colette kept their wits about them in the second half and the potential for disaster was averted as missed reports were given and heckling contained, leading everyone to declare in the bar afterwards what a fun meeting it had been. Sometimes a bit of chaos keeps things interesting!
Merrilyn Campbell, VPPR