Humorous Speech Contest

I have previously mentioned that I joined a Toastmasters group here in Tulsa back in April.  I’ve been attending regular meetings, writing and delivering speeches, and generally learning a great deal about my speaking style and areas where I could use improvement in how I deliver speeches.  For example, my biggest glaring weakness is in using my notes.  I can easily tie this into preparation.  With everything else going on in my life (work, baby, triathlon training) writing speeches usually ends up getting short shrift.  When it is my turn to speak, I usually end up writing my speech a day or two before I am scheduled to give it, and as a result, I don’t have enough time to practice it before I delivery the speech in front of my group.  That invariably means I lean too hard on my notes to remember where I am going with my speech, which means I am giving a less effective speech because instead of looking at the audience the entire time, I am glancing down to read my notes.  This one is easy to fix- practice more.

I also tend to get stuck behind the podium when giving a speech.  I’ve had this one mentioned to me several times.  This, also, ties directly to my reliance on my notes because if I were able to deliver the speech extemporaneously, I wouldn’t need to stand behind the podium.  I am always very big when I am on stage- I have a great speaking voice and I use excellent gestures when speaking- but when I stand behind the podium the whole time, the audience never really has a chance to completely connect with me because they can only see the top half of me.  This, too, is an easy one to fix- practice more so I can get out from behind the podium.

This leads me to the title of this post- Humorous Speech Contest.  Several weeks ago, my club sponsored a Humorous Speech Contest where several speakers were signed up to tell a humorous story or anecdote to the group for a chance to win a trophy and a chance to represent our club in the Area Competition on Saturday, September 17th.  I put together what I thought was a pretty humorous idea and brought my A-game to the speech.  You can probably tell from the picture up top that I ended up winning the competition.  So that is where i will be tomorrow morning at 9:30 am, giving a humorous speech in our Area Competition.  If I win that, then I move on to the District competition.  So wish me luck!