We held our annual Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests on Wednesday 12th September in our Fitzrovia venue and unsurprisingly, the room was packed!
Sergeant at Arms, Marcin brought some order to the excited audience when he opened the meeting before handing over to the evening's President, Freddie, who then injected even more excitement and energy into the buzzing room! The Competition Chairperson, Sonia then took to the stage to explain how the contest works, the rules and the speaker order for the Humorous Speech Contest.
First on stage was Ian, with a speech titled "Kakistocracy"- which was a beautifully constructed discourse on the absurdity by which government and businesses are run by the very worst qualified people. Brain - looking dapper in his security guard outfit - was second on stage with his spooky-funny tale "A Night at the Museum". Third up was Monika, with "Professional Interviewee" in which she recounted the many lows and highs of job seeking before finally Chinkata, with "Father, Son and Grandfather", shared some of the experiences and lessons he'd learned via three generations of his family back in Nigeria. There were laughs aplenty but because Toastmasters doesn't allow filming of competitions, you'll have to take my word for it!
Next we had the Table Topics Contest, with contestants David, Simon, Brian, Ian and Chinkata ready to do (friendly) battle. The Table Topic question was, "Aliens have invaded Earth. Your boss wants to hire them. What do you tell your team to convince them this is a good idea?" Each provided a unique and clever answer within the allocated time and no contestants were disqualified in either this or the Humorous Speech Contest for time infringements.
When the votes were finally counted and recounted and rerecounted, it was time for the prize-giving. David won the Table Topics, with Chinkata second and Simon third.
Prize certificates were awarded by the Chief Judge, Andy, who kept everything running smoothly throughout the entertaining evening.
Chinkata won the Humorous Speech Contest with Monika in second place. David and Chinkata will now progress to the Area competition.
The evening was a great success and our next meeting starts at 7pm on Wednesday 26th September at the Fitzrovia Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN - guests are very welcome!
