Manda Graham | Shaun (Visitor) | Karen Lowen | Sarah Williams | Kenny Kayani | Derek Serafini

Malvern Speakers report 11.9.18

This was a rather more serious meeting than usual -  with the notable exception of the first prepared speech, from Tom Wood, which generated much hilarity.  It was entitled “Preparation is Key” - a detail Tom had failed to pass on to Kenny Kayani whose task it was to introduce him!  The event for which Tom imagined preparing for was, of all things, a colonoscopy – a subject that led him into some murky areas.  It also provided a lot of harmless fun for his audience – especially when he concluded by revealing that his preparation for the speech had begun only a couple of hours previously. 

Not entirely surprisingly, Tom did not win the vote for the night’s best speech.  That went to Manda Graham, who took her audience with her on A Creative Journey.   Although involved with arts in one form and another during her working life, Manda had never regarded herself as a creative person and so set off to try and discover the roots of artistic creativity. Curiously, one of her conclusions was what her evaluator Roger Granville described as the creative use of doing nothing! 

The other two speeches were rather more technical. Jackie Baker, with an important speech to make soon to an outside body, explored and explained for the benefit both of herself and her listeners the technique of ‘mind-mapping’ in planning and constructing a speech. What might have been on the dry side was saved by Jackie’s warm and smiling presentation. Sarah Williams’ admirable appraisal of this speech was voted the night’s best evaluation. Steve Birch analysed the characteristics of four contrasting communication styles and how to adapt each to particular circumstances.  And being Steve, his speech lived up to its title and went ‘Straight to the Point’.

Ben Colyer used the theme of Back to School to invite speakers in the table topics session to recall aspects of their school memories.  This subject had the advantage that everyone had something to remember and so something to say – not always the case with these unprepared short speeches.  The winner was Shaun (Visitor) with affectionate recollections of sausage, beans and chips after rugby in his Welsh schooldays.

Next meeting which will be a speech contest, with winners going on to compete at District level, will take place at the Great Malvern Hotel on Tuesday September 25^th at 7.30pm.

Tristan Mitchell | Karen Lowen | Graham Sterry | Stephanie Bilton

Members settling down to listen to Karen Lowen’s speech entitled CANOEing who were expecting an idyll afloat on some beautiful river were in for a surprise. It turned out that the capitalised CANOE represented a  (very!) secret organisation called the Committee for Alleging Nautical Origins for Everything.  She illustrated its activities with four examples widely believed to be of nautical origin:- grog; freezing the balls off a brass monkey; son of a gun; and posh.  In a well researched speech, delivered with her usual smiling charm and enlivened by her use of a piratical hat, she demonstrated that only two arose from seafaring beginnings (guess which).  It was no surprise when this unusual and interesting contribution was voted best speech at the end of the evening.

This is to take nothing away from the two other  prepared speeches.  Master storyteller Hilary Benoit had her listeners rapt with her re-telling of the ancient legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  A more serious tone was struck by Graham Sterry, with his “Less Stoicism Please”  a heartfelt appeal for less of the Anglo-Saxon stiff-upper-lip, suffer-in-silence, grin-and-bear-it tradition, and more open discussion of what are now recognised as mental illnesses of people in need of help.

In the earlier session for short unprepared speeches none of the eight participants was  less prepared than Tom Elliston.  Arriving late in mid-session at the front of the meeting (in a striking pink pullover), he was immediately grabbed by Table Topics Master Steve Birch.  Quite unfazed by having to explain at no notice what he might do as a vampire, quick-thinking and ever-smiling Tom responded so successfully as to win the night’s award! Treasurer Tom also earned extra approval from members by announcing, that thanks to sound club finances, it had been decided NOT to raise subs as previously planned.

Next club meeting will be at the Great Malvern Hotel at 7,30pm on Tuesday September 11^th – guests most welcome as always.