After a last-minute change of venue, Bloomsbury Speakers’ autumn contest night was opened by Helen in the dual role of club president and contest chair for the first of the night’s contests.
Humorous Speech Contest
With the order of speakers determined earlier by a random draw, the Humorous Speech contest was started by Samuel with his speech “Finding the Fire”. Sharing funny anecdotes from two of the worst jobs in his career, Samuel encouraged us to consider what it is we’d do for free in order to find our own ‘fire’ within us.
In her speech, “Sleep Your Way to Success”, Svetlana used humorous albeit dubious facts about the benefits of sleep to explain how it might help us overcome all our problems.
Paul‘s speech, “Wipe-out”, recounted his surfing trip to Cornwall with work colleagues. Using his storytelling skills entwined with physical comedy, Paul described his hopeless struggle to even get over the very first challenge – putting the wet-suit on!
In Peter F‘s speech – simply entitled “Public Speaking” – he told us about some of the occasions where addressing an audience proved even more challenging than usual – including being baffled by hecklers at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park.
Finally, in her speech “Three Essential Skills While Travelling”, Olga shared the tale of a trip to Greece with her family that was memorable for all the wrong reasons!
Table Topics Contest
After a short break, Rufina took to the stage to chair the Table Topics contest. All of the contestants were given the same topic to speak about for 1-2 minutes: “What would you do if you were Mayor of London?”
Svetlana, Peter R, Olga, Matt, Helen and Peter F each addressed the audience with their individual responses to the question. Answers included hiring a DJ to keep morning commuters entertained and making sure all election promises are fulfilled, even if they contradict each other!
Results
After the judges’ votes had been counted and verified, the contest chairs returned to the stage to present the winners with their awards.
In the Table Topics contest, the results were:
- Third place – Matt
- Second place – Peter R
- First place – Helen
The results of the Humorous Speech contest were:
- Third place – Svetlana
- Second place – Samuel
- First place – Olga
Next Round
Congratulations to Olga and Helen who will now go on to represent Bloomsbury Speakers at the Area 34 finals on Thursday, 1st October. Please go along and show your support!
Next Meeting
Our next regular meeting is this Monday, 28th September, upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
