Lloyds TSB Retired Staff Association, Andover
I spoke about My Life as a Freelance Comedy writer for the Lloyds TSB Retired Staff Association at the Masonic Hall in Andover on 29 April. There were about 70 present and, despite a slightly dodgy microphone, the talk went very well.
One of my other talks, the Power of Humour in Everyday Life, includes an anecdote about a certain experience with this particular bank so I included it in this presentation and it was appreciated by the audience - perfect tailoring.. Material can sometimes be switched between different talks if it's appropriate (there is certainly a little overlap where my Marx Brothers and Algonquin Round Table presentations are concerned).
Public Speaking Tip #315: If you have a number of titles to offer as a speaker, the material for each does not have to be rigidly compartmentalised; you can introduce an anecdote, quotation or idea from one presentation into another if it's appropriate for that audience.
An original topical gag about former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin which I made a late decision to include also went down very well. Again, it was perfectly tailored for this particular audience.
During the conversation over the meal afterwards, I learned that this group had not had speakers at this type of meeting before so I was something of an experiment! This was not the first time that an organisation has piloted the idea of adding a talk with me as their first booking. It usually works well as my subjects are humorous and well-honed but if you speak on more serious topics, you might like to research whether an organisation usually books a talk at their meetings.
Public Speaking Tip #316: Are you the first person to speak to a group or the first speaker of a certain type? If someone wants to book you, you might like to ask 'What speakers have you had recently?' The reply will let you know whether you are the first or if your presentation will fit in with what that audience is used to at their events. If you are funny/interesting/inspiring, the fact that you may be their first speaker should not put you off.
I got this booking after their Honorary Treasurer heard me last year at Andover U3A. That group has already rebooked me. During the course of the evening, I received a number of enquiries about speaking to other groups in the area. As the great after dinner speaker Blaster Bates once said (admittedly in a slightly different context!) 'It just shows how these jobs can snowball!
Public Speaking Tip #317: A successful presentation and the repeat bookings and recommendations it can bring will certainly help to keep you in work as a speaker. Nevertheless, you still also need to keep up with the mailings, calls, auditions and other forms of marketing to keep those bookings flowing!
A very nice evening and apparently not just for me, according to this email from the Hon Treasurer Glenys Hughes-Owens:
"Thank you for entertaining us on Wednesday. Everybody I spoke to at the end of the evening said they enjoyed it very much".
My thanks to another of their Committee, David, for the lift from the station and back, not to mention refreshments before the meeting.
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Tuesday, June 9
Banking on a successful speech!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Tue 09 Jun 2009 09:26 PM BST
Saturday, May 30
Audiences - a public speaker's great resource
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sat 30 May 2009 04:29 PM BST
Bournemouth 2 Probus
Making yourself available to speak at short notice can sometimes make a quiet month for bookings at least a little busier. Last month it boosted my engagements by 50%! Just before the meeting began at Barton on Sea Probus, I got a call from a fellow speaker who had to cancel a booking the next day due to a family crisis. If I cover for another speaker, I always ask them to contact the organisation themselves to let them know that a replacement speaker will be coming along with a different topic. I knew this one would be a bit of a challenge; although Bournemouth 2 Probus is a club that I have enjoyed speaking to on three previous occasions, I knew they would have been greatly looking forward to hearing the other speaker and his very popular and humorous topic so I had a lot to live up to! My topic was The Power of Humour in Everyday Life and I put a collection of material together which they would not have heard before. (I spoke to them on My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer in May 2000, Patrick Campbell in October 2005 and Groucho Marx in May 2008 so it had been the best part of a decade since they had heard any of my own personal anecdotes). I was pretty happy with my material but on the way to the Grange Hotel, I considered the last-minute inclusion of a recording of one of my radio comedy sketches played on a dictaphone, as I had done very effectively with Blackmore Vale Probus last year. But when I tested this for volume in the small meeting room at the hotel, I found that the tape was nowhere near audible enough due to all the sound-absorbent upholstery. Public Speaking Tip #313: There are many factors which can effect the acoustics of a room: size, height of ceiling, wall and floor coverings, etc. Try to get a feel for the place before you speak and note how the speakers before you are coping (or failing to!) It didn't matter as it turned out that I had plenty of content, especially when taking into account the amount of laughter. After another of Bournemouth 2 Probus's wonderfully humorous business meetings, I was introduced to the audience of 53 members and guests and this one turned out to be a bit of a tour de force! The observations and anecdotes got a great response, including the new 'hazards of puns' story which I had been honing over the previous couple of months but had not used at a men's Probus before. The talk was interrupted at one point by a gentleman falling off his seat! After making sure that he was uninjured, I pointed out that my talk wasn't actually about slapstick. He replied that he was nearly in stitches, which got an even bigger laugh and applause. It was a great ad-lib and I wasn't going to try and top that - one of those unscheduled real-life comedy moments that add even more to a humorous presentation. The question and answer session was incredibly wide-ranging, dealing with topics from comedy past and present to copyright and pop music royalties, all subjects which I fortunately knew something about! Afterwards, I got a fantastic vote of thanks and then enjoyed a very nice lunch with the club, during which I chatted with one of the guests, Major Peter Mylechreest from the Boscombe Salvation Army. He was fascinating to speak to. One of the great 'windfall gains' of public speaking is that you get to meet and converse with people who have led incredibly interesting lives, people who you would probably otherwise never encounter. I have found myself at luncheons and dinners where I have been seated on tables with a former Governor of Bermuda, a retired senior Murder Squad detective, Mayors, doctors, authors, charity workers, highly successful business people... They help me improve my grasp of a number of topics, including current affairs, by receiving informed opinion from experts. Sometimes I receive useful advice, not as a result of pestering someone once I have found out what they do, but from something which has come up in conversation. Thus, I have had informal but very useful financial advice and even a valuation of a stamp collection (unfortunately it's not valuable at all!) My talks have also benefitted. For example, my Patrick Campbell presentation now includes several anecdotes from people I have met at my speaking engagements who actually had dealings with him, details which I could never have found in any book. Audience members can be a great resource for a speaker's ongoing research. Sadly, sometimes I only discover who someone was after the event. One Past Rotarian who booked me for a talk rang up and modestly said 'My name's Holland...' He was actually Sir Kenneth Holland, CBE, who had been Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services in England and Wales. They're not all high-profile professionals, of course, but so many still have a fascinating story to tell. Imagine the thrill when, after a WI talk in the New Forest some years ago, a lady told me that her grandmother had once heard a very interesting speaker: Charles Dickens delivering one of his readings! Public Speaking Tip #314: Public speaking enables you to rub shoulders with interesting and well-informed people; both your general knowledge and sometimes even your speech content can be greatly enriched as a result. There are so many benefits to be gained from becoming a speaker: improved confidence, extra income, a higher profile for yourself, your business or your cause... This list must also include the opportunity to meet - and learn from - people you would normally never get to speak to. Friday, May 29
It's not all in the details...
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Fri 29 May 2009 11:03 AM BST
Detailed reports of presentations
A write-up about my last talk to Barton on Sea Probus appeared a couple of weeks later in the New Milton Advertiser/Lymington Times and reproduced part of its content in some detail. This has happened before on odd occasions with reports from other clubs. I'm sure some speakers might see a problem with this, perhaps thinking that giving away so much material will suppress the number of bookings. Why bother to hear this speaker when thousands of people have already seen a summary of their talk in the local paper? I disagree. I have never noticed any downturn in bookings after a detailed press report. For a start, the article will only be a few hundred words long whereas a 40-minute lecture might consist of nearly 5,000 so it will only be able to touch on a fraction of the facts, anecdotes, jokes, etc, that I have included. If you think about it, such a report is a testament to the amount of preparation and research you have put into your content and the fact that a press officer has been able to write a clear synopsis demonstrates the clarity with which you put it across. There are writers who publish books of tens of thousands of words on a subject who are then asked, as a result, to deliver condensed versions of them at speaking engagements, despite having made much more information available to readers than listeners. Public Speaking Tip #312: If you are fortunate enough to have a very detailed report about your presentation published in a newspaper or magazine, you should view this as good advertising for you. It's a taster - not a free ride! Of course, much depends upon the accuracy of the press officer's note-taking. In the case of Barton Probus it was excellent but some years ago, I delivered a talk to a particular organisation in Bournemouth and was stunned at the report which appeared afterwards (thankfully only in their small-circulation newsletter). There were so many inaccuracies and what I can only describe as invented details that I couldn't help wondering whether speaker and reporter had been attending the same talk! |
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