Three Legged Cross WI Christmas Meeting

I thought I was doing so well avoiding the cough that most of the country seems to have come down with in recent weeks but it caught up with me a couple of days after my last talk. I expected that I would at least be getting better as my booking to speak to Three Legged Cross Women's Institute last Wednesday approached but the cough hadn't loosened at all. I mentioned in one of the first posts in this blog about cancelling a booking through ill-health earlier in the year but I decided that in the case of this one, I would go ahead with it. The reason was that this was a special meeting: a Christmas party with guests, a meal and then the WI putting on some entertainment of their own as well. My talk, being humorous, was an important part of the schedule and had been advertised for months. I also figured that many of the members would have the bug, or would be getting over it, so I would not be alone!

Public Speaking Tip #97: If you have been booked with a special event in mind, you should do your utmost to honour it unless cancellation really is unavoidable.

My state of health made me a little sluggish, with the result that I narrowly missed the bus i needed so I then had to catch a different one to Ferndown and, from there, take a taxi out to  Three Cross. The cabbie was very charming but unfortunately lacked a) a knowledge of the geography of a village a mere 5 miles from where he is based and b) any comprehension of the English concept of a Village Hall. But we did arrive just in time for the start of the meeting. I had been reading local newspaper items about this WI's meetings for years but this was the first time I had spoken to them. There were 28 there, including guests from a number of other local Institutes.

Sure enough, I was hit by coughing fits almost as soon as my talk started and had to do a fair amount of recapping so I could continue the stories which had been so rudely interrupted - by me! This was a two-lozenge talk (I have never had that before!) but the ladies were very patient and I got through it in the end.

Towards the end, I had mentioned a talk which I had done in Weston-super-Mare nearly a decade earlier and I saw somebody at the back whispering to her neighbour. Afterwards, she came up and said 'I thought I'd seen you somewhere before!' It turned out that she had been there that day.

Public Speaking Tip #98: A successful presentation can be remembered for many years afterwards.

After a nice meal, a number of the members performed a playlet about the meaning of Christmas and another read a humorous, topical poem. There is a tradition of ladies' groups like WIs and TGs putting on performances at this time of year but, remarkably when you consider how long I have been a speaker, I had never seen one before! This one was well thought out, looked well-rehearsed and all the participants threw themselves into it.

Despite the coughs and transport problems, I was very glad I went.

Sarum Probus

Last Friday morning, I travelled up to Salisbury City Hall to speak to Sarum Probus, a booking I got from a recommendation following a talk for a church group in Salisbury back in May. As with my talk on Wednesday, the title was Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer, it was my first time speaking to a particular audience - and my cough was no better!

On the way, I stopped to buy a Daily Telegraph in case there was anything in that morning's edition that I could refer to in my presentation (the Telegraph is virtually the 'house journal' of Probus members, in fact, I can seldom remember hearing any other paper mentioned!)

Public Speaking Tip #99: Linking some part of your content to a current news item gives it more topicality, especially if you have chosen a publication or website which you know to be widely-read amongst your audience.

At least with this one, I was including a recording of a sketch so that at least saved my voice for 3 minutes but once again, it was a two-lozenge job punctuated by coughing fits. Nevertheless, I got through the hour plus questions that they had asked for at this very friendly and responsive Probus.

The Rotary Club of Crowborough

My cough still hadn't improved by yesterday morning but I managed to get through a great deal of writing in the morning and early afternoon, completing a 600-word article for the Radio Magazine as well as putting together original comedy prep material for radio presenters before setting off for an after dinner engagement in East Sussex for Crowborough Rotary Club.

The trains at Bournemouth and Woking were on time but a service being delayed by just 4 minutes at Clapham Junction meant that I missed my connection from East Croydon. Speaker Secretary David Peacock phoned me and with some much-needed alternative suggestions and after yet another change, this time at Oxted, I still managed to get in at Crowborough by 18.30. David's wife Veronica is a newspaper sub-editor and on the way, we traded stories of amusing misprints and ambiguous headlines (this kind of 'found humour' has been a popular item in talks about my work ever since I started giving them and also features in my booklet 'Nick R's in a Twist! )

Public Speaking Tip #100: If you come across an unintentionally humorous item in print, such as a funny misprint or a bizarre story reported by a paper in a strait-laced fashion, or perhaps overhear something funny, make a note of it with a view to including it in a presentation. This type of real-life humour can go down very well with audiences.

Waterford Probus

Last Monday, I made a return visit to Waterford Probus near Christchurch to give a talk entitled Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer Part 2 (Part 1 having been delivered back in March 1999!)

I arrived in good time and my setting up included testing the tape player which I would be using to play a recording of a comedy sketch. I familiarised myself with the volume, controls, etc.

Public Speaking Tip #92: Before you are introduced, thoroughly familiarise yourself with any equipment which you will be using as part of your presentation, especially if someone else is supplying it; they may be on hand to give you any help you might need.

When this was done, I chatted over coffee with some members of the club. One gentleman mentioned that he had always been interested in the concept of humour in business. Now, I do have a presentation called The Power of Humour in Business which I normally deliver for corporate audiences but this wasn't my subject today. However, I could see that mentioning a little about this in my talk would be a useful 'bridge' into some of the prepared material, so when I came to speak, I mentioned my discussion with this chap, talked a little about business humour and then carried on into the planned stories which flowed naturally from this. The result was that it tailored this part of my presentation to this particular group as well as adding a touch of spontaneity among some stories which I have told many times elswhere.

Public Speaking Tip #93: Talking to members of your audience before your presentation can produce ideas which may be incorporated into your material to give it more local relevance and structure - if you can include them at short notice without throwing you off your script or overrunning.  

As I have mentioned, this was a Part 2 but it was inevitable that some bits of Part 1 would have to be repeated for the presentation to make sense. There were many people there who would not have been present for my first one or would not remember details from a talk the best part of a decade earlier! But these repetitions were kept to a minimum and most of my 50 minutes was new to this particular club.

Public Speaking Tip #94: If an organisation rebooks you to further develop a topic you have spoken to them about already, you will have to repeat some of the earlier material for the sake of recapping, etc. Just keep this repetition to a minimum.

I did experience one minor problem during my talk. The club had provided a small lectern on the table which had a thin bar across the bottom to hold speakers' written materials. I was using single word 'notes' so these were contained in one sheet of A4 which, due to the thin bar and polished wood, occasionally flew off onto the table. It wasn't too distracting but I decided that if I am likely to be using a single sheet on a lectern again, I will either attach it to a clip-board or take a large clip to fix it to the lectern itself.

Public Speaking Tip #95: We cannot always foresee every minor problem which might occur at a speaking engagement; all we can do is learn from them and try to prevent them from happening again, often through the introduction of some very simple solutions.

The talk was very well received by a decent-sized audience (wives and other guests made the numbers up to around 60) and there was a good question and answer session afterwards.

One of the perks of speaking in December is that on top of being paid and selling my booklets, I am also a guest for a number of enjoyable Christmas lunches and dinners! It was a good meal at the Waterford Lodge Hotel and I discovered that the Speaker Secretary, Norman Maton, and his wife Heather, are the parents of a fellow Scout who was with me on a disastrous camping expedition at Pamphill in Dorset in 1974! Sometimes public speaking can seem like a form of Friends Reunited (hardly surprising when you consider that I speak to up to 5,000 people each year).

My thanks to Norman and Heather for going out of their way to run me into Christchurch afterwards.