Stour Valley Probus

Regular readers must realise by now just how many of many of my speaking engagements are repeat bookings, such as 11 September when I paid my third visit in just over three years to Stour Valley Probus in Blandford Forum in Dorset. They have recently moved from the hotel where they met for many years to a new venue for them, the Constitutional Club.

This is a mixed Probus which has a morning meeting and there were about 50 there. I was very pleased with my new improved way of introducting my talk about the Algonquin Round Table which I mentioned in my previous post but I had already thought of a way to make this even better, Instead of asking the audience to imagine what it would be like if today's wits met each day for lunch in a place where they could eavesdrop, then giving them some names of contemporary humorists who I thought might appeal to them, I asked them to suggest some names. This got everyone's attention, had an element of competition and even threw up the odd totally unexpected name! It was a very good way to begin the presentation and I think I will be sticking with this.

Public Speaking Tip #244: Audience participation, for example, in the form of asking them for suggestions, can be an excellent way to open a presentation.

The date wasn't lost on me, either: there I was, talking about New York in the 1920s, on the anniversary of a recent, tragic event there. One of the legacies of the Algonquin Round Table was the New Yorker magazine, founded by one of its members, Harold Ross in 1925, and I mentioned that this has continued and about how the issue immediately after 9/11 had a totally black cover, a poignant reference in a generally humorous talk.

Public Speaking Tip #245: Look at the date of your speaking engagement. Does it tie in with your content in any way, for example, as an anniversary?

The talk went very well, the quotations getting some big laughs. My thanks to Lt. Col. Wiener for the lifts to and from the venue.

Back in the centre of Blandford, I spent some time in a very hospitable secondhand bookshop (they have free coffee-making facilities for browsers! Compare that with the expensive chain concessions in major bookstores!) and for £4 I managed to pick up a little volume about extemporary speaking, published in 1910!