Drayton and Farlington Carers' Support Group
My talk on 9 October was for the Drayton and Farlingrton Carers' Support Group in Cosham, Hampshire.
I have spoken several times in Cosham and I have to say i find it to be a very friendly town, the sort of place where total strangers smile and say hello to me in the street (and when I'm walking along deep in thought about my next gig, I don't exactly look approachable!) On one occasion, I had just got off the train and was looking at the map to refresh my memory about how to get to the Southern Electricity premises where I had spoken a year earlier and a chap on his lunch break spotted me and insisted on giving me a lift for no payment to the venue over a mile away.
The venue this time was the Drayton Institute, a small but remarkably busy centre where I was due to speak to an audience of nearly 20 carers and helpers. I had just started My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer when a member interrupted and said that a couple of ladies, one in particular, couldn't hear me. Now I project pretty well (especially to tiny audiences in small rooms) but apparently there were members who had hearing aids and needed the loop system from the microphone - which I had not been asked to use!
Rather than lose any more time setting it up, it was agreed that I would speak louder and somewhat slower than usual and we would see how we all got on! Now, humorous speakers can sometimes rattle off our words more quickly than others. It's perhaps to do with timing and also because we have a lot of tried and tested material which we know will get laughs if there's room for it. One of my fellow humorous speakers in the Bournemouth area, the hugely-respected Reverend Stewart Timbrell, is renowned for his rapid-fire delivery.
I found it to be an interesting experiment. There were one or two items which I had to omit altogether because I would have needed more notice to alter the way in which I timed the delivery. Meanwhile. the remaining material, which would probably have taken 45 minutes to deliver under normal circumstances, occupied nearly an hour. The audience was very sharp and even applauded the odd line.
Afterwards, I made a point of asking the two ladies whether they had been able to follow me. The first one said that she certainly had and the second (the one who had asked me to slow right down) said she had been able to catch most of it (I had noticed her laughing at regular intervals) but I gave her a copy of my booklet in case she had missed anything!
All told, it would have been much easier for everyone if the mic and loop system had been employed but it was a useful experience for me to self-edit that much as I went along because I knew I might overrun (an hour was the allotted time).
Public Speaking Tip #256: There may be odd occasions when you suddenly have to - or want to - chop and change parts of your well-honed material, considering each line just before delivery and making rapid alterations where necessary. This shows that you are not at the mercy of a parrot-fashion, 'party piece' script but able to extemporise around your set information, anecdotes, etc. I am constantly coming up with unplanned little extras and changes which I had no idea I was going to deliver until a split second before I do. To me, this feels like real speaking - not mere recitation.
After tea and a nice chat with the members, it was time to leave and, with that customary Cosham kindness, I was given a lift back into town.
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"This is an unusual blog; the art of public speaking is crucial to politics and yet there's not much devoted to it specifically. This blog does, with posts combining accounts of the writer's recent engagements with some handy hints. Given some of the turgid speeches we're forced to suffer in the Commons, more MPs could do with reading it". politics.co.uk
"Nick spoke at our joint meeting with Kingston 41 Club. It was a brilliant evening. Nick is an engaging speaker, witty, topical and very interesting. He spoke for three quarters of an hour without notes, a most knowledgeable man. I cannot recommend Nick enough and can assure you that engaging him is a worthwhile endeavour. I wish you a great evening like ours". Manny Martins Vice Chairman of Hamble Valley Stick Club and 41 Club Regional Councillor, Region 24.
"Your speech to our 9 Rotary Clubs in North Surrey was much appreciated by me and I have received lots of feedback which was very positive about you. It was so refreshing to hear someone who has the wit to make us laugh throughout the evening without resort to 'blue' material and swearing. I do hope many others will get the chance to experience your talents". Howard Smith, Assistant Governor Area 1 Rotary District 1140.
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Saturday, November 22
Slow, slow, quip, quip, slow...
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sat 22 Nov 2008 06:27 AM GMT
A quota of quoters!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sat 22 Nov 2008 05:05 AM GMT
Bournemouth Literary Festival Quotable Quotes Quiz
On 3 October I made my third appearance at the Bournemouth Literary Festival. In 2005 and 2006 I was joint quizmaster with Brian Jenner for the literary quizzes he devised but this year I found myself trying to answer his questions as a panellist along with team captain Tobias Ellwood MP (who I last met when I spoke at the Bournemouth East Conservatives Luncheon in May) and the academic Melanie Semple. The opposing team comprised local comedian Gareth Richards, Dom Kippin, Community Marketing Executive of the nearby branch of Borders and witty novelist Natasha Farrant. The attendance was a little disappointing, probably about 30, many of whom were involved in the festival anyway. I think the reason for this may have that the centre of Bournemouth on a Friday can be rough and this might have deterred some older people from attending (although the evening was uncharacteristically quiet in town) or it may just have been the resistance to the arts in Bournemouth which Brian Jenner has so often highlighted in the local media. I struggled with many of the literary questions (although our team won) but the biggest problem for me was delivering my prepared quotations, etc, in the venue, the All Fired Up Ceramics Cafe in Bourne Avenue, where Brian holds the meetings of his successful Bomo Creatives group (now in its third year). I found myself struggling to be heard over coffee machine noises in the early part of the quiz and loud crockery-stacking sound effects towards the end! Public Speaking Tip #255: Throughout the time that I have been writing this blog, I have been advising speakers about how to adapt in various settings to give themselves the best chance of being heard/seen, etc. Sometimes, however, there are some problems which are beyond your control and you just have to try and work around them! The important thing is that the event took place. The Bournemouth Literary Festival receives no outside funding and yet, for a fourth successive year, it brought a number of varied literary events to the town, ranging from light-hearted quizzes like this one through readings, poetry, workshops, walks and the spectacularly well-attended book signing with Theo Paphitis from BBC2's Dragons' Den. The town owes a debt of gratitude to festival founder Lilian Avon. |
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