Royal Army Medical Corps Association, Blandford Camp

On 15 May, I spoke on My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer for the RAMC Association at Blandford Camp in Dorset.

I was picked up from Wimborne Minster by Tony Phillips and after he had checked us in at the gatehouse, it was interesting to see inside the camp. Army bases are not normally noted for being pleasant to look at but Blandford Camp is laid out rather attractively and the buildings don't look at all bad.

The audience was mixed and, despite there only being 20 of them, extremely responsive. Sales of Nick R's in a Twist! were also very good, especially considering that most of the audience were couples and so there were far fewer than 20 households represented.

Afterwards, I enjoyed chatting with members over sandwiches. It was fascinating to be shown the Royal Signals' impressive collection of regimental trophies and other silverware in the display cases.

Public Speaking Tip #217: Public speaking can take you inside a wide range of interesting places that you would probably not otherwise have visited.

I was given a lift all the way home by Roy and his wife Doreen (who seemed surprised when I noticed a lovely Welsh accent which she thought she had lost after more than 30 years living in Dorset!)  

My relevant You Tube favourites

For a while now, I have been favouriting videos on You Tube, the vast majority of which are relevant to public speaking. These include extracts from speeches, performances by comedians who use language effectively (such as one of my all-time heroes and influences, the late Dennis Wolfberg), film of performers I have written for (Roy Hudd), worked with (Justin Hayward, 10cc) or simply admire (such as the late Blaster Bates and Bill Hicks). There are performer friends, such as Mel Mellers and Jonathan the Jester and you can even see a short film of my home town of Bournemouth where my speaking career started.

There are also a number of clips from comedy films and sitcoms involving disastrous public speaking scenes.

Now here's a good tip (unfortunately I can't claim it's my own idea - I saw it being used very effectively at a training day where I was a guest speaker):

Watch a comedy scene involving a speech that goes badly and write down everything that the character does wrong and what they should have done to avoid this disaster. You'll write a lot because this type of comedy involves extremes but you will be amazed at how much theory you know, even if you have just started training as a speaker.

Two excellent examples to use are the hilarious book launch scene from Bridget Jones's Diary and the motivational speech given by David Brent in the second series of the UK version of The Office (this includes his preparation - or lack of it - for the event and also shows the aftermath).

Another good sitcom episode to analyse for this purpose would be The Botched Language of Cranes from the superb Frasier: Series 2.

Public Speaking Tip #216: You can develop increased confidence by watching films of bad speakers - including fictional ones - and listing every single thing they are doing wrong and how they could improve.

The You Tube channel is called apublicspeakersblog (parental advisory on some videos and comments).

Bournemouth East Conservative Luncheon

On 9 May, I was a guest speaker at a lunch at the Ocean View Hotel for the Bournemouth East Conservatives who were in a jubilant mood following the previous week's local elections which had seen a new local Conservative councillor elected, massive gains nationally and, of course, Boris Johnson's victory in the London mayoral race.

I have mentioned before that I do not support any party but I have often spoken at functions for Conservative Associations who like to book occasional non-political speakers. The other main parties in the UK don't appear to hold this type of event (or if they do, I have never been asked to speak at one!)

There were 66 present and the room was very warm on this muggy day. I decided to dispense with the microphone and delivered approximately 25 minutes of anecdotal material under the title The Comedy of Life. Although I was booked as a non-political speaker, being a writer of topical satire I always have material suitable for an engagement like this so I slipped in the odd line and also included some stories from my days writing for BBC radio satire shows, for example, in relation to some of the constraints on topical comedy programmes being broadcast during general election campaigns. Together with my other material, this seemed to go well.

The vote of thanks was given by their Chairman, Councillor Malcolm Davies, who got laughs with his self-effacing humour about his slightly long-winded style! Then the Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood gave a short speech, part of which was a sort of second vote of thanks for my own.

I hadn't known that he would be there so it was a real bonus to observe a Member of Parliament speak at such close quarters (two seats away) and very flattering that he made kind comments about my talk.

He is an excellent speaker and he told a very funny anecdote (once again self-deprecating) about a case of mistaken identity on a TV programme involving himelf and a famous former government minister.

Later, I reflected on the fact that in little over three weeks I had been at functions where I had heard speeches by a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, a Conservative MP, a Labour Mayor and a Conservative Councillor, each with their own distinctive style and none taking themselves too seriously.

Public Speaking Tip #215: If you become a regular public speaker at a wide variety of functions, you will have the opportunity to hear, learn from and sometimes even meet  some influential and interesting public figures.

Postcript: Here is an extract from a letter written later that afternoon by their Deputy Chairman Carolyn Dennis:

"Thank you so much for coming to address the lunch today. We thoroughly enjoyed it and it made a change to have something non-political. We will be recommending you to other people".