Brendoncare Juniper Jumpers Club, Dorset

My first talk this month that wasn't postponed due to bad weather was on the 10th for the Juniper Jumpers Club, which, like the Alpha Club in Highcliffe where I spoke last month, is run by the Brendoncare Foundation.

My subject was The Power of Humour in Everyday Life and it felt a little strange to be delivering this one again after a gap of nearly three months!

Regular readers will know that I don't just blog about my successful speaking engagements - I also include the (thankfully rare) ones which don't go quite so well. I have to say that this one fell into the latter category!

There were around 45 members and helpers at Bure House in Jumpers, Christchurch. I had positioned myself perhaps too far back from the audience so a little intimacy was lost but I was getting over a cold and some of them were very elderly so I thought it wisest, especially when it was interrupted by a bad cough. Even without this, though, the humour wasn't getting its usual response and I thought it best not to do quite the full hour I had been asked for.

I don't believe any speaker has a 100% strike rate where successful talks are concerned - you just have to try and do your best. Although this wasn't my most sparkling performance (codeine often makes me a bit sluggish) I was left feeling that perhaps I wasn't the best choice of speaker for this group anyway.

Public Speaking Tip #288: Every speaker has bad gigs. Extract any lessons to be learned from them - and move on.

One enjoyable aspect of the afternoon was chatting afterwards to Mr Eric Johnson, a musician and singer of traditional folk songs, who entertains at local retirement clubs. He said he remembered hearing me speak at Southbourne Literary Society many years ago. My earlier talks there were in January 2002 and, before that, January 1996; both of those had gone well so I was very flattered - and I needed to be on this particular afternoon!

It's great when people can still remember a speech or presentation that has been well-received. When I spoke at Stour Valley Probus last September, a gentleman told me afterwards that he belonged to Wimborne Minster Cine and Video Club where members were apparently still talking about the barnstorming talk I gave in November 2005.

Public Speaking Tip #289: Deliver a good presentation and audiences will remember it for years afterwards. (Of course, the same can apply to the less successful ones...!)