New Forest Past Rotarians and Associates

I gave my third talk to the New Forest Past Rotarians and Associates on 15 September, this time about Groucho Marx. They now meet at the South Lawn Hotel in Milford-on-Sea and, as I sat outside this venue on a very warm morning while they had their business meeting (a window nearby was open so I could hear when I was just about to be introduced), I found myself covered in insects. This gave me a great opportunity to open with Groucho's famous line 'Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana'. Decent laugh, good start.

I then re-used the Fred Allen story which got such a good response from the Probus Club of the New Forest a fortnight earlier. It may have been a last-minute addition which was appropriate to the microphone problem there but I could see that it's good enough to be worked into this presentation anywhere. My content often evolves like this: strong additions to an already well-honed script.

Public Speaking Tip #352: Extra material tailored to a particular audience/speaking situation may turn out to have a shelf-life beyond that engagement and become a permanent part of your script.

I had been asked to speak for an hour and when I looked at my watch as I finished, I saw that my talk had lasted for exactly 60 minutes. You develop this level of timing with experience.

This is a small club (just over 20 present) but, as with my previous bookings for them, they gave this talk a very good reception so I assumed that the time had flown like an arrow for them as well as for Groucho!

The lunch at the hotel afterwards was most enjoyable and I really must thank Mr Cauldwell for door-to-door transport from Bournemouth to the venue and back.