It's become a cliche for bloggers to apologise to their readers for not updating for a while (and as a public speaker and writer I try to avoid over-reliance on cliches) so I have no intention of giving you a long list of excuses but... As I posted some 355 free Public Speaking Tips here between August 2007 and March this year perhaps you will forgive me if I use one well-known expression to account for my absence: 'time off for good behaviour!'

I have a huge backlog of past speaking engagements and observations about public speaking to write about so I'd better get started...

Eversley WI and Trowbridge WI

Regular readers will know that I have a large number of different presentations. There's My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer and my other talk with personal anecdotes, The Power of Humour in Everyday Life and its corporate version, The Power of Humour in Business. Then there are my 'how-to' presentations and workshops: Public Speaking: My Triumph of Technique Over Terror! and Write Funny! which is aimed at writers' circles and film-making clubs. Then there are my literary/historical talks in the 'third person': The Life, Literature and Laughter of Patrick "Call My Bluff" Campbell, The One, the Only...Groucho!, Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Wits, I Must Write That Down! (A Commonplace Book) and The Great Comedy Quiz.

I prefer giving talks about my own experiences. This isn't just about ego; I have been delivering these since my very first booking in January 1996 so they are really well-honed (although obviously they are always evolving) and I think that many speakers favour speaking in the first person (I have certainly noticed this with my public speaking students). Don't get me wrong, I enjoy speaking about the other topics but, as a writer, I relish the challenge of making my own observations and experiences amusing and informative for audiences. Plus, my booklet Nick R's in a Twist! relates to these talks so I expect to sell more copies than I would with my other presentations. The other topics were introduced for repeat bookings for organisations that had already heard my anecdotal talks and also to attract interest from specialist markets such as historical societies.

But sometimes I am asked to deliver one of these literary/historical talks on a first visit to a group that I would normally expect to book My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer or The Power of Humour in Everyday Life. This may happen, for example, after a recommendation from someone who has not heard my 'own' talks but has enjoyed hearing about, say, Patrick Campbell.

I try to see this as an opportunity. I have been delivering these other talks for many years now, I know they go very well and, if I deliver them with enthusiasm, there is an excellent chance being booked for one of my more personal presentations on my next visit. And sometimes the merchandising can still be surprisingly good. It's flattering to be have been recommended too, and there could well also be further recommendations and testimonials. And I still get paid!

Public Speaking Tip #356:  If you offer a number of different presentations, it is possible that an organisation may want to book one which would not be your own first choice. Don't let this dampen your enthusiasm; as long as it will still be appropriate/informative/entertaining for them, it could lead to repeat bookings,  recommendations and other benefits.

This happened with two consecutive bookings last autumn for Women's Institutes that I had never spoken to before. Both chose my talk about the great Irish humorist Patrick Campbell. The first was at Eversley in Hampshire. This one went very well - once I got there!

This engagement was the result of a recommendation after I had spoken to Yateley and District U3A. and, as with that booking, there was a problem with rail transport. I got as far as Basingstoke on schedule that evening but then a passenger was taken ill on the train and there was a long delay while the paramedics tended to them. No-one's fault, of course, but I did begin to wonder if I would ever again have a journey to Fleet station that would run smoothly! Luckily a very patient WI member named Carmen was still waiting there for me and she drove me to the village hall in time for the end of the business part of the meeting. The 45 ladies there enjoyed my talk and I must thank one of their husbands, Trevor, for running me back to Fleet afterwards.

The other booking was an afternoon talk for Trowbridge WI in Wiltshire for an audience of around 35 in the town's Cricket Club (the list of different types of venues where I am booked to speak just keeps growing!) I got a very good response and a very good tea afterwards. My thanks for the transport from the station and back.

Testimonial: "On behalf of the ladies of Trowbridge WI may we thank you for the excellent talk on Patrick Campbell and the programme Call My Bluff. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon". (Letter from Correspondence Secretary, Trowbridge Women's Institute).

Although there were no problems with the punctuality of the trains that day, I must mention something that happened on the Bournemouth to Southampton leg of the outward journey. A young couple were sitting in the seats in front of me. On morning journeys to speaking engagements I am usually researching news stories for the topical gags I write for radio. I turned over a page of a newspaper and the woman turned and shot a filthy look back at me through the gap between the seats. Apparently this excessive noise was disturbing her! Another (very quiet) rustle had her insisting to her partner that they should get up and move back several seats away from me! Can you imagine her trying to cope with all the noises we public speakers have to contend with (buzzing lights, traffic outside the venue, sounds from neighbouring rooms, latecomers, coughs, mobiles, whistling hearing aids, even, occasionally, the odd snore?)

There was a third sound from my seat shortly afterwards: that of me chuckling to myself as a foreign student who obviously had no inhibitions about speaking in public positioned himself next to where they had relocated to and started bellowing into his mobile phone!