Talks from June - September 2010

Boscombe and Southbourne Probus

In June last year I spoke for the fifth time to Boscombe and Southbourne Probus, my previous visit having been in November 2007. The club is still well-attended and I was pleased to see Mr Tony Harrington MBE again as I had another collection for the charity he founded, the Kabanana Care (Zambia) Trust.

Sadly, the Grange Hotel in Southbourne, where I had spoken to this club and various others on numerous occasions has been demolished but Boscombe and Southbourne Probus has found a good repacement meeting place, the Liston Hotel in Boscombe, another venue where I have spoken in the past.

My subject this time was Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Wits and the talk went very well, with a decent question and answer session afterwards. As I chatted to members before lunch in the hotel's very good Gilbey's restaurant, there were a number of complimentary remarks about my public speaking, one of which was:

"You obviously enjoy it".

Public Speaking Tip #382: Speak with enthusiasm - your audience will notice! If you enjoy your speech then they are more likely to as well.

Staines and District Probus Club

In early July I set off for Staines to speak about My Life as a Freelance Comedy writer to the men's Probus Club who meet at the Boleyn Hotel.

Decent weather, an excellent lunch, a well-received talk in a very pleasant venue - and an immediate recommendation to another club which has since led to a number of further bookings in an area where I had never spoken before - very nice!

And my thanks for the lift from the station and back.

Gold Hill Probus Club, Shaftesbury, Dorset

Before July last year I had only ever spoken once before in Shaftesbury. This was to their men's Probus Club back in November 1997 so it was good to finally get another booking there, especially as my girlfriend Val and I love this town, having visited it as part of an August Bank Holiday weekend ritual over many years, usually after spending the afternoon at the Wimborne St Giles Open Day.

Gold Hill Probus is, like most Probus in North Dorset, a mixed club with a morning meeting. Their venue is Shaftesbury Town Hall in a room which overlooks the iconic Gold Hill, famous for its use in various movies plus, of course, the long-running Hovis commercials.

There were around 50 members at the talk and a very good audience they were too.

Afterwards I was their guest for a super lunch at the Salt Cellar restaurant, which also overlooks Gold Hill, and they were kind enough to run me back to Gillingham station again.

Bournemouth and District Tinnitus Group

Towards the end of July I spoke to the Bournemouth and District Tinnitus Group who meet at the East Cliff Church.

This was a small but very enthusiastic audience. Over the years I have spoken to a number of  groups for people with various disabilities: MS, arthritis, stroke, visual impairment ranging from macular degeneration to blindness, diabetes and many more. These audiences are no different from any others. Obviously a speaker should check to make sure there are no insensitive references in their material which might cause offence - but then that's a good idea with any audience. And for audiences with visual impairment you need to concentrate especially hard on your vocal delivery and dispense with props, visual aids, etc (I blogged in 2008 about how these talks are very much like a radio broadcast).

With the tinnitus group I had wondered about my voice projection but, not surprisingly, they had an excellent PA system. It was a very enjoyable speaking engagement.

Public Speaking Tip #383: People with disabilities are the same as any other audience for a speaker: they appreciate the escapism of an entertaining presentation.

Romsey Women's Institute, Hampshire

The church where I spoke to the Tinnitus Group is just across the road from Bournemouth station which was useful as I had to catch a train to my second talk that day.

Romsey Women's Institute had also booked the talk about My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer. Now some people might find the idea of delivering the same presentation twice within a few hours monotonous but to me it's a great blessing. Although I have been speaking about this topic since January 1996, the talk never stops evolving, in fact I have well over two hours' worth of tried and tested material to choose from for a typical 45-minute presentation - and counting! This is without including the topical jokes and observations that I include or the hours of recordings of my material that I could also draw upon if necessary. My writing career is ongoing and the next new anecdote is often just a phone call away.

The great thing about doing the same talk twice in one day is that it gives me the chance to hone any new additions very quickly, rather than wait for the next booking. 2010 was, overall, a very quiet year for me so I was pleased to have this opportunity. In fact, my five talks for July and August were all on the same topic so I was able to give it a great deal of attention.

Public Speaking Tip #384: Don't view the prospect of delivering the same presentation twice in quick succession - or even more often - as tedious; it offers you the chance to hone the material and try out and break in any new additions in a very short space of time.

I enjoyed my evening at the Crosfield Hall. I had never spoken to this particular WI before but I knew from numerous previous bookings for other groups in the area that Romsey audiences are always very responsive - and they were no exception.

Staines Ladies Probus Club

I hadn't even arrived home from speaking to the men's Probus in Staines in July before I received a call asking if I was available to speak at the ladies' club in August (many thanks to the member who recommended my talk to his wife - especially as I had no other bookings for the following month!)

The ladies' club also meets at the Boleyn Hotel in Staines. Unlike my previous visit, the weather was poor and during the talk there was heavy, distracting rain outside while I was speaking. Nevertheless, a good talk, especially as I was able to mention a chat I had with one of the ladies beforehand about her interest in astrology and this led perfectly into an unintentionally funny press cutting I often use featuring an old horoscope of mine. I always think it adds a great sense of tailoring and immediacy if you can link a conversation you have just had with a member of the organisation to some part of your prepared material.

Public Speaking Tip #385: If something that crops up in a conversation before your presentation can be linked to its content then by all means do so - it really helps to personalise your content, especially if you are able to mention the person's name.

Needless to say, with weather like that I was immensely grateful for the lift from the station and back again!

Christchurch Central Women's Institute, Dorset

My first booking for September was a short-notice talk for the Christchurch Central WI who have a morning meeting at Christchurch Baptist Church Hall. I had previously spoken to them once before in June 2007 and my subject this time was Patrick Campbell. As with my last visit, they were a very good audience. Afterwards, I chatted to popular fellow Bournemouth speaker Mrs Pauline Giles, whose humorous talk titles include 'Not Dead Again!'. Club speakers don't often get the chance to network with our peers and compare notes so it's always good to catch up.

Poole RAF Association

My second September engagement was a return visit to Poole RAFA who meet at the town's Ex-Servicemen's Club. I had previously spoken to them in September 2006 and this time they had asked for my talk about Groucho Marx. This is a very friendly club and I was delighted when they immediately rebooked me for another talk in 2011.

Jubilee Ladies Luncheon Club, Emsworth, Hampshire

September ended with another repeat booking, this time for the Jubilee Ladies' Luncheon Club in Emsworth (I blogged about my first visit to them in October 2008). Once again the venue was the Brookfield Hotel.

This was the engagement where I delivered the very successful first monologue of topical one-liners that I wrote about in this post.

But the event was not without its problems for me...

I arrived in very good time, chatted to the ladies outside in the hotel garden (it was a boiling hot day), enjoyed an excellent lunch and then went into the cloakrooms before my talk. And then I looked in the mirror...

The bottom of my right ear was caked in blood! Presumably this was the result of a rather careless shave that morning (they don't call me 'Nick' for nothing...) I hadn't noticed anyone staring at me in the street, on the bus, at the station, on the train, in the hotel garden or even during the lunch (or if any of the ladies had noticed it, they were obviously too kind to say anything!) Fortunately my shirt was OK.

I cleaned it off - which started the bleeding again, not heavily, but certainly enough to be noticeable, and it wouldn't stop. I went back into the dining room, was introduced, and had to improvise a new introduction explaining that my ear was bleeding and adding some one-liners about my talk being about writing comedy not horror movies and how it's usually loud rock concerts not talks that cause people's ears to bleed. If I hadn't said anything then obviously the audience would have been wondering why I kept dabbing my ear with tissues every couple of minutes.

Public Speaking Tip #386: If you find yourself having no option but to give an excuse for a very noticeable problem which would otherwise be a puzzling distraction for an audience, then do so briefly, using humour where possible, and then proceed with your planned material to the best of your ability.

Apart from that little matter, the talk went very well! My thanks to Moya for once again giving me a lift back to Havant, where I was amused to note that a local speaker's list was advertising one of my talks as being about 'Dorothy Parker and the Width (sic) of the Algonquin Round Table'. Well, it was Alexander Woollcott who remarked that 'All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal or fattening'...