Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow
A mixed bag of Topics
The members of Speakeasy Toastmasters club heard five wonderful, entertaining and informative speeches last Thursday night in Chapel Lane. After the usual tea/coffee break it was back to business with the Topics session. This is the part of the meeting where individual members are asked to speak on a topic provided by the Topics Master – who was Angela Sheehan on this occasion. Typically topics can be on any subject - the main objective is to get people speaking for approximately 2 minutes, in an impromptu way. Anyone can ‘add-on’ to the topic with their own views, and speak for approximately a minute. On this evening the ideas for the topics came as ‘one-liners’, or were pulled from either of two bags; one which contained single words and the other contained a wide range of objects. For example, the objects presented for discussion included a golf ball, a rubber pint of Guinness and a boomerang. The boomerang sparked off very diverse responses including - being cautious of ‘boomerang’ words (which can come back to haunt you), holidays in Australia, and world cup rugby. The best topic award for the evening went to Margaret Buckley who entertained us with her account of a recent win on a scratch card.
Congratulations: Speakeasy Toastmasters club would like to heartily congratulate our four club members who did exceptionally well in the Area 17 Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests held in Fermoy last Tuesday, 12th October. Well done to Jerry O’ Callaghan and Michael Cronin who were in first and second place in the Humorous Speech contest, and equally well done to Kieran Buckley and Vivienne Buckley who won first and second place in the Table Topics Contest.
Date for your diary:
Saturday, 1st November, Division A final will be held in Blarney.
14 – 16th November, District Conference will be held in Edinburgh.
Our next meeting is on Thursday night, 30th October and, as usual, guests are very welcome to attend. The meetings start at 8:00 pm and we ask everyone to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.
If you would like to know more about Speakeasy Toastmasters club you can ring Angela at 022 51071 or Sean at 022 22755 for information. Or you can log onto our website; www.clix.to/speakeasy. The club’s e-mail address is speakeasymallow@eircom.net
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Thursday, October 23, 2003
23 Oct
Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow
Smoking, tyres, a wedding…. Frank… and Warren Who?
You’d have been forgiven for having thought that you were in a comedy club last Thursday night at the Speakeasy Toastmasters meeting because there were non stop laughs from start to finish. And it wasn’t even the night of the Humorous speech competition. Even on serious subjects speakers managed to raise a few laughs - which can be a difficult thing to do.
Our first speaker of the night was Anne Buckley who very capably defended our right to smoke ….we all know they’re bad for us but surely self-imposed discipline is better than state-enforced prohibition? The speech was very capably evaluated by Ray Ryan. ‘Are you ready to retyre?’ asked Tim Ahern, and followed that up by asking if we were losing our grip….and we began to realise that this was no ‘typo’. Tim was talking about the need to check and replace your tyres on a routine basis before they cause a trip to the car repair shop, the hospital or worse. Mary Buckley evaluated Tim’s speech and as usual did a fine job. Fiona Herbert described her wedding day as ‘A dramatic tale’ and shared with us the wonder, excitement and anticipation she felt on the morning of her wedding. She gave a wonderful and humorous insight into the chaos that followed through the preparations – there was no mention of preparing a bathroom rota in any of the wedding magazines she had consulted! In with all the happiness and memories she felt somewhat sad at the prospect of leaving home for good. Eileen Corkery was the evaluator of this speech and gave a concise and excellent evaluation. ‘Thanks Ralph’ was the title of the speech given by Jeremiah Ronayne who spoke in praise of Ralph Smedley who was the founder of Toastmasters International. Ralph Smedley set up the first Toastmasters club in a YMCA club in the US. The first speeches were given at mealtimes and as such he called it a Toastmasters club, although the main function of the organisation was to help people with public speaking, in general. He went on to form a number of clubs in America and Canada which were separate from the YMCA. Today there are in the region of 10,000 toastmaster clubs worldwide. Jeremiah’s speech was evaluated by the experienced Noel o’ Connor. The final speech of the night came from Pat Sexton who asked and answered the question ‘Warren who?’ This speech was delivered as an appreciation for a musician – Warren Zevon - who was greatly admired by the music world but remained generally unknown by the album-buying public. Zevon’s music was described to us as strange and dark, with ‘a lot of blood in these epic tales’. The evaluation was given by the brave Michael Cronin – and it has to be described as the most hilarious evaluation that most of us had ever heard!
Our next meeting is on Thursday night, 30th October and, as usual, guests are very welcome to attend. The meetings start at 8:00 pm and we ask everyone to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.
If you would like to know more about Speakeasy Toastmasters club you can ring Angela at 022 51071 or Sean at 022 22755 for information. Or you can log onto our website; www.clix.to/speakeasy. The club’s e-mail address is speakeasymallow@eircom.net
Smoking, tyres, a wedding…. Frank… and Warren Who?
You’d have been forgiven for having thought that you were in a comedy club last Thursday night at the Speakeasy Toastmasters meeting because there were non stop laughs from start to finish. And it wasn’t even the night of the Humorous speech competition. Even on serious subjects speakers managed to raise a few laughs - which can be a difficult thing to do.
Our first speaker of the night was Anne Buckley who very capably defended our right to smoke ….we all know they’re bad for us but surely self-imposed discipline is better than state-enforced prohibition? The speech was very capably evaluated by Ray Ryan. ‘Are you ready to retyre?’ asked Tim Ahern, and followed that up by asking if we were losing our grip….and we began to realise that this was no ‘typo’. Tim was talking about the need to check and replace your tyres on a routine basis before they cause a trip to the car repair shop, the hospital or worse. Mary Buckley evaluated Tim’s speech and as usual did a fine job. Fiona Herbert described her wedding day as ‘A dramatic tale’ and shared with us the wonder, excitement and anticipation she felt on the morning of her wedding. She gave a wonderful and humorous insight into the chaos that followed through the preparations – there was no mention of preparing a bathroom rota in any of the wedding magazines she had consulted! In with all the happiness and memories she felt somewhat sad at the prospect of leaving home for good. Eileen Corkery was the evaluator of this speech and gave a concise and excellent evaluation. ‘Thanks Ralph’ was the title of the speech given by Jeremiah Ronayne who spoke in praise of Ralph Smedley who was the founder of Toastmasters International. Ralph Smedley set up the first Toastmasters club in a YMCA club in the US. The first speeches were given at mealtimes and as such he called it a Toastmasters club, although the main function of the organisation was to help people with public speaking, in general. He went on to form a number of clubs in America and Canada which were separate from the YMCA. Today there are in the region of 10,000 toastmaster clubs worldwide. Jeremiah’s speech was evaluated by the experienced Noel o’ Connor. The final speech of the night came from Pat Sexton who asked and answered the question ‘Warren who?’ This speech was delivered as an appreciation for a musician – Warren Zevon - who was greatly admired by the music world but remained generally unknown by the album-buying public. Zevon’s music was described to us as strange and dark, with ‘a lot of blood in these epic tales’. The evaluation was given by the brave Michael Cronin – and it has to be described as the most hilarious evaluation that most of us had ever heard!
Our next meeting is on Thursday night, 30th October and, as usual, guests are very welcome to attend. The meetings start at 8:00 pm and we ask everyone to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.
If you would like to know more about Speakeasy Toastmasters club you can ring Angela at 022 51071 or Sean at 022 22755 for information. Or you can log onto our website; www.clix.to/speakeasy. The club’s e-mail address is speakeasymallow@eircom.net
Thursday, October 16, 2003
16 Oct
Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow
More tales from the Humorous Speech Competition
The fourth speech given on the night of the Humorous speech competition came from Michael Cronin who described with great humour how he went about getting a tooth implanted, in a speech called ‘Long in the tooth’. This tale involved an unexpected visit to the gynaecologist, an astronaut fantasy on the dentist’s chair, loads of blood and finally a paralysing bill – the price of six whitehead bullocks! ‘Toby’s Eulogy’ was given by Gerry O’ Callaghan, who arrived complete with small, black, coffin-shaped box, (containing poor Toby, we assume). Toby, it turned out, was a rat who had departed this life after a very full and adventurous life as a party animal, who was partial to ‘a drop’. Toby was killed by a dropped collection plate – fulfilling the prophesy that he would come in contact with money. More laughter followed with Sean Corcoran’s description of his attempt to reach his godchild’s christening on time, despite the best efforts of his brother-in-law, his injured ‘Keith Woods lookalike leg’, a wrong turn and a faulty clutch. The return home was no better as an apparently full petrol tank turned out to be running on empty. Thirteen years later Sean is still looking for the lesson to be learned from it all! The final speech of the evening came from John Dillon who shared with us a wonderfully humorous account of his attempts to understand the meaning of ‘Pen names and poetic licence’ while testing the patience of his unfortunate teacher with all of his questions. But the teacher’s annoyance was nothing to the aggravation caused to John by the hated ‘Gifford’ who knew everything including what John was ‘trying to say’.
The competition was won by Michael Cronin and in second place was Gerry O’ Callaghan. Congratulations to both and best of luck in the forthcoming Area final in Fermoy, on Tuesday, 14th October at 8:00 pm. Guests are welcome to attend.
Our next meeting is on Thursday night, 16th October and as usual, guests are very welcome to attend.
If you would like to know more about Speakeasy Toastmasters club you can ring Angela at 022 51071 or Sean at 022 22755 for information. Or you can log onto our website; www.clix.to/speakeasy. The club’s e-mail address is speakeasymallow@eircom.net
More tales from the Humorous Speech Competition
The fourth speech given on the night of the Humorous speech competition came from Michael Cronin who described with great humour how he went about getting a tooth implanted, in a speech called ‘Long in the tooth’. This tale involved an unexpected visit to the gynaecologist, an astronaut fantasy on the dentist’s chair, loads of blood and finally a paralysing bill – the price of six whitehead bullocks! ‘Toby’s Eulogy’ was given by Gerry O’ Callaghan, who arrived complete with small, black, coffin-shaped box, (containing poor Toby, we assume). Toby, it turned out, was a rat who had departed this life after a very full and adventurous life as a party animal, who was partial to ‘a drop’. Toby was killed by a dropped collection plate – fulfilling the prophesy that he would come in contact with money. More laughter followed with Sean Corcoran’s description of his attempt to reach his godchild’s christening on time, despite the best efforts of his brother-in-law, his injured ‘Keith Woods lookalike leg’, a wrong turn and a faulty clutch. The return home was no better as an apparently full petrol tank turned out to be running on empty. Thirteen years later Sean is still looking for the lesson to be learned from it all! The final speech of the evening came from John Dillon who shared with us a wonderfully humorous account of his attempts to understand the meaning of ‘Pen names and poetic licence’ while testing the patience of his unfortunate teacher with all of his questions. But the teacher’s annoyance was nothing to the aggravation caused to John by the hated ‘Gifford’ who knew everything including what John was ‘trying to say’.
The competition was won by Michael Cronin and in second place was Gerry O’ Callaghan. Congratulations to both and best of luck in the forthcoming Area final in Fermoy, on Tuesday, 14th October at 8:00 pm. Guests are welcome to attend.
Our next meeting is on Thursday night, 16th October and as usual, guests are very welcome to attend.
If you would like to know more about Speakeasy Toastmasters club you can ring Angela at 022 51071 or Sean at 022 22755 for information. Or you can log onto our website; www.clix.to/speakeasy. The club’s e-mail address is speakeasymallow@eircom.net
Thursday, October 09, 2003
9 Oct
Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow
Humorous Speech Competition
Speakeasy Toastmaster Club members and guests were treated to a great night’s entertainment last Thursday night on the occasion of the Humorous Speech competition. Seven competitors provided loads of laughs with seven very diverse but very funny speeches. The first speaker of the night was Angela Sheehan with a speech called ‘Run, Mummy, Run’ which described how she went from being a committed walker to a first time Mini-Marathon runner, to her own and her family’s surprise. However, in the end they weren’t a bit surprised when she did manage to make it to the finishing line. In the next speech we were entertained by Ray Ryan’s descriptions of how he had been tormented by wasps all of his life and we were all encouraged to take up arms against them in an ‘Autumnal Slaughter’. Make sure that you pulverize the wasp well however, because they have been known to come back to life. Another of Nature’s creatures featured in Vivienne Buckley’s speech entitled ‘Do you realise how important I am?’ In her role as head of Team Ireland this summer she came in very close contact with an elephant who did not realise how important she was. Nor did the members of the Civil Defence who were all determined that she would not enjoy a night out during the recent world games in Dublin. However Vivienne concluded that the really important people there had to be all of the members of Team Ireland, even including the lassie who described her as ‘the little one with the big mouth’!
Toastmaster for the night was Rita Foley who expertly acted as contest chair for the competition. A wide range of topics were provided by Dermot Meaney and included such subjects as the planning laws, David Beckham’s possible return, recycling, increasing the retirement age, and what you would do with a Lotto win. During the Table Topics session, members also spoke about farming as a new career and whether or not Christmas comes too early.
Our next meeting is on Thursday night, 16th October and as usual, guests are very welcome to attend.
If you would like to know more about Speakeasy Toastmasters you can ring Angela at 022 51071 or Sean at 022 22755 for information. Or you can log onto our website; www.clix.to/speakeasy. The club’s e-mail address is speakeasymallow@eircom.net
Humorous Speech Competition
Speakeasy Toastmaster Club members and guests were treated to a great night’s entertainment last Thursday night on the occasion of the Humorous Speech competition. Seven competitors provided loads of laughs with seven very diverse but very funny speeches. The first speaker of the night was Angela Sheehan with a speech called ‘Run, Mummy, Run’ which described how she went from being a committed walker to a first time Mini-Marathon runner, to her own and her family’s surprise. However, in the end they weren’t a bit surprised when she did manage to make it to the finishing line. In the next speech we were entertained by Ray Ryan’s descriptions of how he had been tormented by wasps all of his life and we were all encouraged to take up arms against them in an ‘Autumnal Slaughter’. Make sure that you pulverize the wasp well however, because they have been known to come back to life. Another of Nature’s creatures featured in Vivienne Buckley’s speech entitled ‘Do you realise how important I am?’ In her role as head of Team Ireland this summer she came in very close contact with an elephant who did not realise how important she was. Nor did the members of the Civil Defence who were all determined that she would not enjoy a night out during the recent world games in Dublin. However Vivienne concluded that the really important people there had to be all of the members of Team Ireland, even including the lassie who described her as ‘the little one with the big mouth’!
Toastmaster for the night was Rita Foley who expertly acted as contest chair for the competition. A wide range of topics were provided by Dermot Meaney and included such subjects as the planning laws, David Beckham’s possible return, recycling, increasing the retirement age, and what you would do with a Lotto win. During the Table Topics session, members also spoke about farming as a new career and whether or not Christmas comes too early.
Our next meeting is on Thursday night, 16th October and as usual, guests are very welcome to attend.
If you would like to know more about Speakeasy Toastmasters you can ring Angela at 022 51071 or Sean at 022 22755 for information. Or you can log onto our website; www.clix.to/speakeasy. The club’s e-mail address is speakeasymallow@eircom.net
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