Halloween Meeting

Our Halloween meeting was very entertaining and a little different! Pat Sexton conducted the meeting as Toastmaster. Claire O’Connell presented one of her own poems with the timely title, "To the Devil’s Tune."

The audience was invited to play a more active role in the speakers’ presentations. Paul Corcoran's speech, titled "The Making of a Wedding," drew on his expertise as a marriage celebrant. He gave a clear account of the process of creating a wedding ceremony and outlined a great range of interesting and meaningful options that prospective couples can choose from.

The underlying aim of Paul’s speech, however, was to showcase his skills in managing a difficult audience. Audience members were assigned roles by the Toastmaster prior to the meeting. Faced with various disruptions, Paul demonstrated how to stay calm, address, and defuse challenges. He didn’t ignore interruptions but took control, using direct eye contact, respectful interactions, and refocusing the audience's attention on the presentation. It was good fun and a masterclass on handling a challenging audience!

In his speech, "Reflection on My 2024 Humorous Speech," Bobby Buckley used self-deprecating humour to great effect. But Bobby also had another task—he needed to initiate and manage a question-and-answer session with the audience. He handled this with his usual aplomb. Bobby began with, “Are humorists born or made?” By asking the first question himself, he avoided any awkward pauses and immediately engaged the audience. He addressed all questions with ease and courtesy, leading to a fascinating discussion on humour.

Paul Gallagher led the Topics Session with a variety of light-hearted yet probing questions. One member admitted to being “allergic to coffee snobs,” while another confessed never actually having done a job interview! When asked what book should be compulsory for students, The Twits by Roald Dahl was suggested for primary school and To Kill a Mockingbird for secondary. What do you think?

Congratulations to Pat Sexton, who won both the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests at the Area Contests in Tralee on Saturday, November 2nd. He will represent the Area in the upcoming Division Contests.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, November 14th, at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow. Everyone is welcome, and there’s no pressure on guests to speak.

Helsa Giles, Paul Corcoran, Bobby Buckley, Marie Lynes, and Claire O'Connell all played roles in the Halloween meeting.

Toastmaster Pat Sexton, President Bobby Buckley, and Topicsmaster Paul Gallagher

Speakeasy Toastmasters say ‘We Want it Now’

Another great night of entertainment at Speakeasy Toastmasters with a competitive edge; the Humourous Speech and Table Topics contest was the clubs first competition of the year and served up a wonderful fayre.

Club president Bobby Buckley welcomed all to the meeting particularly Area Director Anne Lawlor from Tralee Toastmasters, before handing over control of the meeting to Contest Chair Rachel Liston.

Claire O Connell was first up with her speech entitled ‘Boxed Up’. By her own admission Claire’s was what she called a serious speech with some injections of humour telling us of our toxic relationship with technology. Bemoaning the fact that the human aspect is even gone from shopping Claire wondered why do we have a ‘we want it now’ culture.

Next up to the lectern was Pat Sexton with a speech entitled Antartica, a rather tongue in cheek tale of his journey in his new Tesla to Mullingar. By journeys end and so down on power with no radio, no heaters and a car full of cranky passengers Pat wondered if the great explorer Tom Crean had ever suffered range anxiety. Having reached his destination at a sooty smoke, gas guzzling service station Pats parting shot to his audience was ‘why should I care about future generations; what has posterity ever done for me?’

Contestants for the Table Topics contest were Helsa Giles, Pat Sexton and Claire O Connell who battled it out with their views on the topic ‘What colour best describes your personality and why’.

Competitors and all present enjoyed a well earned break with teas and coffees before our meeting resumed with table topics.

Our Topics Master was Frances Lowry from Failte Toastmasters Charleville with a hugely entertaining and eclectic range of topics such as ‘What are you grateful for?’, ‘What motivates you to go to work?’.

Competition results were announced by Contest Chair Rachel LIsting and Pat Sexton was announced as our winner on the double claiming the Humourous Speech and Table Topics titles. Pat will now progress to the Area Finals being held in Tralee on 2^nd November.

We will endeavour to do it all again at our next meeting and you are most welcome to attend, it all takes place on Thursday 31^st October in The Hibernian Hotel at 8:00pm.

Awards: Speakeasy Toastmasters Contest Chair Rachel Liston presenting Pat Sexton with his certificate of participation in the Humourous Speech Contest

Speakeasy Toastmasters VP Education Paul Corcoran, President Bobby Buckley and Area Director Anne Lawlow (Tralee Toastmasters)