Sisterhood Gets a DVD release!

If you are a regular reader you would have read about an appearance that I made in a low budget movie called Sisterhood.

I blogged about this Brit-Kiwi comedy here, it’s been slowly building up momentum and has appeared at a few film festivals, been nominated for a few awards and even won one!

It had its world premiere at The Feelgood Film Festival in Hollywood in August 2008, where it was part of The Official Selection. It was also part of The Official Selection at LA Femme Film Festival the same year.

This year Sisterhood appeared at in The Official Selection at The British Film Festival in L.A., U.S.A. where it was nominated for 3 awards including Best Comedy, Best Actress and Best First Film. It ended up winning Best First Film! Read the rest of this entry

I’ve been inspired by fellow blogger Andrew Dlugan’s post 25 Essential Presentation Skills for Public Speaking. 
I think in order to help you learn to be funny, these are some of the skills and humour techniques that you should have. Some directly relate to giving a speech, whilst others involve external factors. You’ll see what I mean below.

I know that there are some people wonder: “should you be funny in a speech?” I think it really depends on the circumstances and topic of your speech. For the most part I would say yes. Humour is a great way to connect with your audiences and have them remember your message. One of the essential skills below addresses this very idea.

Can you think of any more? If so, leave a comment below.

1. Create Large Amounts of Humour – duh, seems obvious, right? We should be able to create a large amount of humorous material that we can draw upon. Material created by your own sense of humour, not lifeless techniques on paper. Read the rest of this entry

Recently I was invited to participate in the launch of a new speaking site: Speaking Pro Central. I felt honoured and privileged to have been asked. We are now 24 hours after the launch as I write this.

The aim of the site is to collect and organize the best content from blogs, and other sites about all things speaking. Speaking Pro Central will collect the information in a place where it’s easy to find current and relevant content.

Go on over to the site, have a mooch around. Read the rest of this entry

If you have to make presentations as part of your job you might be able to pick up some useful tips from this post. This post is a kind of follow up to my post Lessons from President Obama’s Inaugural Speech.

This is also a great post for those who are working their way through either the Toastmasters Competent Communicator manual (project number 9 “persuade with power”) or the Persuasive Speaking Advanced manual.

You see much has been written about Obama’s speaking skill. He has routinely been compared to great speakers such as John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. He uses rhetoric and oratorical skills that wouldn’t be out of place in Ancient Greece or Rome. Read the rest of this entry

John Cleese recently reunited with the cast of Fawlty Towers in order to promote two documentaries about the sitcom which is now 30 years old. But he said that people wanting to learn to be a comedian or comedy writer didn’t put in as much hard work as they did back in the 1970s. He criticised the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a wealth of talent any more. Read the rest of this entry