I finally managed to complete the Humorously Speaking manual at my Toastmasters club, Grosvenor Square Speakers, which means I now have my Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award. I had actually completed the other 9 speech projects by this past June (2008), so why has it taken me until November 24th to complete one speech? Read the rest of this entry

I’m writing this post as VPE of my Toastmasters club Grosvenor Square Speakers. I’m going to share a couple of quick tips with other VPEs, but just don’t tell anyone. Keep it under your hat… Read the rest of this entry

We had a really successful night at Grosvenor Square Speakers at the beginning of this week. We decided to experiment with the way the club chairs the contests and we divided duties successfully between myself as VPE and Debbie Mahs. Even though the club doesn’t usually run its contests this way, it made a refreshing change and also reflects how the contest is run in later rounds. Read the rest of this entry

I’ve been thinking about one of my favourite forms of theatre – the Commedia dell’ Arte and I think there are some important lessons for us to take away for our table topics sessions at Toastmasters.

Brief bit of history; in Western theatre there have been two traditions, the scripted and memorised and the improvised. In the scripted and memorised tradition would fall playwrights such as Moliere, Shakespeare, Wilde and numerous more modern examples such as Patrick Marber, Frederico Garcia Lorca and Mark Ravenhill.
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