Mar 09
I read an article on Chortle, the British comedy website, recently which spoke about the incident where comedian Lee Hurst smashed the mobile phone of an audience member who was filming his act. This is useful to read about if you’re a comedian or if you’re delivering funny presentations.
Hurst, like a lot of comedians, didn’t want his material to be stolen and/or potentially uploaded to YouTube. Continue reading
Mar 04
The International Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest is just around the corner here in the U.K.
I recently managed to secure an interview with Hilary Briggs, chairman of ACE Group 29, The Academy for Chief Executives, Area 33 Governor and, most importantly for the purposes of this blog, U.K. and Ireland Evaluation Champion 2008.
I wanted to be able to get some useful tips from a champ to help my Toastmasters readers who might be competing in the Evaluation Contest this year (or some other year depending on when you’re reading this). There is also some useful info in this interview for evaluators in general.
So here we go… Continue reading
Feb 27
“Speeches fail because they focus on the speaker not on the audience” – Phillip Khan-Panni
In the run up to the International Speech Contest Division B put on a public speaking seminar with Phillip Khan-Panni, former three-time U.K. & Ireland Public Speaking Champion, silver medallist in the World Championships and also former member of my home club Grosvenor Square Speakers. Continue reading
Feb 25
Ok alright I admit, I’m a comedy snob. You dragged it out of me. There are you happy? I really wanted to get into Bo Selecta, but I couldn’t.
I admired what Leigh Francis did, but as for actual physical laughs… none were to be found from me. I did laugh once, and it was a short one, when the “neck-brace guy character” described Kelly Osbourne as having a lot of face. Continue reading
Feb 17
How Do You Create a Funny Presentation? The question of the ages…. Well, ok that’s not strictly true.
In my post 101 Presentation Hacks I provided a few points on how to create funny powerpoint presentations. What a lot of people forget is that even though they are giving a presentation in a business or work environment, they are still speaking to people. People love to be entertained. That’s why reality T.V. has been really popular, aside from the cheapness of the programming, they’re entertaining.
Continue reading
