In London there is a place called Speaker’s Corner where anyone can get up and talk to a gathered crowd on any subject, within reason. The catch is that there are borderline professional hecklers, too. Recently a group of Toastmasters went there to promote the “organisation” and were trashed by a non-Toastmaster who, to put it mildly, is a first rate horse’s behind. The blog article is at thebreadoflife.blogspot.com/2007/09/toastmasters-toasted.html - the site is extremely crude so be warned if you follow up on it.
A few paragraphs in he has this to say:
Their leader came up to the platform with the fixed smile of an American preacher who’s just been ******* a male prostitute, and is smugly confident that you’ll never find out. They were all smiles and cheers and shaking hands - far too enthusiastic to be real, far too happy to be genuine. [The ******* is from Spaith the Censor.]
Immediately I was reminded of a story of a clueless newspaper reporter who interviewed a Tai Chi Master. He wrote his article and gave it to the Master, asked him to correct anything that was wrong. The Master said, “It would take 1,000 years to correct everything that is wrong with this.”
Another pithy and completely wrong quote from our anti-Toastmaster’s blog:
You see, in truth, there is no 12-step programme that’ll make you a good speaker. Because to be a good speaker - to hold a crowd, make an impact, to get your point across - you need something that Toastmasters just can’t give you. Something deep inside. A fault in your character that’s impossible to learn. To be a good speaker, you need to be an attention seeker.
It goes on. Where am I going with this?
Knowing Your Audience - First, I would nitpick this Toastmaster club for not reading this audience better. I had heard of Speaker’s Corner and even I knew that they’re brutal and are the no-frills type. So tying the TM banner to the tree, as this blogger describes, was a mistake. I’m not suggesting for a moment that these TM’s stoop to the level of the hecklers. But I would have advised a lot less TM pomp & ceremony.
It feels like they threw a bunch of inexperienced speakers up there. It’s hard to get a clear picture of went on here of course — I don’t trust the man who wrote this very much and he’s obviously pretty cynical. Had I been the club running this, I would have checked around the District and got at least a few heavyweights (especially those who had a lot of experience outside TM) to lead the charge. The key here is charisma and dynamism in speakers to win this audience over, not “Toastmasters in the Park.”
Courage - For all my nitpicking, I think that this London club is one of the coolest in the world. How many of us have ever went and promoted the “organisation” (or the cult?) in front of such a nasty audience? For all this guy bashes into them for hiding in the safety of their meetings, he’s forgetting that they showed up to the park in the first place.
What makes a good speaker? - Nowhere in this article does the fellow suggest that being a good speaker requires something worthwhile to say. The attention seeker, no matter how polished, is often times the worst speaker because his polish can lead others astray. The best speaker has courage and says what is right because it is right, not for his ego. For all the mistakes and crudeness of the article, this is the biggest one.
You can’t please everybody - Look, despite our best efforts there’s some people “the cult” can’t save. I really believe that Jesus could have showed up at Speaker’s Corner and this fellow would have been blogging against Him, too. The fact is that no matter how good a speaker you are, there are always going to be people like this who strive to be unhappy and will attack you.