http://my.spaith.com/blog Listening * Thinking * Public Speaking * Self Improvement Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:11:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I recently read an article in BusinessWeek that depressed me even more than the financial mess. The article was about the need to treat employees well and is available here.  I recently chatted with a hot dog server at a Costco lunch counter. He said he'd held several jobs at ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/10/12/the-teacher-and-the-hot-dog-man/ I talked a bit about this in my post about why your humorous speech should have a funny title and opening, but I want to come back to it. It actually applies to your entire speech.  Which of the following do you want to do? Try to be funny and have ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/10/03/toastmasters-humor-speech-contest-against-prairie-home-companion/ Marcus Smith, a fellow Toastmaster and fellow engineer, recently did an interview with yours truly. He asked me the following questions.  1)        On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your first speech? Why? 2)        On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your last ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/09/17/an-interview-with-john/ This ties to of my previous posts together - know the rules and particularly the scoring of Toastmasters contests and realize how conservative Toastmasters (especially judges) are.  Let's say you have some iffy piece of humor. Maybe it borders on offensive, or maybe it's kind of out there, the type ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/09/14/toastmaster-contests-doing-the-math/ When I competed in 2004 in the Humorous Contest, I had a few members of my club trudge out to support me. It meant a lot to have my friends take time from their busy schedules to be on my side.  My main competitor had a tribe - probably 15 ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/09/10/toastmasters-humorous-speech-contest-bring-your-friends/ So when you think of your Toastmasters do you think of a bunch of happy go lucky goofs that are up for anything? Well...  The best advice on how to handle borderline offensive material in any context is, "When in doubt, leave it out."  TM's are much more conservative deep down ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/09/07/humorous-speech-contest-tms-are-conservative/ I learned this first one from the District 2 1997 Evaluation Champ, so unlike most of the stuff on this blog, this one I have faith in. Make the title funny if possible for your humorous speech contest speech.  The guy who won the Humorous Speech Contest for D2 had ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/09/03/toastmasters-humorous-speech-contest-funny-title-funny-opening/ I wrote a lot about practicing in the context of the Toastmasters International Speech Contest here. The same basically applies for your humorous speech.  The one rub here is that if you're going to practice, you shouldn't be doing it a week or two before your club contest. The ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/08/28/toastmasters-humorous-speech-contest-practice-smart/ Steven Wright is a really funny standup and is a good example of how not to win a Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest. He's very deadpan, lethargic, and relies on killer one-liners: "I've been getting into astronomy so I installed a skylight. The people who live above me are furious." "It's ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/08/23/toastmasters-humorous-speech-contest-no-stand-up-comedy/ While watching the weird subjective judging sports in the Olympics - gymnastics, synchronized diving, etc etc - I couldn't get into them because I had no clue how they're judged. But you can rest assured that the people competing at that level know every last point of how they ... http://my.spaith.com/blog/2008/08/21/humorous-speech-contest-rtfm/