Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest

Our Club’s Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest will be held at our next meeting - September 23rd.

The purpose of a speech contest is to provide an opportunity for speakers to improve their speaking abilities, to recognize individual Toastmasters as an encouragement to all, and to provide an opportunity for all Toastmasters to learn by observing speakers who have benefited from their Toastmasters training.

Each contest focuses on a particular set of skills, providing a terrific opportunity to learn about a specific area of communication. Many wonderful benefits accrue to those that participate.

• Contestants are afforded a wonderful opportunity to improve their skills in preparing and delivering a speech in a competitive environment

• Members not competing are provided the opportunity to learn by observing speakers who have benefited from their Toastmasters training

• The audience is provided an interesting educational program, entertainment, and FUN! This is a good time to invite guests.

• For the Fall Contests – everyone who is a member can participate! It doesn’t matter whether you have given 1 speech or 100.

Contests are held twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring.

• Each of these contests begins with the Club Contest 9/9/10
• Club winners compete at the Area Contest (approximately 5-6 competitors) 10/15/10
• Area winners go on to the Division Contest (approximately 5-6 competitors) 10/22/10
• Division winners compete at the District Contest held in conjunction with the District Conference (seven competitors per contest in District 2) 11/13/10

The Table Topics Contest features a 1 to 2 minutes response to a question posed by the Contest chair. Contestants are taken from the room and each is brought into the room and given the same Table Topics question. No contestant hears the question or anyone's response prior to their turn on stage. They are judged on how well they respond.

The Humorous Speech is 5 to 7 minutes in length. Humorous speaking, which must be substantially original. Any quoted material must be identified during the presentation. The speech must be a thematic in nature (opening, body, and close) and not be an act or a monologue. It should be "clean" humor; avoid objectionable language, anecdotes, and material. Vocal variety, gestures, and speech content all play a part in a successful humorous speech.

In the Humorous Speech Contest the speeches are judged using a different set of categories, which include how well humor was used. Judges evaluate contestants with a rating system on a wide range of criteria. These rating scores are summed into a single score. The score is used to define a ranking of the top-three candidates. A count is used to determine the winner from the rankings. Each contest has a special tie-breaking judge, who ranks all candidates; this ranked list is used to break any ties in the contest..

Please plan to participate in our upcoming contest. If you have any questions, comments, and inquiries – please direct to Area 41’s Contest Chair – Sam Clemmens at sclemmens@earthlink.net.