Humor in Toastmasters

As many of you may know, District 53's LGM, Dave Wheeler, took a stand-up comedy workshop in Feb. 2008 that culminated in a performance at a real, live NYC comedy club on March 1st !

When he was getting prepared for "his 5 min. set", he had his eyes and ears open for ideas and ways to improve his humor ... and he found a few neat articles that might help other Toastmasters who want to "pump up" the humor in their speeches!

Check out ...

How to Create Observational Humor?

The Fundamentals of being Funny as a Speaker

10 Secrets for being Funny on Stage

How to tell a Joke

Does your meeting have an "Observational Humor Master"? The first link above describes the process that the OHMaster uses along with some suggestions and ideas to help improve your humor.

Do you smell something funny?
... for your next meeting?

Humorous Speech development....

Here is an article by John Kinde, "Humor specialist", that analyzes a real Toastmasters Humorous Contest speech (not in our District) and provides some very valuable insights into the tools that are available for Humorous speaking!

Check it out! (Especially if you are competing in any of the upcoming Division contests!!)

Plus John Kinde's article and Steve Pavlina (the speaker John interviews for the article) get "bonus points" for mentioning one of our favorite World Champions of Public Speaking, Darren LaCroix!

Area A1, A3 and A5 Fall Contest set for Sept.25th!

The Area 1, 3 and 5 contests (Humorous and TableTopics) will be held on Tuesday, September 25th from 6-9PM. Contestants should arrive at 6pm (or slightly sooner) for briefings.

The Contest will be located in the Ulrich Conference Room in the Dyson Center atMarist College. Directions to Marist are at http://www.marist.edu/welcome/direct.html

Contact your Area Governor if you need more information...
Area A1, Mike Ruppert, areaA1@district53toastmasters.org
Area A3, Ozgur Turkmen, areaA3@district53toastmasters.org
Area A5, Janice Parker, areaA5@district53toastmasters.org

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Each club can send up to TWO contestants from their club to the area contest for each contest! That means up to 4 people total from each club could participate in the area contest !

Directions to Toastmasters of Paris (France), club 3230

Someone sent me a link to this (click here) ....

... and I think you will get a kick out of step # 23 of the directions!