Bode “Junior” Osenie proves he is the “goat” by taking the hotly contested Table Topics prize, while Peter Fruzzetti fights back the tears as he proudly lifts the best prepared speech trophy. Guy Smith racks up yet another first prize in the best evaluator discipline. Dianna Baynes nails her #10.

The comeback kid Kanishk Walia kicked off the prepared speeches and entertained us with “The Economics of dating”. Welcome back to Holborn, with a few tweaks that #2 could quite easily fit into a humorous speech contest. Craig Reid gave us all a Toastmaster’s history lesson, a clever and topical insight into his Toastmaster’s journey – inspired by his american cousin “John” . One of the key objectives of a speech, is to have a purpose and Paul Lau certainly left us thinking about funding of our retirement. Dianna Baynes opened herself up in delivering her #10, “Truth and Lies”. An extremely honest and pleasant account….She challenged us to take the Le Mans of Truth and Authencity challenges, the 24 Hour truth challenge, http://www.thepoweroftruth.com/24hourtruthchallenge.html. BUT the eventual winner was Peter Fruzzetti, “don’t cry or I’ll give you something to cry about”- Who could forget the first visual of an oversized and enlarged liver ? Looked like it had been out for a long boozy night with a certain Irish footballing legend, who had once graced the hallowed Old Trafford turf. Peter delivered an entertaining talk in the now all familiar “Peter Fruzzetti” style…Keep it coming ! A concise round of evaluations followed the break, Guy Smith once again proving that he is becoming an extremely competent evaluator, congratulations to Guy Smith.

Table topics followed with our table topics mistress, Julie Bart, following in the theme imposed by the ToastMaster of the evening, proverbs and quotes. Bode (junior) Osenie showed that he can win a table topic contest without speaking about the greatest of all time, the “goat” Michael Jackson, Bode certainly proved to be the “goat” tonight. Is blood thicker than water ? mmmm ! Thank you Julie for a great round of topics, congratulations to all the participants – especially the guests.

Our president Chris Boden an unlikely midwife, gave us news of the “birth” of the second Toastmasters club, spawned by Holborn Speakers club, now bursting at the seams and with a waiting list full of incumbent stars – much like the Australian ashes batting line-up.

Congratulations to Dianna Baynes on finishing her number 10 and therefore becoming a Competent Communicator !

Jenny Chung our Toastmaster for the evening, can only be likened to a prize “gunfighter”, during each handover she flashed out a reply, a faultless and professional display. Zadi Zable stood in as timekeeper and made every effort to ensure we were entertained during his numerous sorties up front. Femi our grammarian delivered a concise, yet upbeat report. Joga Bains stood in as General Evaluator and tried to pretend he was from a different club, even though he is part of the Holborn furniture… James Goddard introduced around 20 guests, almost introducing each guest by name – another smooth stint by a very new member to the club.

Another action packed evening ended in the customary “networking” session downstairs in the comfort of the Rugby tavern. Last orders, we’ll see you next week.

Filed by: graemeconn | Category: Meetings
Tuesday, October 27th 2009 12:26 pm

Report by Graeme Conn.

Chris Boden and Ola Aralepo took the respective honours in the Area 34 Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contest final. David Jones from Holborn speakers finished as runner-up in both disciplines. Ian Duthie took the final podium spot in the Humerous Speech discipline, whilst Kenneth Adei took the bronze medal in the table topics contest.

Contest Chair for the evening, our very own Joga Bains. Joga’s warm-up routine, allowed the entire audience to answer the question “What do you mostly like about Toastmasters ?” The replies went something like this, “The people”, “The Guinness”, “The contacts”, “The Guinness”, “The Support”…. you guessed it “The Guinness”. A great warm-up for what would inevitably be a very successful evening at London’s finest. Well done Joga.

The humorous speech contestants for the night were David Jones, Ian Duthie, Kenneth Adei and Ora Aralepo. David Jones’s “Green Man” speech had clearly won the club competition, he knew that with the competition he had to step it up, that he did – it was definitely funnier and better delivered on the night. Ian Duthie gave us a humorous account of looking at life through a child’s eyes, a masterful and well delivered speech – he too was a definite contender for the title. Kenneth Adei explained how you don’t need to be 6 foot 4 to attract a partner, as long as you have the right chat up lines and you’re a good dancer then that’s all you need. BUT, Ora Aralepo’s “You look better on facebook” took the coveted first prize. He is obviously a seasoned stand-up comedian. He was allowed 7 minutes and 30 seconds, he was clocked at 7:27 and was so accurate with his timing, it seemed he knew he had a massive 3 seconds “buffer” before disqualification.

Personally, I would have happily paid good money to see every one of these contestants. Where else can you be entertained for free ??

The Table topics question, a very topical one “Isn’t it time we showed going green the red card ?”

David Jones produced a funny, but more serious answer to the question. What a question to ask a man who is probably greener than most, he rattled of facts, figures and key information and told us to be confident that scientists and governments are working towards a solution. Kenneth Adei asked “Who is this, who is this even thinking that we should be showing green the red card”. He delivered humorously aggressive attack on those people thinking that “going green” is a fad, and encouraged all to become greener. Our president, Chris Boden, on the night produced a faultless table topics display. Faultless not only because it won the competition, but it is still being talked about some weeks afterwards. Once again he demonstrated his natural ability to deliver a totally contrasted view of the question, in green he saw “Aliens” and in the red card he saw the “Red Planet”. Well done to the other table topics contestants for taking part.

As would be expected, the evening continued in the Rugby tavern downstairs until time was called, no red light this time, just the familiar sound of the last orders bell.

To quote David Jones, “I take part in every single competition, it is the finest way to improve”. So Holborn, get involved, get ready for your next club competition. Thank you to all the contestants, the timers, the counters, the guests, the judges, the contest chair, the president and to Holborn speakers club for another well hosted area final.

Filed by: chrisboden | Category: Contests
Tuesday, October 20th 2009 1:08 pm

As you will have noticed I don’t go in for hyperbole. That was without doubt the greatest club contest in the history of Toastmasters. Holborn Speakers once again proves that we know how to turn it on for the big events.

Firstly, let’s talk numbers. Eight humorous speeches, eleven table topics contestants. Sensational. And I think everyone there will agree the quality was amazing. Not to mention diversity – we had everything from self help, talking dogs and in-laws to scoring free food, running to look good and lying to your children. But the battle came down to Riad “Dr Love” Hamada and David “I’ve been to a festival too” Jones. As my father always told me, old age and experience beats youth and enthusiasm every time. And so it went. David reclaimed his title from the young French challenger, reversing last year’s result! Craig Reid’s dissection of the self help genre netted him a well deserved third place.

Table topics saw another showdown of skills. We love our topics and tonight was no exception. Saj gave the provocative question “Everyday we see reports of feral youth running wild. Is there anything we can do about it or is it too late?”

As I was speaking second last I didn’t see most of the speeches, but I am assured they were brilliant. Once again experience won the day and David Jones was placed first, with yours truly a close (I assume) second. And a big well done to Rosalind Oakley, one of our newest members, who took third place with a bold and confident speech.

Now due to our reduced area size this year there are only three clubs competing in next week’s area contest. Therefore each club is sending two representatives for each contest, yay!! Area final is being hosted by us, at the Rugby Tavern next Wednesday the 7^th October. Be there and cheer on your club and enjoy a night full of surprises.

And the winner is ... David Jones

Filed by: chrisboden | Category: Contests
Thursday, October 1st 2009 11:41 am