Mmm....Mmm...Good!

How is a good speech like Indian curry? 

It’s got spice.

By Minoo Jha, CTM

Adlibmaster, 2004 –2005

Indian curry may be too oily, too hot, too flavorful, too thick or too thin. But NEVER DULL !!!!!

Is there a lesson in there for speeches?

Yes.  That it’s probably better to be too silly, too dramatic, too shocking, or too funny in your speech than be dull.

 

Mirchi

But how do you liven up a speech?

Like you liven up an Indian curry – add some spice.

Here are 4 ways to spice up the opening of your speech.

Shock value                                                                   

Whatever the subject of your speech, try launching it with something that has shock value.  Let’s say you decide to give a speech about motherhood.  You could start the speech with “I’ve been quiet about this for a long while but it’s time to come out and tell you about the other woman in my husband’s life”.  Then you pause for a few seconds before you hold a framed picture of your baby girl up to the audience. 

You will probably have to pause again before continuing – to allow time for the relieved laughs from your audience to subside.        

 A joke

People love a good laugh.  So a joke is another way to bring a speech to life.   Just do a search on Google to find a joke suitable to the speech you are giving.  For instance, say you’ve decided to give a speech on taxes.  If you look up “tax jokes” on Google, you might come up with this nugget to kick off your speech:  “If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper? “

A song

 Bay Leaf 

Who doesn’t love music?  So think about using music to bring your speech to life, by starting with a few lines of song. You could even venture to sing these lines yourself – even if you can’t keep a melody and a frog can sing better than you can.  Say you are giving a speech about your career, vocation or hobby.  You could sing a line or two of a song – causing open amusement or barely controlled amusement in your audience and then follow that by saying ” When I was young, I entertained the idea of pursuing music as a career (or hobby), but reactions like yours made me realize I should think again” and then continue with the rest of your speech.             

A prop

And finally, how about using a prop?  Try to find a prop that is central to the theme of your speech. Say you are giving a speech about Saving for Retirement.  You can hold up a three-legged stool to the audience and say “Once upon a time retirement savings was a 3 legged-stool – one leg was your employer’s pension plan, the second leg was Social Security and the third leg was your personal savings.  In the last two decades unfortunately things have changed” You cut off one leg of the stool and say “gone the company pension”.      You cut off one more leg of the stool and say “gone the 100% dependability of Social Security –the fund may run out of money before it comes time for you to start receiving your benefits”.  Then you hold up what’s left of the stool – with just one leg and say “leaving you with just your personal savings” and you could then launch into the rest of your speech about the importance of building an adequate nest egg for retirement.  So whatever your speech, just try to think of some prop that would liven things up.  

There you have it……4 ways to spice up your speech and make it .......Mmmmm.....Mmmmmm.....good! 

Note:  This article originally appeared in a newsletter of Adlibmasters, a Toastmasters Club in South San Jose. I wrote it after completing the CTM (Competent Toastmaster) program. To qualify for the CTM, you have to complete 10 different speeches.  You can read about the 10 speeches here.  If you would like to know more about Toastmasters or Adlibmasters, just click on the links.

Note 2:  The most interesting thing I learned from my Toastmasters experience is that you can deliver a good speech even when you are extremely nervous.  In spite of nerves, I was able to complete all 10 CTM speeches and also enter 2 speech contests, winning one and taking second place in the other.  I touch upon my International Contest win in my post "How I Lost A Thousand Dollars on Donuts".

Note 3:  Speaking of spices and cooking, interestingly the best cooks in my family are men.  Numero Uno: My brother David, who has always been able to turn out a feast at a moment's notice. I think this is related to him being one of the greatest hosts you can ever meet. Hmmm....this gives me food for thought on another post....the link between hospitality and great cooking.

*Thanks to Tanita for taking most of the pics for this article.  This article was written in 2006 so the pictures are from that time.