Why Add Humour to Your Speeches?

• Do you want to be a funnier speaker?
• Do you want to establish a bond with your audience?
• Learn techniques to win over a hostile audience?
• Learn how to keep your audience interested?
• Emphasize or illustrate a point?
• Help people remember you?
  

Incorporating humour into your speeches can help you do this and more!
People pay more attention to a speaker who uses humour.
Humour makes an impression and can break the ice or defuse a situation.

Wit Pleasure Advanced Toastmasters can help you use humour
in the speeches you normally give to attract and retain the audience's interest and to make points effectively.

You don't need to be funny to join. Wit Pleasure is a safe place to learn how!

For more information email calgaryhumourTM@gmail.com

Workshop: Humourize your speech!

Workshop: August 27/11 - special Wit Pleasure presentation at Club Officer Training, Calgary, Alberta

Abstract: Humour is a valuable tool for a speaker. When used appropriately, it can relax an audience and help the audience members to connect with the speaker. People enjoy laughing, and are likely to remember the key points of a speech if they are amused. A humourous speech does not have to consist of a series of build-ups and punch lines to be successful; everybody has a different sense of humour, and it’s important for speakers to capitalize on their own strengths. In this workshop the presenters will illustrate techniques that can be used to incorporate humour into any speech. Participants will take part in “humourizing” a speech excerpt, and will have the opportunity to assess their own types of humour.It doesn’t take a stand-up comedian to deliver a humour speech. Anybody can do it.

Presenters' bios:

Dayna Tees, CC. VP of Membership at Wit Pleasure. Toastmaster since 2006. Librarian by day, and wanna be comedienne by night, Dayna has always tried to incorporate funny stories and anecdotes into her speeches and in her work as library manager for a chemical company. Dayna still remembers the day when she was teaching scientists about the exciting world of patent searching and they all fell asleep on her! That was the day when she made a promise to become the most entertaining librarian anyone had ever seen before – so that no one would ever dare to fall asleep on her again!

Deborah Thompson, ACB, ALB has been a Toastmaster since 2007 and a member of Wit Pleasure since 2010. She is a database administrator and developer, which pretty much translates into "computer geek", although she generally prefers "computer god". And no - she won't fix your computer. Deborah loves making people laugh, and her sole goal in Toastmasters is to be entertaining enough to win the "Best Table Topics" ribbon every week. Her family features heavily in her humourous speeches, and thus she has no Thanksgiving plans this year.

2 Great Tips to add humour!

Give that next speech pizazz!
Here are four great tips for adding humour.

1. CHEMICAL EQUATION FOR COMEDY
Attitude + Topic + Premise + ActOut + MixUp + ActOut

The four funny attitudes: Wierd, Scary, Hard or Stupid
(from Judy Carter's - The Comedy Bible - published by Simon & Schuster)

For example: You know what's scary (Attitude) about elevators (Topic)? You have no guarantee they are labelled correctly. (Premise) What if the installer has a wierd sense of humour and has the elevator stop at random floors? Tum de dum.... What the...! (Act Out) Can you imagine if elevators worked like escalators? (MixUp / Premise) I think I'll get off ... now. SMACK! (ActOut).

You don't need to actually state the attitude or premise. This is in the equation to help you formulate your thoughts and give you direction. Ideally, the attitude will come across in the acting out, the funny voices and the body language. The Chemical equation does not deliver a funny joke or comedy bit 'fully formed' but it does stimulate your thinking process and help ferment the idea from which the comedy will be derived. It is the 'Amino Acid' of humour. The jokes and funny thoughts are spawned from stirring and playing with this equation. Once you have a promising topic, premise and attitude, now you can polish it and mold it into a joke or routine.



2. ADD COLOUR

Since most people would be creating their speech or presentation in a word processor of some type, you can do this either on your screen or on a hard copy you have printed.

With multi-colored highlighters, read through the entire speech/presentation and highlight the Humor in Yellow. Mark the Stories in Red. Highlight the Learning points in Green. Identify the opening and closing segments in Blue. This will give you a colourful map of your talk to see, at a glance, the balance of stories, humor and learning points. You'll also visually see how much time you have devoted to your opening and close.

For a Standup routine limit the colours to 2 - one for SetUp; the second for Punchline.

The colours themselves are not critical in themselves, just used to differentiate the segments of your speech.

===> Check out Wit Pleasure's Wetpaint site for even MORE Tips!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to Wit Pleasurians and our friends!

Our schedule for January has been posted on the agenda page.

Visitors are welcome. Please see information on the right for the location and dates ===>

2010 Fall Club Contest

so, Reach into my Pants and Pull out a Question
(not what you think)

OK, it is what you think - this started off the evening at the 2010 Table Topics Competition.
The selection process - choosing one of three questions for the competition by the first contestant where the three separate pieces of paper each containing a different question which were placed within pockets and other openings in a pair of pants (not worn). this set the stage for an evening of laughter and great entertainment.

This year we had the same three competitors for both contests.
And the Winners are:

Grant Hanna - 1st Place Table Topics
Deborah Thompson - 2nd Place Table Topics
Dayna Tees - 3rd Place Table Topics

Grant Hanna - 1st Place Humourous
Dayna Tees - 2nd Place Humourous
Deborah Thompson - 3rd Place Humourous

Thank you to all our guests that joined us for the evening and a special welcome to those who have joined our membership for this year. We are accepting New Members all year round (annual dues are only $88). Check us out.

More Champions

Wit Pleasure Members Recognized throughout Western Canada and North-Western United States as the District 42 Winners (pronounced "weiners")

David Haines - 2009 Humourous Speech
Nandini Venkatesan - 2010 Evaluations
Russ Dantu - 2010 International Speech

Could they have won without being members of our Club? Perhaps.
Did being a Member of Wit Pleasure add to their speeches; increased the calibre of their presentation; provided opportunity to utilize techniques practiced in our meetings; been given unconditional support not found in any other venue outside of AA meetings; forced to become better or else be ridiculed by "friends" who just point and laugh and hurl insults at them to increase their tolerance of hecklers which in turn prepare them for family dinner events... Absolutely!

We are so proud of you. Remember to mention the Club's name whenever the opportunity arises (like in church or at funerals). And remember to mention Names - none of that "so many people to thank they know who they are" CRAP.

Oh Ya, one more thing. We need to update this more often than just once a year when Russ wins a contest or we'll have to change the name of this blog.

Laugh Track in August & July

What is on the 3rd Monday of the Month? No reruns for sure!
Now, we can go to our meeting for a great time to laugh, learn, and laugh some more!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Russ Dantu Wins at District!

Sincere Congratulations are in order for RUSS DANTU, charter member of Wit Pleasure Toastmasters, for his dual win at the District 42 International Speech AND Evaluation Contests!

We will be cheering Russ on as he competes at the Regional International Speech Contest in June.

Kind Regards,
Joan
VP Education 2008/09

Congratulations!

CONGRATULATIONS to the In-coming executives for July 2009 to June 2010
President – David
Secretary – Russ
Treasurer – Joan
SAA – Reg
VP Education – Stephen
VP Membership – Sibylle
VP Public Relations – Nandini


Kind regards,
Joan
VP Education 2008/09

Congrats! Area C5 Contest!

Congratulations to all the Contestants at the Area C5 contest!

Russ gave a winning evaluation and will be representing Wit Pleasure at our Division C Contest. Palmo gave an inspiring speech and placed 2nd for International Speech Contest. 2nd for Evaluation for his home club Bedstone. Thank you to all of our members that helped with the contest.

Results:

Evaluation Contest

1. Russ (Wit Pleasure)

2. Palmo (Bedstone)

3. David (Talk of the Hill)

International Speech Contest

1. Sandra (Bedstone)

2. Palmo (Wit Pleasure)

3. Glen (Tireless Talkers)

Please support your fellow Toastmasters at the Division C & J Contests……April 18, 2009 – Cardel Theatre.

Div. J – 9:00 Registration . Division C Registration 12:30 pm

Cheers,
--Joan
VP Education

Another Great Meeting Last Night...

That’s how I started off the letter a few days ago. So here I am, sending this off three days later since late is better than never - unless you’re awaiting paramedics.

MEMBERSHIP - is an ongoing priority. Our VP Charles will be getting us some details of an upcoming membership drive and contest. Prizes for the most guests becoming members may include Cars, a nice feeling inside, Cruises, personal satisfaction in helping others, European Vacations, a free coffee, a Mountain Villa, the list goes on. I’m still awaiting all the details so don’t quote me on this. Stay tuned and start thinking who you will be inviting. Also, we are in the midst of putting together a 15-20 minute demo that we can present to other toastmasters introducing them to the world of Advanced Clubs and Wit Pleasure to be specific. Please consider inviting a couple of OUR members to YOUR club so that we can spotlight our uniqueness and benefits of membership.

CONTESTS - will be taking place at our next meeting (PetroCanada). If you haven’t notified our VP Education Joan that you are competing - you will be voluntold where we need you to help make our first club contest a success. Just to clarify, you can use the same speech you are using at your home club. If you happen to win at both your home club and at WP, you will need to choose which club you are representing. I still need to confirm if you choose to represent your home club whether or not we can send our second place winner. Will let you know.

OFFICER ELECTIONS - will be taking place at our April meeting. TI legislates that we have the new executive voted in prior to the beginning of May. Please consider what role you would like to share with our club for next year. More on the elections after our contests.

It appears for now that we may extend our stay at the PetroCanada meeting room indefinitely. Thank you again to Grant for his hospitality. Let me know your thoughts on this. Personally, I think it is a great venue - central access for members; a/v equipment ready at all times; comfy chairs. We will need to discuss some of the finer details such as contributing to the coffee fund and volunteering for speeches or educationals sessions for our hosts Chinook TMs.

Once again, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding our Roles; General Club information or simply to bounce off a laugh or two. Staying connected is not only essential for a club it can be a lot of fun as well.

Trip to The Loose Moose anyone?

Wasn't That A Party!

80 Toastmasters walk into a bar...

Thank you soo much for everyone who joined us at our Charter Party on Sunday. Other than a few technical glitches I think it went off pretty well. The food was great. The venue was inspiring. The pomp and circumstance was enjoyable and I think I even heard a couple of laughs...

My thanks again to Jack and staff at The Comedy Cave for their hospitality and generosity ($800 worth of future admission tickets). Also to Brad Upton of Seattle who was Headlining at the Cave this past week. What a thrill to see a master at work.

Kudos and Congratulations to all those who ventured onto the stage and shared with us their gift of standup. Everyone, on stage and in the audience, seemed to have enjoyed themselves and you heard how laughter is contagious. It filled the room and hardly anyone left early (even though we were running about an hour overtime).

Looking forward to any pictures you would like to send us or post. I'm very proud and deeply honoured to be a part of this group. thanks again to everyone for their contributions of their gifts.

Same time next year?

Palmo Carpino, DTM
President
Wit Pleasure Advance Toastmasters

Buy or Cry

I can't hold it any longer!
Think what you might but I'm talking about the time left to purchase your tickets for Wit Pleasure's Charter Party Sunday, January 18, 2009.

This is a Private Function but it's Open to ANYONE who's bought a ticket.
No Ticket - No Entry. Don't be left out in the cold - literally! It's still January.

For only $30, you get an All You Can Eat Buffet as well as Live Entertainment. No. this location does not have a fireman's pole in the middle of a raised stage. The event will take place at The Comedy Cave located in the Travel Lodge hotel at 9206 Macleod Trail (on the east side; heading northbound). Doors open at 11:30am. Lunch about 12:30.
Almost a full dozen members and friends that will try their hand at a little stage time. We will showcase everything from 'first timers' as well as 'seasoned performers'.

For tickets please email us immediately at calgaryhumourtm@gmail.com

Stay Tuned - Photos to Come.

A December Reminder about January I told you about in November

Merry Christmas Everyone (never been one for political correctness, so sue me...) I trust you have all your shopping done?

If you’re still looking for that perfect gift, look no further. Monday night we will have available for your shopping convenience tickets for Wit Pleasure’s Charter Party on January 18, 2009. Tickets are only $30 each (cash or cheque). If you would like additional tickets place your order in sooner than later as seating will be limited. Do you realize that if all members of our club purchased their own tickets, one additional ticket for their spouse or significant other THEN invited just one other couple to join them - we will have a packed house!

Remember, the price of admission includes an extravagant all you can eat lunch buffet, automatic entry into our draws for door prizes and live entertainment. This is just like being on a luxury Caribbean Cruise! Except for a couple of minor differences, that you wouldn’t even notice unless I pointed them out to you, you would have to step outside the club to realize you are not on the Tropic of Cancer. Really. Just like making out at your senior prom - this event only happens once. Oh sure, there will be other dances; other dates; other milestones in your life but, Come On! ‘Senior’ doesn’t make reference to a discount at Denny’s. It’s for the ones that survived. You are a survivor! For those of you who missed their senior prom, don’t miss this!

If you haven’t already, please pass on an invitation to your home clubs. We would really like to have all tickets accounted for by the end of this month. If you need New Years Eve to convince others to join you (maybe even pay for you) there could be a few tickets remaining but I can’t make any promises.

See you on Monday December 15 at 7:00pm at PetroCanada Building downtown.

Congratulations - This weekend at the District 42 Fall Conference in Red Deer, our very own Stephanie Bumstead was declared Toastmasters “Rookie of the Year.“ Way To Go, Stephanie! Such a prestigious award and to think you obtained that within your first year in Toastmasters. I’m still trying to get that one. Well Done and you do our club Proud.
But it doesn’t stop there - also, to our Steven Larocque for Division Governor of the Year. We are truly privileged in our membership.

Meeting Roles - Only one week before our next meeting. Are you prepared for your Role? Meetings are not only more efficient when members are prepared but also a better chance of you getting ‘discovered’ if there are talent scouts in the audience. As an advanced club, all members expect a higher standard from fellow members. If you have any questions about your role - especially ones that are unique to our club - please don’t hesitate to call or email for clarification.

Charter Party - As previously announced in an earlier email to the club, we have confirmed a time/place for our ‘Official‘ Charter Party. It will be held on Sunday, January 18, 2009, 11:30am at The Comedy Cave (9206 Macleod Trail SW). Tickets will be $30 per person and includes: an elaborate Luncheon Buffet; Awards and Presentations; Door Prizes; selected meeting agenda items (to show off our skills to the invited guests) and topping it off with some Stage Time (5 minute stand up routines by our own members - book your request early). Tickets will be available with priority to our club members first, then open invitation to all other guests. Tickets will only be on sale until the end of December and will be in limited supply. Reserve your now so you won’t be left out in the cold (did I mention it was in January?). A great Christmas gift that you can get early instead of at 4:30pm on Christmas eve in line with all those other last minute shoppers at the Drug Store or 7-11.

See you on Monday November 17 at 7:30pm at Bridgeland Community Centre.
Laugh On!,

Palmo Carpino, DTM President

Magic in the Merriment

What a blast! Several Wit Pleasurians attended District 42's Fall Conference in Red Deer, Alberta, November 7 to 9th. Our very own Palmo gave a well attended and informative session on using humour entitled "The Magic in Merriment". As always, great stuff...alas never enough time to cover it all!
Iris, a fellow member, represented her home club CREB Talkers in the Humourous Speech and Table Topics contests; placing third in Table Topics. Stephanie, our VP PR, was awarded the D42 Rookie of the Year 2007/08 and Stephen was awarded Division Governor of the Year! You guys rock!
And that's not all....as a result of the formation of our Wit Pleasure club, Palmo finished all of the requirements for his DTM. Congratulations Palmo!

---Your intrepid reporter...
Joan, VP Ed

Wit Pleasure Charters!

News Release - Wit Pleasure, Calgary's newly formed Advanced Toastmasters club chartered on September 29th, 2008. This club specializes in teaching the art of incorporating humour into one's presentations and speeches. Thank you to all of the charter members and supporters that made this possible!

Two Down. Two To Go

Great Meeting last night Everybody!
A few growing pains (to be expected) but pretty darn good for our second meeting. It's everything I've always imagined it would be; just like in my dream (except for the part about the knome and the monkey with the hat and handcuffs - that was disturbing). Who would have thought that you could have a toastmasters' meeting and detailed events of flippin' the bird all in the same night? You Guys Rock!

If anyone has any questions regarding the meetings Format or Roles, please don't hesitate to call or email for assistance or clarification. We have a lot of very talented members as was evident from last night's meeting.

Laugh On!

We are OFF and Running!

We have a new club and a new name "Wit Pleasure Toastmasters Club"! Our club officers have been elected and we are working out the dues. We are off to a great start!

Our next meeting will be:
Monday September 22 at 7:30 to 9 pm
Bridgeland Community Centre, 917 Centre Avenue NE (Lantern Room).
(on the south side of Centre Ave- corner of 9St and Centre Ave NE)
Suggested donation to cover room rental: $2

We are working on an action packed humour-learning agenda and we will have one speech next meeting too. On the business side of things we will be voting on dues.

Please bring your cheque book or cash if you plan to join as we are hoping to submit all dues immediately following the meeting. Bring a friend too. We need 5 more members to reach charter strength of 20. Note this club is open to Toastmasters with a CC or higher.

See you at the next meeting!

Joan M., Palmo C.
P.S. If you can't make this meeting but wish to be informed of upcoming meetings, please email calgaryhumourTM at gmail.com

Be a Part Right from the Start!

We are having an Organizational Meeting of the Advanced Toastmasters Humour Club
Monday August 25 at 7:30 to 9 pm
Bridgeland Community Centre,
917 Centre Avenue NE (Lantern Room).
Membership Criteria - CC (CTM) or higher.

Please spread the word. See you there!

Joan M., Palmo C.

P.S. If you can’t make this meeting date but wish to be kept on the mailing list email us at calgaryhumourTM at gmail.com