Winning Speeches - For Contests and Impromptu Table Topics

 At the advanced online club, SALT, which stands for Speakers and Leaders Toastmasters, on Sunday 26th July 2026, I was the winner of a mock Table Topics contest, first our of seven contestants. The question was: Is it better to lose at love or lose at war? My answer was Dear friends - What an absurd, complicated question! Why should the two be related? Unless you were in love with a soldier or a spy or member of the military of another country. That doesn't apply to many people.  It might have applied to somebody in the past, such as Napoleon.  But let's start with the first part of this double-barreled question. Would you rather win or lose at love? Obviously you would rather win. But you have to learn to cope with losing.  I remember at the age of 16, or 18, when I thought I had lost a potential boyfriend, it seemed like the end of the world. That was so long ago, about fifty years ago, that I have had many other loves - so now I can't even remember his name. I ev...

 In February 2026 I belong to these clubs My home clubs -  Harrovians   HOD - for which I am PR. Singapore - TIC (Toastmasters In Christ, which is online and has two members who are longstanding friends of mine, Carolyn and Norman) SALT online - an advanced club which aims to help speakers to create professional workshops for which businesses and professionals will pay.  Beginners need encouragement. Often the best feedback at the advanced level is not polite words, but pointing out what's wrong with the speech so you can change it. My advice to many would be: 1 Eliminate filler words. Not only the traditional, 'um, er, but modern slang filler words, 'you know,' 'and' 'like'. 2  Improve your pronunciation.  If you mean sing, say you like to sing and not like to sin. Send thanks and not tanks. I gave a speech on landlords and tenants. The feedback was that not everybody is a landlord or a tenant.  The audience included Singaporeans, many of whom li...

 I won the Harrovians contest for both Humorous speech and table topics in October 2024. I had lost the humrorous speech contest. At HOD. To my good friend Gill. I changed the speech, Instead of three stories, too long waiting for the punchline. I told lots of funny one liners. Speech title Laugh at Language. I added laugh ter club. I shall add funny bone. and the funny house, meaning mad house.

  Angela Lansbury speaking online on Zoom in TCA contest. Selfie Photo by Angela Lansbury.  You have one job - stay alive? Put your hand up if you are over five years old. That is most of you. How many of you have had a birthday in the last year, the last 12 months. Most of you.  Happy Birthday! (Holds up happy birthday.) Angela Lansbury speaking online on Zoom in TCA contest. Prop, happy birthday (going home gift bag). Photo by Angela Lansbury.  You have already outlived a large number of people who were born the year you were born. When I went to visit my dearly beloved departed uncle in hospital, he was sitting up in bed reading obituaries. I thought that was a bit scary. I asked him why. He said, with a grin, 'I want to see who I have outlived'. Every birthday is an achievement, however old you are. Open your newspaper and every day you will read about people who took unnecessary risks. Women who stayed with violent husbands. Against everybody else's advice. Peop...

 I was invited to be Language Evaluator at Grab Toastmasters Club and thought I was doing them a favour, but they were doing me a favour because I won the vote for best table topics speaker. Table Topics are impromptu speeches. Originally they would have been picked at random from typed subjects on pieces of paper upside down on the table.  At Grab Toastmasters, excellent quotations were provided by Madam Table topics master. I was given two minutes to comment on a quotation by Paulo Coelho: 'When someone leaves, it is because someone else is about to enter.'   I said:  'This often applies when you change jobs. Maybe the boss leaves and a new boss arrives. He dismisses you, so you leave and somebody takes over your job. You take another job and meet a new boss.  (I then thought, some of them might not be employed. They could be retired, or students, or job-hunting. Make it relevant to them.) 'Here in a Toastmasters club, you leave at the end of a meeting, a...