Comedy Night

written by aminat omotosho

Club President Croydon Communicators

At Croydon Communicators we believe that “we best learn in moments of enjoyment” (Ralph C. Smedley). So, on the 9th of September 2021, we hosted our inaugural Comedy Night.

You might ask, is Croydon Communicator a training ground for Comedians?

Yes. Our speakers get a chance to speak to open and diverse audience members that give constructive feedback. Some of our members are budding comedians. There is a thriving network of comedians in the toastmaster world.
Secondly, humour is one of the greatest tools of communication. The toastmaster educational programme supports the development of this skill with dedicated speech projects, contests, and a whole path, helping members improve the use of humour in their speeches. 

How did the night work?

Our night of laughter opened with a Joke from our Jokemaster Susan, a brief president’s welcome speech by me, and our vivacious Toastmaster Matt took us through the agenda.
Helping us keep to time was our efficient timekeeper Stephen, with a reminder to all speakers not to “let the boss down”.

What would a comedy night be without the warmup act? ........... A silent first 5 mins!

But fear not, Sandra led us through a creative warm-up exercise that got most stuck on “Yesterday”. There were some “The Beatles” references, and outstanding singing performances by Sandra, Carol, and Pearl.

​For the speeches of the night, we had 2 humorous speeches and 2 stand-up comedy sets.

Warren entertained us with the horrors of a shared bathroom in his speech “Terrible Tenants”

Afia told us an amusing story of friends with “Flora, Fauna and Me” on the journey of making personal environmentally conscious choices.

A brilliant Impromptu story of “how I met my wife” by Chris Murphy, welcomed us to the Stand-up segment of the night.

And closing out the speeches with roaring laughter was Dan. As he enthralled us with secrets to skip the queues at funfairs, some refreshing toastmaster meeting etiquettes, and stories from his stay in Mexico.

At the end of our engaging speeches, we, the audience got the pleasure of giving our speakers some feedback. This was led by Trudy, Dan, and Matt.

After some beverages in the break, we were welcomed back with another joke from Susan, and a warm stage welcome for the Table topics master Caroline. 

Caroline got our creative juices running by throwing us into weird and wonderful scenarios, and asked, “What would you do?” to an avalanche of inventive responses, which Gina had the delight of evaluating.

Unfortunately, the fun had to come to an end. We wrapped up the night with Awards.

Best Evaluator – Trudy
Best Table Topics – Dan
President’s Award - Aseem

Special thanks to our toastmaster friends Warren, Chris, and Trudy for actively joining us in tonight’s fun. We have 2 more meetings this month, with our next meeting on Thursday, September 23rd.

Cheers! to many more Comedy Nights at Croydon Communicators.