Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests - 2019

written by dan magill

Club President Croydon Communicators

This Is What Success Means to Us!

What a fabulous evening we had at the Croydon Communicators' Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests on Thursday.
 
Both contests were expertly chaired by our very own Vice President of Public Relations, Florence Nakkozi – who was supported by Chief Judge, Roz Etwaria, Vice President of Education, Aseem Kapoor and a host of judges, timekeepers and ballot counters.
 
Norma provided plenty of much-needed refreshments during the break as well as the Croydon Communicators Club, Summer Newsletter.
 
Thanks to everyone who helped to run the contests and ensure we had such a fantastic time.
 
When it came to the contests themselves, they certainly went off with a bang.

​From Love Guru to Lady Luck!
 
We started with the humorous speech contest and our five speakers were all on sparkling form. If audience laughter was an indicator (and it is) we had five well-deserving winners.
 
Magic Mike Majuru kicked things off, revealing himself to be a real dating guru. It was a hilarious speech and if the queue of people waiting to speak to Mike during the break is anything to go by, his ‘guru’ services will be in high-demand at the club!
 
We quickly moved from the Guru of Love to the whims of Lady Luck as Sandra Fallon took us on a journey of both good and bad fortune.
 
It was one of the standout moments of the evening to see Sandra, who is a new member at the club, have the courage to step up onto the contest stage and transform into a supremely confident, highly entertaining, stand-up comic.
 
Sandra said afterwards she’d been inspired by watching some of our club’s experienced speakers, and it’s a testament to the beauty of Toastmasters that lots of our newest members and first-time guests, left saying they’d been inspired by seeing how well Sandra had performed.
 
Our third speaker, Dan Magill, gave us one of his typically mischievous takes on recent trips to Canada, before Afia Nicholas stepped forward to explain to us why we should all have friends with benefits. Just not the benefits you might think!
 
Finally, Kevin Lakidi took us on a journey through The Hall of Fame.
 
Who knew that Kevin had so many celebrity friends? We learnt how he's rubbed shoulders with boxers, fighters and even The Rock – all in a quest to understand what women want.  We all wanted more of Kevin's hilarious stories.  

Humorous Speech Contestants

The Secrets to Our Success

After the break, it was time for the Table Topics contest.
 
Florence asked all contestants the same question…
 
“What does success mean to you?”
 
Amit, Kevin, Mike, Mustafa and Afia all stepped up to give us their own take on the question.
 
All five contestants quickly started to develop detailed, thoughtful and inspirational answers.
 
It was a joy to see our brand new member, Amit getting involved and not looking even slightly out of place amongst our much more experienced members.
 
But, it was Afia who took the top prize with a beautifully formed response that left everybody in the audience feeling motivated and inspired.
 
This is now back-to-back Table Topic Contest victories for Afia. If she wins it again next year, she gets to keep the trophy!
 
Congratulations again to all our courageous contestants and another huge thanks to everyone who helped us out.
 

The Results
 
​Humorous Speech Contest
 
First Place – Dan Magill
Second Place – Afia Nicholas
Third Place – Sandra Fallon
 
 
Table Topics Contest
 
First Place – Afia Nicholas
Second Place – Mike Majuru
Third Place – Amit Dhunnoo

Afia wins first place in Table Topics

Mike takes second place in Table Topics

Amit scoops third place in Table Topics

Dan Magill -first place Humorous Speech Contest

Afia Nicholas - second place Humorous Speech Contest

Sandra Fallon - third place Humorous Speech Contest