Yow Kia

Since last two weeks, my mind is always thinking about money. Why? The topic that I’m going to talk about for the humorous speech contest is about money, the title is Money, money, money. Why this topic? To engage audience, we need to talk about common things that can pique their interest easily. Last year I talked about internet dating scene, which is a guy-girl-relationship topic. This year, I don’t want to talk about the same topic again. Then, MONEY came into my mind. I believe it will definitely create resonance to the audience. Most of us are born for money, studied for money, worked for money… Some even married for money… We are the slave of money…

I have edited the scripts for more than 10 times. Sometimes, the idea just flew in to my mind unconsciously - while working, while bathing, while talking to my friend… It’s quite an enjoyable experience though. Especially, when you feel that your speech is getting funnier and funnier. That kind of satisfaction… However, what you feel funny, the audience may not have the same kind of feeling. You need to try it out; nobody will know the result until the actual day.

One day, I was approached by a Toastmaster for being the test speaker for an evaluation contest. The presentation day is one day before my club contest. I thought it would be a great idea if I could try out my speech to a pool of audience before my actual contest. So, I accepted the offer.

During the presentation, I forgot my script half way… I kept silent for a few seconds. However, I did a humorous twist by pretending that I have forgotten the script. At the end of the presentation, my friend thought I did it purposely to gain some laughter.

I don’t know why. Since I became the president of The Frontier Toastmasters Club, I have tendency to forget my speech easily. This kind of thing was hardly happened to me before I became the president. What kind of syndrome is that? I wondered… I couldn’t let the same incident happens again during my actual contest day. Therefore, after the presentation, I immediately went back home to practise the speech.

I sat down on my bed, visualizing the scenes in my speech, a few times. I visualized the actual day presentation as well, a few times too. Then, I started to read out my script, without doing any body movement, just purely reading. I wanted to make sure that I won’t stop half way during the presentation. After around 5 times, I was confident that there is no stop during the presentation, I went to sleep.