TOASTMASTERS

Thank you all so very much for reading my blogs over the last weeks as I wrote this series on comic books for my Toastmasters assignment. The series is complete, but I’m sure I have more to say about comic books in the future, but I thought it might be a good idea to tell you about what Toastmasters is and my involvement in it.

How the heck did they even let me do a whole project on Comic Books?

From their website:
Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that builds confidence and teaches public speaking skills through a worldwide network of clubs that meet online and in person. In a supportive community or corporate environment, members prepare and deliver speeches, respond to impromptu questions, and give and receive constructive feedback. It is through this regular practice that members are empowered to meet personal and professional communication goals. Founded in 1924, the organization is headquartered in Englewood Colorado with approximately 270,000 members in more than 14,000 clubs across 150 countries worldwide.

It certainly wasn’t something I ever planned to be a part of, because I can tell you giving public speeches was never something I thought I would ever do — There was that one time in high school where I had to give a speech in class, but as I believe I mentioned in an early post in my series, it was reading a Franklin Delano Roosevelt speech which had been included in an issue of the All-Star Squadron. (Told you everything was connected to comic books.)

It began with my wife having been told that she needed to learn to be a leader in her speeches. I never saw a problem in her speeches; she certainly was better than me. She even moderated panels at comic book conventions.

So, we went to an open house meeting for a local Toastmasters club.

We watched as speeches were given, and improvisational short talks were made up on the spot. At the end of the meeting, my wife was positive that this was what she needed and signed up to join on the spot. Me not so much, it just wasn’t my thing… or so I thought.

I didn’t plan to attend another meeting. However, there was a problem. The location of this meeting wasn’t easy to get to by bus, so I had to take my wife there twice a month. A few times I would drop her off and go hang around locally, but then I began to attend as a guest at each meeting.

One of the things they do in the second hour of the meeting is what known as “Table Topics” (some clubs have other names for this), in which the “Topics Master” of the day sets up a prompt; whether it be a question, statement, or even an image like a painting, and the speaker is to give a two-to-three-minute speech about that prompt. This is a contest, everyone in attendance is to vote on the best of these short speeches.

Sounds fun, but it also sounds scarry, and there’s my problem.

The “Table Topics” isn’t just for members of the club alone, but also the guests in attendance.

You don’t have to do it, but each time you attend there comes an expectation. So, in the next meeting when offered a Table Topics I got up in front of the group, listened to the prompt and spoke.

I’m not a speaker, as I’ve said, but here’s the thing: I won that week’s Tables Topic. Worse, I would win three in a row. I was only a guest!

It gets worse. One week the Table Topics Masters offered me an image of an Emoji: A face with a zipper keeping its mouth shut. Something like this:

And once again, I won the contest. What was different this time, was that what I spoke came from my heart.

I had been contemplating taking Voice Acting classes for some time, but hadn’t done anything about it. (I’ll write about this soon). As I looked at the sad little emoji with his mouth zipped shut I decided that my mouth could no longer be kept closed.

The speech was me declaring my intentions of becoming a voice actor.

I also decided at that moment to join the Toastmasters club myself.

The very first speech that you give in the club is what is called an ‘Ice Breaker”. You’ll never guess what my Ice Breaker was about:

Old Time Radio, Pulp Heroes, and the Golden Age of Comic Book Super Heroes, and their influence on me.

Now where have I heard that before?

So ,what is Toastmasters?

Basically, it’s learning to give good speeches and having supportive people around you.

Here’s a big thank you to everyone in TOASTMASTERS 4 WRITERS club.