October 5th gave us a meeting that few of us will forget for a while.

We had just one speech, from Kieran Mangan. Kieran is not a man for doing something predictable (Kieran’s previoius speeches were his icebreaker based on what he learned from doing a paper-round and a 6 minute explanation of the Time Dilation Effect, part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity). So we were prepared for something different, and we got it – Kieran shared his knowledge of Sumo wrestling with us, complete with a broad selection of Japanese terms and insight into the lives of some of the champion wrestlers.

The other highlight was Table Topics, where Saadia Alege took an unusual approach – she had pictures of classic (and not-so-classic) cars and asked members in turn to variously describe, sell or critique the car they had been given. What followed was a series of remarkably good responses, with highlights including John Cross describing his misbehaviour in the back seat as a child, cracking debut speeches from new members Tom Daniels and David Murray, and Guy Dennis describing a Nissan sports car with all the credibility of a motoring journalist. Come to Bromley Speakers, we’ll show you how to wing it convincingly!

But then our guest, Alpha, stunned the whole room with his description of the humble 2CV and the role it plays in the life of farmers in his native Ghana. It was informative, poignant and funny all at the same time.

Our thanks go to the evaluators of the evening – Neil Pettgrew who evaluated <Mieran, David Hampton eveluating Table Topics and Guy Dennis who evaluated the evening as a whole – all ably supported by Mohammed Bashiru (aka Bash) on the lights and Susan Rayner counting the ums and ers, Our thanks especially to Na Jiang, who was Toastmaster for the evening and ensured a warm and jovial atmosphere.

Do come and join us for our next meeting on Thursday, October 19th,

Wednesday, 4th October 2023

We’re delighted to report that Bromley Speakers maintained its tradition of success at the Area Final of the Humorous Speech and Table Topics competition, hosted by Lewisham Speakers on October 4th.

Alex Clark (Humorous Speech) and Nisha Munavar (Tab;le Topics) represented our club, and while Nisha was unfortunately not able to maintain her 100% success rate at Topics since joining the club (OK, her winning streak was only two competitions long, but still impressive), Alex Clark left no room for doubt with his reprise of “Date Night Disasters”.

Alex’s tale of falling into a workman’s trench while on his way to a Hot Date really hit the spot with the audience. The fact that the trench had been freshly filled with liquid concrete probably helped with this. The fact that the incident might, years later, be turned into an award-winning humorous speech was probably far from Alex’s mind at the time, but Alex as worked out how to milk every possible laugh from the episode, not least the trail of concrete-crumbs he left as he walked down the street, or the fact that his trousers were able to stand up on their own the next morning.

Alex told his story with energy and charm and, from the perspective of an audience member, there was little doubt who the winner was going to be after he had spoken.

We’re looking forward to the next stage – the Division Final awaits on Sunday, 5th November from 10am to 3pm. It’s free to attend, all you need is this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84563068470?pwd=VVY5ZHk1T2lQZ3FzZHJtUDdvZElhdz09

Good luck, Alex! And Nisha, keep plugging away, your ability to tackle an impromptu speech from an unexpected angle has blown us all the way and you will surely have even more success in the future.