Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest 2016

It was a belly-aching night as Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club held its Humorous Speech and Evaluation contest just last Thursday night.

WOW.

No doubt was the night packed with laughter as everyone couldn’t stop giggling from all the amazing humorous speeches which left us all a step closer to our 6 pecs body. The Evaluation Contest was also filled with solid evaluations as they satay-ed the test speaker (gently) one by one.

Thank you to all who came down to support us that night! We hope we kept you entertained!

Before we begin, we would, as always, love to thank all our appointment holders who are as follows:

Organizing Chair: You Xiao

Co-organizing Chair: Tia Maria

Contest Chair: Mohanapriya D

Chief judge: Shaun Aw

Timers: Linda Lee and Joshua Tan

Tally Counters: Ng Cher Khim, Jyoti Soni and Naveena Methani

SAA: Muralidhar R and Andrew Chen

Photographer: Lau Kheng Soon

Food Committee: Gladys Tye

Without them, our contest wouldn’t have been made possible.

And now, on to the contest!

What is humor? 

As much as we love to know the secret techniques in creating humor; there isn’t. 

Humor isn’t science; but an art. Ok, I made this up myself. 

But to please some of you hungry scientists out there; here are some examples of what humor COULD look like. 

Humor could be honest. Toastmaster Ashish gave us a very sincere and authentic story of his life and about how he ended up in Singapore, not to fix computers, but as a Biomedical Engineer. He also shared some tips on how you can whitewash your way to the top. And it only works if you’re charming.

Humor could be erotic. Toastmaster Yee Yuen painted almost-erotic-yet-innocent pictures to showcase his past stories. Moaning and groaning together in the library? Oh, they were just moaning over all their upcoming examinations and assignment deadline. His twists and turns got all of us in a daze. If your relationship doesn’t work out. Let go; and create your next almost-erotic-yet-innocent relationship. 

Humor could be trendy. Toastmaster Abigail shared her experience on being single and meeting single-minded guys on dating apps 'catching em all’. She certainly does not want to catch them all. Most of them were too focused catching Pokemons. She’s probably looking for fit guys in real gym. Joseph Schooling, perhaps. 

Humor could be caring. Toastmaster Joe Wan was filming an action movie. He was starved. You see, how could the main cast in an action movie stayed inaction? Sometimes, in life and in love; an extra question like “Honey, do you want me to throw the rubbish for you?” could grant you some serious actions at night. Yes, even if it is dark out there. Yes, even if there’s no moon. And yes, even if you can’t see a glimpse of hope in your failing relationship. This extra question certainly will reward you some honey, with your honey, without the moon. And of course, without honeymoon trip expenses. 

Humor could be vulnerable. Toastmaster Hyder, also known as, Micheal Junior, “Tao-Gay” or Beansprout. Call him whatever you like. His blazer was bought to stuff your mouth. He shared his transformation journey from bones to blazer and from small to big minded. Looking weak certainly creates some humor. But being vulnerable transform humor to respect. I don’t know. Maybe you can actually change the world by bullying people. Many victims who survived emotionally actually changed the world — not by doing what I just suggested you to do, of course. (PG Alert).

Humor could be shamelessly embarrassing. Artistic Toastmaster Kapil shared his secrets in making fabulous art, aka, Fart. He inspired all of us to be the F-artist of this generation. He meticulously articulate how it is like when inspiration is coming your way, towards your gateway, wanting to be free, to be applaud by your audience. FabulousArt restore humanity. It encourages people to credit one another. It shows us what equality really is. Each of us, F-artist, have the power to move our mankind forward. Now, let your inspiration change the world. 

Humor could also be perfection. Toastmaster Shaun showed us the importance of “How you say it” and being a proud BS employee, he sure knows what he is talking about. He gave us invaluable tips backed up with personal stories on why and how we should say certain things to avoid miscommunication and misconception.

After the short break, our test speaker came up to give us some tips on how to craft a humorous speech. How ironic is that! Maybe it was all part and parcel of his humor.

As the evaluators came in one by one to satay, barbeque and “goreng” our test speaker, all of us also learned a great deal on how we can better our future speeches.

The list of our splendid evaluators are as follows:

Joe Wan

Nathaniel Koh

Shaun Li

Hyder Taufik

Ho Yee Yuen

And finally, here we have….. our winners!

Humorous Speech 2nd Runner up - Abigail Lee

Humorous Speech 1st Runner up - Hyder Taufik

Humorous Speech Champion - Kapil Pareek

Evaluation Contest 2nd Runner up - Joe Wan

Evaluation Contest 1st Runner up - Nathaniel Koh

Evaluation Contest Champion - Shaun Li

And to everyone who participated, a round of applause for all your efforts and courage!

Also, we had our inaugural ribbons: Most Enthusiastic Member!

Our ribbons for this month went to 2 of our younger members of our club, who although has only been with our family for a short few months, yet have put in tremendous amount of work and has shown much initiative and enthusiasm in their Toastmasters journey thus far! 

Ho Yee Yuen

You Xiao

Let's all continue to strive for excellence here at Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club!

It was indeed a great night for everyone!

Written by Mu Ming and Abigail Lee