SPICE UP YOUR SPEECHES

1. SPICE UP YOUR SPEECHES Presentation to Toastmasters District 72 Rotorua Convention May 2008 by Rob Julian DTM

2. The power of three He was tall, dark, and handsome. She was a luscious, long-legged, blonde. It was a hot, bright, summer’s day. The room was dank, cold, and gloomy. I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat, and tears. I shall discuss this topic from the point of view of • The government • Society; and • The individual Note – Winston Churchill actually said ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, sweat and tears’. Everyone thinks he said ‘Blood, sweat, and tears’. We cut it down to three.

3. POWER OF THREE AND HUMOUR Darren LaCroix – World Champion 2001 Professional Stand Up Comedian Raise the audience expectations one way and then change with the punchline I went to a Toastmasters meeting and they were a great audience. They were supportive, encouraging, and sober. • I gave a well prepared speech at Toastmasters last week. It was stimulating, thought provoking, and a disaster. Exercise – Complete this statement – My dentist took one look in my mouth and said “ ---, ---, and ----”

4. Repetition We shall fight on the beaches We shall fight on the landing fields We shall fight with ever increasing confidence in the air. We shall never surrender America needs a President it can trust America needs a President who can unite the county America needs a President that can make this country great again.

5. RHETORICAL QUESTIONS Does he really take us for such fools? Are we really expected to take him at his word? Is he seriously asking us to believe that somehow he is able to persuade the National Party to abandon every one of its core principles? Chris Trotter DomPost April 18 Are we going to behave like sheep? Are we gullible fools? Are we mindless cretins? Or are we going to determine our own destinies?

6. AlliterationCombine with the power of three It was a hot humid heavy day. After the marathon I was exhausted, elated and exhilarated. Millie Holmes – Dad, Drugs, and Detox (Sunday Times) In 1972 I was a ninky nonky nincompoop living in a North Shore haze. Elizabth Hawthorne – playing Germaine Greer in ‘The Female of the Species’.

7. Word pictures/Imagery The sun set with magnificent crimson blaze of splendour over the Tinakori Hills. The bar was dingy, damp and dirty. She had a voice that could drill troops at 100 metres The fractured notes of a piano floated on the evening air like sad memories.

8. Metaphors Swallowing dead rats. She had all the presence of a mutated ball bearing. Mary came softly in, for the blue-gray colour of his gloom had seeped out under the door and through the keyhole”. John Steinbeck. Cannery Row p.25 She threw me a look that would have stopped a Green party canvasser in his tracks. He was a lusty young lion, hauling the horizon toward him with his claws - Joe Bennett I took long languid lazy strokes with my arms snaking out in front of me – Grant Smith Turbine Talkers

9. AND • I aced the test • We galloped down the hill • He wolfed his food • She cried crocodile tears • It’s a pig of a day • One hundred years later the negro is still crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Martin Luther King 1963

10. SimiliesLike --------As --------------- than ---- Guilt hung around him like stale cigarette smoke The fractured notes of the piano floated like sad memories The moon was peering down on the harbour as though searching for something it had lost. Butch Junior sucked on his bottle looking wiser than a tree full of owls – Daymon Runyon

11. I KNEW I WAS IN TROUBLE WHEN---------1 – 1.5 MIN TO INCLUDE • THE POWER OF THREE • REPETITION • RHETORICAL QUESTIONS • ALLITERATION • WORD PICTURES • METAPHORS • SIMILIES