Humorous Contest

At last Monday's toastmasters' meeting was the area contest of "the humorous speech contest." Two weeks before, we had this contest in our club. We evaluate not only special speeches, but also EVERY prepared speeches at each meeting. However, this time was the "contest," so two of the winners proceeded to the area contest. In Greater Lafayette, we have 7 toastmasters clubs, and we are divided into two areas. Therefore, we had 14 contestants competing for 4 trophies. The winners who got trophies could go to the "local humorous contest" in Kokomo on the following Saturday.

I was one of the judges. We had many criteria for the evaluation: speech development, effectiveness, speech value, physical( appearance, body language etc,) voice, manner(directness, assurance, and enthusiasm,) appropriateness, and correctness( grammar, pronunciation, and word selection)...
The highest possible score was 100. Carefully evaluating each section, we graded every contestant.

Contestants should talk about their original stories, not from a joke book. So, some of them recollected their funny episodes from their childhood or schooldays.
On the other hand, a middle-aged guy talked about how he didn't understand slang that young people use now. Hhmm, if even some Americans think they are funny, I can make a speech about how I didn't understand English! Some misunderstandings are VERY FUNNY!! Most of the time I was too desperate to speak English itself to be aware of the misunderstanding, which made it FUNNIER!! I should try to participate in this contest next time♪

Everybody did a great job! I loved one woman's speech the most. She told us about how she was uncomfortable to wear fancy lingerie like those at the Victoria's Secret. However, now she is getting comfortable and loves them! Actually, she showed us her fancy & favorite & special lingerie! I love the Victoria's Secret lingerie too, and I also understand some of their underwear is not so comfortable to wear. So I laughed a lot, and I admire her openmindness!!
However, I guess some judges graded low in her "appropriateness" section. Therefore, as a result, she took the third place(which was also very good, though.) She didn't get a trophy.

Maybe it was a coincidence...that all of the winners were men. I was wondering about that, and I guessed. Probably, when people made "humorous" speeches, the voice volume & dynamics & exaggerated gestures VERY MUCH influcenced the judges. Generally, men are better at doing these than women. Therefore, most winners were men, I thought.

Additionally, I found an interesting thing that day! Sometimes I didn't understand why it was funny because of my poor English listening and understanding. What? Do you think I shouldn't have been a judge? Yeah, anyway, but I knew when I SHOULD LAUGH. Don't you think it's interesting? I knew where I should laugh because speakers showed us different kinds of signs. Just before they told their "punch lines," they made effective pauses, started to speak it slowly and clearly first, and gradually spoke FAST with a loud voice and a funny gesture like they are climbing and dashing to the end! Hhmmm, I should try to use this technique! Sometimes my audience doesn't listen to me because they want to enjoy their private talking in wedding parties. Then, if I use this technique, can I make them laugh? It's exciting!!

Whenever I go to the toastmasters' meetings, I can learn something important for me!
Now, I am proud of myself being a member☆