Olivia Coker, Zuriberg Toastmasters’ president, warmly welcomed the members and the guests of the club. She went on reminding everyone about the upcoming deadline of buying tickets for the highly promising Celtic Dance Party of December 1st!
Stefano Basurto (evaluated by William Horan) got the prepared speeches off to an interesting start by describing with vivid colors the challenges of running an inline skating race in London. Illustrating the “rise and fall” in his herculean efforts to stay in the loop and cross the finish line, he suggested that a meaningful challenge is not the one that brings necessarily glory; it suffices to bring enough personal satisfaction. The use of “I” in Stefano’s speech added warmth and sensitivity managing to gain the sympathy of the entire audience in each and every kilometer of his race.
Continuing with another odyssey, Adrian Engler (evaluated by Thomas Koetzsch) described how he quit smoking. Although the vocal variety was the major objective of this 6th speech of Adrian, his witty way of presenting the hyperbole surrounding the behavior of addicted smokers turned his narrative to a first-class humorous speech. However, given so many positive examples as side effects of smoking (boost of productivity, increased concentration following nicotine intake), Adrian left the house amicably wondering whether he has quit smoking by accident.
Henrik Karlssson (evaluated by Olivia Coker) delivered an advanced speech attracting feedback on his story-telling competences. “Now or Later?” was a delicate motivation touch prompting the listener to make the small steps (now or later) which can drive to a great adventure; in this case, a trip around the world. The moral was impeccable, but the climax might have been improved by painting a picture of the trip itself and drawing the audience into it.
The first half of the session was concluded by Christian Funke, whose elegant jokes nicely entertained the audience prior to dinner being served.
Nicholas Allan’s table topics were distinctly easygoing as they reminded me of the sweet kinder garden question “What’s your favorite XYZ?”. Nicholas wanted particularly to know what our favorite film, color, holiday, food, drink, and season were.
Winners of the evening were Kevin Boomsma (Best Evaluator), Paul (?) (Best Table Topic Speaker and guest), and Adrian Engler (Best Speaker).
