Their Most Embarrassing Moments
Brave Toastmasters share their speaking calamities.
By Beth Black
ShareThis
Whether it happened before joining Toastmasters or during a club contest, a bad speaking moment has affected all of us. Perhaps an incident left you feeling humiliated, and you avoided public speaking for years as a result. Or maybe it was something you could laugh at later that day. A few Toastmasters from the LinkedIn Members’ group take the opportunity to remind us how brave we are when we stand up and speak:
A Win-Lose Situation
A common fear is that the fear will win. Paula Foster of Chiltern Speakers, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, describes a pre-Toastmasters time when she lost the battle: “I was a student in community college, and my guidance counselor somehow coerced me into entering a speech contest. Speaking was not something I enjoyed, but buoyed by his seeming confidence, I proceeded. Even in our practice sessions, my stomach was tied in knots and I never felt comfortable. The day of the competition arrived and I was confronted by my other competitors. They included students who had been involved with that contest group for years, including the current and past state presidents of the organization. I felt overwhelmed. We had five minutes to speak – I took maybe two minutes. And then we had a Q&A session with the judges. I felt the blood drain from my body and I proceeded to faint.” While this experience left Foster with a less-than-favorable memory of public speaking, some mishaps can pave the way to success. The next speaker used her quick wit to turn a harrowing situation around.
Pratfall Makes Her Point
Sometimes you have to go with pure physical comedy. Who doesn’t love a little clothing-related slapstick in their speech? Better yet, who owes Table Topics a debt of off-the-cuff gratitude? That would be Cyndi Wilson of the Midtown club in Basking Ranch, New Jersey: “I was giving a speech to my club. I tend to lean toward the dramatic, and I was using the entire speaking area. I got my foot tangled in my pant leg and – boom! – down I went. I heard this loud gasp as I was lying on the floor asking myself, ‘How do I recover from this?’ I had been talking about how children try to get their way, so I lifted my feet into the air and starting kicking as if I were having a temper tantrum. I eventually got up and continued my speech! Only one person knew that I actually fell; all of the other attendees thought it was part of the speech!”
Instant Inspiration
For some, timing is everything. It certainly is to Ron Parpart, of Collins Club in Melbourne, Florida, whose introduction set off a frantic scramble to be inspiring: “When I was Lt. Governor Marketing, my district governor walked up to me before the District Executive Council meeting and said that our inspirational speaker had to cancel, then asked if I could give the inspirational opening. ‘Of course,’ I replied. She then walked to the lectern, banged the gavel, opened the meeting, and introduced me for the inspirational moment. Time elapsed: about five seconds! Now that's Table Topics! The best part was, I performed an impromptu inspirational message and no one knew the difference!”
Speak Out Anyway
Despite all the risks, most Toastmasters will agree that it’s still better to speak than remain silent out of fear. Laura Fritz of Sudbury Raytheon club in Sudbury, Massachusetts, can vouch for that: “I have been called a ‘shy extrovert’ because I like talking to small groups of people I know. Once a month, my boss used to call a staff meeting of the whole company – more than 50 people. One person had to give a report from my group. My co-worker would give a report full of wrong information that would often land me in trouble. However, I felt that any trouble I was getting into was better then having to speak. Thanks to Toastmasters, I can now speak out. I have a voice.”
Excerpted from “Their Most Embarrassing Moments” coming in the September issue of the Toastmaster magazine.
Beth Black is an associate editor of the Toastmaster magazine. Reach her at bblack@toastmasters.org.