Mid Oct'13 - I am dying little by little with each of the ludicrous joke being pelted around - I texted to my mentor seated a few seats away. It was the Division Level Contest for the humorous speech christened as "Splash". I was getting worked up speech after speech.
"This! They are laughing at this! No one laughed at my Red Bull joke - the best in my repertoire, and they find top ten facial expression when a human encounters a "poop call" funny!!!". Disgusted, I turned to face the rest of the wolf pack from my TM club. The dragon lady seated next to me showed a post from the Facebook TL " I wish some people turn into a zombie, so that it is not illegal to shoot these idiots". Satisfied that everyone of us were in the same plank,I happily went back to my brooding...
Mid Sep'13 - The euphoric feeling of winning the Club level was evaporated long since. Eyes were set on the District Level. Anything less would be shame. I had the script. I had delivery. That's when everything began to fall apart.
Mistake no 1: A script requires a theme, strong open and impactful conclusion. I missed on the conclusion. True, the script was very good in terms of humor content but the lack of conclusion - something for the audience to take away was missing.
Mistake no 2 - I was so used to practicing in a big stage. Walking around gave me the comfort. The stage at Shell restricted my movements and in a way the delivery was affected.
Mistake no 3: Always know your audience - I did not! The script did wonders at Club level as it was a young crowd and would have clicked at the Division Level. It so did not at the Area, where people were scarce and the laughs scarcer! The need to keep on tailoring your speech with every stage is a necessity. I conveniently ignored that!
A bit of soul searching made me realize that I became a bit too cocky; a bit too complacent. As I walked off the room after the Area results were announced; someone tapped on my shoulder and it was one of a veteran TM " Vamsi, you are a revelation". The head which was bowed down lifted a bit there. I had grown leaps and bounds as a speaker and the Area Level experience made me fell forward.
"This! They are laughing at this! No one laughed at my Red Bull joke - the best in my repertoire, and they find top ten facial expression when a human encounters a "poop call" funny!!!". Disgusted, I turned to face the rest of the wolf pack from my TM club. The dragon lady seated next to me showed a post from the Facebook TL " I wish some people turn into a zombie, so that it is not illegal to shoot these idiots". Satisfied that everyone of us were in the same plank,I happily went back to my brooding...
Mid Sep'13 - The euphoric feeling of winning the Club level was evaporated long since. Eyes were set on the District Level. Anything less would be shame. I had the script. I had delivery. That's when everything began to fall apart.
Mistake no 1: A script requires a theme, strong open and impactful conclusion. I missed on the conclusion. True, the script was very good in terms of humor content but the lack of conclusion - something for the audience to take away was missing.
Mistake no 2 - I was so used to practicing in a big stage. Walking around gave me the comfort. The stage at Shell restricted my movements and in a way the delivery was affected.
Mistake no 3: Always know your audience - I did not! The script did wonders at Club level as it was a young crowd and would have clicked at the Division Level. It so did not at the Area, where people were scarce and the laughs scarcer! The need to keep on tailoring your speech with every stage is a necessity. I conveniently ignored that!
A bit of soul searching made me realize that I became a bit too cocky; a bit too complacent. As I walked off the room after the Area results were announced; someone tapped on my shoulder and it was one of a veteran TM " Vamsi, you are a revelation". The head which was bowed down lifted a bit there. I had grown leaps and bounds as a speaker and the Area Level experience made me fell forward.
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