Feedback Form For Visitors - My Comments

The YMCA in Singapore sent me a feedback form. That's a very good idea. it gives visitors a chance to give feedback.

You do wonder whether it helps the membership secretary work out who is a potential member. If so, why not.

It needs more room for a fourth reply 'other ...'.

I had to stop because the form was too long and it was bedtime.

However, when I came back to it I found I had lots to say which applied to this meeting and others.

LOCATION & MRT EXITS
MRT exit is vital. I went to three meeting this month, YMCA in the evening and Julius Baer at lunch time, and Nee Soon East. At all three I had difficulty finding the exit and despite checking early and setting off allowing extra time I was still late. I nearly didn't attend the YMCA and made an alternative group my first priority because
a) Previously YMCA makes a change for meetings, as does the Sheraton Towers hotel group. It's not a lot, but if you went to two YMCA meetings and three Sheraton hotel meetings that would add up.
b) Taking a taxi and not knowing the correct location is even more of a problem and waste of time and cost.

With two clubs, Nee Soon South and Nee Soon East, I have several times gone to the wrong Community centre. It's tempting to give up and go home when you arrive at the wrong station or wrong CC and realise you will now be 15 minutes late.

I once went to a club which has no sign on the door. Even if you push the door open, you see another shut door and think you are in the wrong place. I stood outside. Eventually, a latecomer arrived and told me I was in the right place.

When I told the committee that they needed a sign on the door, they replied, "We don't bother because we never get any visitors." I was so shocked I was speechless. Later, recounting to my family, I had my retort, "You don't get any visitors because even when they reach the door they can't find you!"

When I first arrived in Singapore I wanted to learn Mandarin. My husband's employers discouraged me, saying, "Everybody speaks English".

This is not entirely true. Furthermore, if you don't speak Mandarin, any business or building with a Chinese name is a discouragement. It's hard to remember. Hard to find on a map. Hard to type into google. hard to ask the way. Easy to confuse two similar names (Nee Soon South, Nee Soon East, endless Jurongs, central and east, and Toa Payoh, Central and another). You also wonder whether the club is Mandarin speaking, or if the people at reception will be speakers of Mandarin or other Chinese dialects, and if all the passers-by who might point you to the venue will be speakers of Hokkien.

Author
Angela Lansbury, ALB, ACG

Finding Thursday Meetings And Clubs Meeting Specific Days

Which clubs meet on a Thursday?
You can look at notifications from Meetup to find which clubs are meeting in your local area trough the week.

In London, HOD meets on two or three Thursdays each month, usually the first and third Thursdays.

Toastmasters International Find a Club
If you go to the Toastmasters International Find a Club page, you can select your area, the distance you are willing to travel, and find all the clubs meeting on that day.

If you visit a new country on holiday or business, and you cannot see a club meeting on your preferred day, write to the President or VPE of the biggest and busiest club in the area and ask if there are any meetings.

You might find that they have changed their day or meeting and venue but not yet updated the website. Meetings might have moved temporarily because of a national holiday.

When I go on holiday, whether for a weekend away, or a week, or two months, I check the local speaking clubs. I note the dates in my diary, write offering to speak or evaluate or be grammarian, to take over a role at the last minute if somebody drops out. I ask for directions.

If the club meeting is immovable, I can move my family arrangements, such as dinner out, to fit around important events such as a club Christmas party, a club inviting me to speak, or a seasonl celebration or a contest at which I am a judge.

AuthorAngela Lansbury, CL, ACG, member of HOD in London, England.

Easy to Reach Clubs in Singapore by MRT Railway Stations - and corporate clubs

Problem
How do you find a meeting venue? How much time do you need to allow to walk from the station?

Answers
Check directions from the MRT station. Many stations have several exits. Just waiting to cross two roads at traffic lights can add ten minutes to the journey time.

Which are the easiest?
1 M a n u l i f e is easiest of all. Come out of exit D or E at Bras Basah station and you wee the sign pointing to the Manulife building. Your MRT station is beside the Manulife building.

Manulife is a corporate club, meeting once a month.

Corporate Clubs
What is a corporate club? It is attached to a corporation, a company, a business. Corporate clubs are often started to help members give presentations to other staff or to clients. Speeches often include slides and charts and technical subjects and technical jargon.

Braddell Heights
Three Toastmasters clubs meet in Braddell Heights CC. Exit F from Serangoon MRT. Walk to the right past the bus stop and the CC is the big multi-coloured building on the corner. Did I say three clubs? There English speaking clubs, Braddell Heights 1, Braddell Heights II and Braddell Heights Advanced.

I am a member of Braddell Heights Advanced.

 Angela Lansbury, ACG, CL.

Speakers Clubs I have attended including Singapore (50+), UK, Prague, Thailand, China

I am a member of two clubs in the UK and I have attended more than 50 in Singapore. Here's my alphabetical list by Country.

 CHINA (Club Meetings 7?) Shanghai

 CZECH REPUBLIC - Prague (2)

HONG KONG (2)

SINGAPORE (50+) Advancity AIA Barclays Braddell Heights Advanced Braddell Heights 1 Braddell Heights II Bukit Panjan Bilingual Emmaus TM Eurasian Association Filcom@Cairnhill Francophone Orange Tee Shell Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TMCS) Thomson TLCS (Tamil) Vietnam Toastmasters Club @ Cairnhill

THAILAND (1)

UK Harrovians HOD

USA Conference Las Vegas international convention (2011)

Member: Harrovians; HOD.

Participant:
Evaluation Contest;
Tall Tales Contest;
International Speech Contest.
Judge - numerous clubs and contests.
Chief Judge - Contest rules forbid judges from discussing or revealing where they were judges. As they say, and said in WW2: Loose lips sink ships. Contest Chair - HOD Tall Tales contest Glossary MRT - MRT means railway To find a club go to the website Toastmasters International Find A Club . Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG

How do I persuade a bilingual club to enter contests?

How Do I Persuade a Bilingual or Foreign Language Club To Enter Contests?

The French speaking club in Singapore has never entered a contest because it's in English. Some of the members have never attended a contest or don't even know about contests. I've been to a Tamil bilingual club and a Chinese bilingual club, but unless I ask them for a summary of a speech there are not handouts and no way for me to understand a single word. I'm considering starting a Translators' Club in Singapore and another in London. Members and guests can speak in any language but must use Google translate to give us the title and a summary in English - and/or simultaneous translation and/or a handout with the translation in English. One speech each meeting should be a guide to beginning speaking another language, or a guide to speaking English given in another language.

Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG.

Testimonials from feedback for books, websites, confidence

Producing a new book, you find you are told to put testimonials. Years ago I was very anti testimonials. Big companies did not need testimonials. Only suspicious mail order companies wrote themselves suspect testimonials from anonymous or first name people. But now marketing people everywhere are saying that you need testimonials.

Ideally you should have testimonials from famous people. If you can't, you just need testimonials from others. If you are shy and modest, it's hard to get the courage to ask for testimonials. The people asked are worried about committing themselves, are too busy, or don't know what sort of testimonial to give.

However, if you are a member of toastmasters international and go to speakers meeting, every time you do a speech or a role, you get written testimonials in the form of feedback, either in your manuals, or on feedback slips or both; and if you are not a member of a club, but give any kind of service or product, you can enclose a form asking for feedback.

It's important to keep a record of who wrote the testimonial, and what it was about. I ended up with a lot of slips in pockets or bags, with vague statements such as, 'Brilliant', well done.

The solutions are:
1 Ask people at the time to write their names on the feedback forms.
2Write the subject of your speech on the top, even a word, or the date as a reminder.
3 As soon as you get home, either staple to feedback slips to your manual of speeches. Or make up a folder with the speeches in transparent pages and the feedback slips either in a pocket, or help together by a staple or paperclip.

When you start a new book or website on the subject of your speech, go back and find comments.
You can, if you wish, ring up the person who gave their comment and ask for permission to quote their whole name, first and last names. If they don't like that idea, they might agree to be described as, member of ... workshop / college / event.

Whether or not this give potential buyers confidence to buy your book or service, it is a real confidence booster to you.

Angela Lansbury, writer, photographer, tutor, author.

Future Meetings - Note in your diary: HOD; LBS, London; Notts; Las Vegas, USA

NEXT HOD

Next HOD meeting is on Thursday 2nd April 2015, arrive after 7 pm, ideally about 7.30, for an 8 pm prompt start at The Bridge, beside Harrow Leisure Centre. (When leaving, avoid the bus lane which starts half way along a narrowing nearby road which becomes one bus lane only, because if you enter the bus lane you get fined, as four or more of us, including me, know, literally to our cost.) Tea/coffee milk and biscuits provide, £1 contribution and/or bring your food to entertain the group or celebrate a special occasion or theme.

We are still looking for Toastmasters of the evening.

Printing Help

Angela Hook says she has assorted machines which can help including a scanner. I suggest Toastmaster of the evening prints 4-6 copies of the preliminary agenda, just in case a printer runs out of ink or the person responsible for printing agendas forgets, falls ill, has transport trouble or has to work on the day of the meeting.

Sign up for speeches, evaluations, other roles if you are a member, or visitor/visiting GE (get a member to sign you in) on our HOD website on Toastmasters International EasySpeak.  

2015 UK TOASTMASTERS SPEAKERS EVENTS

LONDON March 28/29 weekend, Saturday and Sunday at London Business School, a walk from Baker Street Station. Speech contest Saturday, Evaluation Contest Sunday.

LONDON London Tower Hotel (?) conference weekend May 10-12 District 91.  

NOTTS As Coralie explained, we now have so many speakers in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland that Great Britain has been divided horizontally.

Scotland and the North of England have their conference in Nottingham, another opportunity to network and learn, at a city which is relatively easy to reach by car or train if you are in the south of England. 

 (No need for ferry, nor flying - unless you happen to have your own helicopter, airmiles, pilots license or are on expenses. The Nottingham conference is nicknamed The Robin Hood Conference.

LAS VEGAS, USA Toastmasters International, contest finals in Las Vegas.

Come back later for more text and photos of this HOD event and

 checked dates and venues of other meetings.

CC, CL, AL, ALB What Do Those Letters Mean?

When you obtain your CC award you receive a certificate and on request a letter to your employer confirming your achievement. Afterwards communications from the Toastmasters International HQ in the USA will address you with the letters after your name.

Your club website should list you with the letters after your name. If you are a President or VPE or have any committee role or are helping out and compile an agenda the letters should be after the speakers and VIP guests such as visiting GE.

Toastmasters Awards Letters

CL - (or CTM) Competent Leader - has completed projects for managing a group (timing a meeting etc).

CC - Competent Communicator - has completed ten speeches from the first speaker's manual, each project covering learning and practising subject matter, structure, spoken language text, voice projection and variety, body language, use of varied props and visuals, persuasiveness, motivation.

AL Advanced Leader - further projects completed

ALS  Silver - Further projects

ATMS Silver (Two more speech books, each containing five speech projects)

Advanced Leader Silver, later renamed Advanced Toastmaster Silver

ALB Advanced Leader Bronze

ATMG Advanced Leader Gold

C stands for Competent or Communicator
A stands for Advanced
TM stand for Toastmaster
B stands for Bronze
S stands for Silver
G stands for Gold
L stands for Leader

For more details see Toastmasters International website.

Other Abbreviation using Initial Letters
(Acronyms are initial letters making up a new word, a name or noun, for example NATO.)
HQ head quarters
VIP very important person

Angela Lansbury BA Hons CL ASG

Where's tonight's meeting? Is there one? Frustrated by old websites! Why The New One is A Success

I just lost 30 minutes trying to find out if there's a meeting on tonight. I'm a member of a club. If I were a visitor I would be equally perplexed. Lucky I wasn't working or I would have given up looking or got told off by the boss for wasting time.

I find this problem all the time on older websites. First you go through the whole preamble of sign in as a member.

What's Good
The best websites - even on the old one there was one great feature. Your log in - first commend, very good that the site tells you that you can log in with your email. Lots of sites ask you for your 'username' - what's that, my married name, passport name, maiden name, pen-name, nickname, name I use on blogs, last year's password, the one I changed to after being hacked, the site's own password. At least one good website lets me sign in with my email and tells me to sign in with that.

Hurray! After trying assorted passwords, including my last known password and the default welcome one, suddenly the site activates. (I still don't know which of the previous attempts hit the power system).

Now I can see some useful information: correct spelling of all members' names, useful for my write-up of club meetings, as well as their Toastmaster status such as CC competent communicator. This helps me address them correctly in documents. Later I can give them status on an agenda or website. When I am toastmaster of the evening I can introduce them properly at meetings, handy if I have not had time to research anything else to say. Other bonuses, their qualification level helps contest organisers decide whether members are eligible to enter a contest, judge a contest. For regular meetings, it helps you to know if a new member  should be encouraged to take on a beginners speech or easy role, or a challenging advanced members only role at a meeting.

Later I learned that I was using an old site. That explains why only three people other than myself had logged onto the site in the last month. I was wondering they the president had not logged in. On the other hand, it shows that four of us were hunting on the internet and had inadvertently looked at an outdated site without the latest news.

After trying various links I still don't know whether there is a meeting tonight.

Why don't I know when the next meeting is? The last meeting (a contest) changed venue. I just received an email from a member (another Angela) who missed it by going to the wrong venue because the venue was changed. She had just got off the plane and rushed to the meeting without spending time checking emails.

The club venue has changed in the last year, also the meeting dates (second and fourth to first and third). I have to remember the dates for another toastmasters and a writers group, meeting the same night as the Toastmasters at two different venues according to the week. (Not counting clubs in another country, nor the book group, the gardening club and computer training lessons. They all change date and time and venue, sometimes a week before and sometimes the same week.)

When I try checking the next meeting as a visitor what do I find?

What do I like as a visitor to a site? Seeing information immediately. I now see why the new site is such an improvement.

Down with Dowloads
On the old site, four items all required download. My reaction was, Sorry, I am not downloading. My laptop has jammed up because of too many files. I can't open my photos. I keep getting warnings to delete stuff. Every email wants me to download something and every website. My computer is so full I have had to buy a new one. Spent all week looking at old secondhand out of date computers which are better than the new lightweight models which won't take discs - but have to check the specifications of each to see what's compatible. Hours listening to music trying to get though to get quotes from two companies to compare or change company.

I shall be out of action for a week during the changeover. (More passwords needed for both my mobile phone and laptop. First the temporary one from the company sending the goods.

Meanwhile - even if the visitor wanted the downloads. The first has the unexciting title Corporate info. the first word is too long and abstract. Many toastmasters manuals tell you to avoid jargon and long words. The second word, info is too short, and totally inconsistent in style with the first word. you alienate the texters who like things simple with the first ugly word 'corporate', upset the pundits and erudite with the second word 'info', and the aesthetes and style lovers with the bizarre combination.

Worst of all, it's entirely a sales pitch and doesn't reach the call to action which is COME TO THE NEXT MEETING DATE >>> TIME ??? PLACE!!!

I am one of Toastmasters Internationals most devoted members, member of two clubs. I was a member of three when one club offered half price membership if you were already a member of another club (meaning you already had the manuals and magazine and didn't need the one of joining fee to get you on the HQ system. Then they discontinued the reduction. Now they are flourishing you'd think they might reinstall it. Maybe that's the problem. They don't need members.

Back to the downloads.  No, don't lets go back. I shall now phone somebody. But half the people are creatives like me who won't know.

Who will know? The scientist, the diary keepers, the follow the rules and agenda types. They are called 'Yekkers' in Yiddish, from the German for jacket-wearers. Yekkers know the date and time but get angry if you ask. All clubs are run by yekkers. The membership secretary should be a salesperson who wants you to feel praised and wanted. But the unfriendly accountant is busy following the rules. (That has a plus side - it is great because he or she will not run off with the money).

They will make me feel unwelcome and a failure, an idiot, an unwanted member, by saying to me, "I don't have time to tell you. Why can't you look it up on the website?"

Rant over. What do I want? Call to action!

On the front page of every website. Call to action. Box in top right hand corner with flashing lights all around it.
COME ALONG TO NEXT MEETING.
DATE .........
TIME .........
PLACE ......
FREE PARKING IN .......

PS Final gripe. Harrow Council wants to cut the free parking at Harrow Leisure Centre. After widespread protests they agreed to consider allowing free parking for two hours. The main letter from a bowls club member says that's not enough. You can't meet and go off for coffee or lunch afterwards.  Any meeting to which you invite another club is likely to last four hours. You can't have everybody dashing off at assorted intervals to move their car or feed the meter or check or go home early.

Summary and reiteration of main point:

By the time your website reader has been distracted by the delivered local newspaper, the postman, a phone call, the server has gone down, and your ember or guest has accepted the invitation to do something else such as go to dinner or coffee with a neighbour or friend.

When I'm in Singapore or America I meet somebody in the lift (elevator to any Americans reading this). I have one minute to tell them, 'When you are in London go to the Toastmaster Speakers club in Harrow / wherever. Just look at the website.'

I am told that our committee have spent unpaid and unappreciated hours upgrading our websites. It's great that the BBC and other sponsors are helping the next generation to be technically trained on computers.

For those who set up websites, which club and committee members have to spend hours adapting and transferring information - it's great to have the vital information on page one answering the classic questions you are taught at the start of any journalism course on news reporting:
WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY?

PUT THE NEXT MEETING ON PAGE ONE OF A CLUB WEBSITE VISIBLE TO BOTH MEMBERS AND GUESTS!
Thanks for reading my rant. Hope this helps you make user-friendly event sites.

The mayor of Harrow is invited to Toastmasters International speakers'  clubs in Harrow. How do I and you address a mayor?

I typed this question into google and up popped an answer from the Camden website - near enough in location. The results from Australia, the USA or Scotland or Spain might have been different.

I have adapted the answers.

How do I address the Mayor?

Remembering that the Mayor is chosen from the long-serving councillors:

When introducing the Mayor, he should be referred to as:

The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor ... ...

After formal introductions he can be addressed as: 

Mr Mayor

The Mayoress should be referred to as: 

(Her first name and second name.)

The Mayor’s escorts should be referred to by their name.

Mayoral protocol

• download: protocol - helpful hints leaflet (PDF 321KB)
• help with PDFs

Contact

• contact the Mayor's office

For letters of invitation and thanks:

When writing to the Mayor, the appropriate form of address is:

Councillor (name)

At the beginning of a letter:

Dear Councillor (name).

The best way to be sure of remembering is to practise saying it at least three times with the current names of mayors. For example, if the Toastmaster of the Evening were to be late or absent or lose their voice and ask you to speak, you would introduce like this:

Taking the mayor from the door to meet another committee members, the VIP is spoken to first.

'Mr Mayor, may I introduce the President of our club, Indra Sikdar; 

Indra, may I introduce the Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru.' 

Let's say that again twice.

1 'Mr Mayor, may I introduce the President of our club, Indra Sikdar; 

Indra, may I introduce the Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru.' 

2 'Mr Mayor, may I introduce the President of our club, Indra Sikdar; 

Indra, may I introduce the Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru.' 

Then when welcoming, or referring to the mayor:

'May I introduce the Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru.'

Let's practise that again, twice.

1 'May I introduce the Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru.'

2 'May I introduce the Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru.'

When referring to the mayor within a speech:

'If you were to meet The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Manu ....'

Let's practise that against twice:

'If you were to meet The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru ....'

'If you were to meet The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru ....'

Now for a vote of thanks:

I would like to thank all our entertaining speakers, our friendly, supportive guests, and especially our VIP, The Mayor Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru. Please help me thank The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Ajay Maru, with a round of applause.

Harrovians January and February News: Speeches, Harrow Mayor and Contests 2015

This newsletter covers the speeches at Meetings on Jan 5 and 19 and the forthcoming contests Feb 2nd attended by Harrow's mayor.


Jan 5 What an Evening!



Jan 19 What an Evening!

Speech by President Indra Sikdar, titled, Do you think immigration to the UK is a good or bad thing?

Seema Menon on Climatic Change and Greener Planet
Seema ended with a positive message, Let's protect our earth.

Thulasi Arunthavanathan

Lorna Burns on conversing with ease.
One of her useful tips was use open-ended questions.

Karen Carter offered me a useful insight on positive thinking and being warm and encouraging and not alienating people. Social workers are told never to use the word bad.
































President Indra Sikdar presents ribbons to award winning speakers and evaluators.

Committee Meeting
Held at the home of President Indra Sikdar.
Ruth Vishnick produced biscuits in a doggie biscuit tin. All members are invited to the next committee meeting(s). Please come along to see what the committee does and you might be inspired to assist and shadow a committee member. This will help you to be confident about standing for a committee role and helping the club prosper this year or next. Committee meetings are held at a member's home and the food and drink is on a pot luck basis so if you have special diets just bring what you would like to eat and share and show.

Ruth Vishnick is a former president of Harrovians. She has given speeches on running a tea shop, making scones, and the pleasures of having a dog.

Club Officer Training
Harrovians members who attended:

Indra Sikdar
Angela Lansbury
Seema Menon
Warren Sheng

 Seema with slides at Club Officer Training

Warren Sheng at Club Officers Training at the site of sister club HOD which meets on the first and third Thursdays each month. More pictures of this event on Facebook.

International Contest - what an evening!
Takes place Monday Feb 2nd attended by the Mayor of Harrow.
You will hear planned speeches by several experienced speakers - they need to have completed at least six speeches from the manual. Then for the second contest a target speaker delivers a speech and each of the evaluators has to analyse the speech giving the good aspects and suggesting improvements.

The Mayor of Harrow
VIP, guest of honour, will be this year's mayor of Harrow. The Mayor for the municipal year 2014/15 is The Worshipful The Mayor, Councillor Ajay Maru.
For more details about the mayor see the council website.
http://www.harrow.gov.uk/info/200033/elections_and_representatives/21/the_mayor_of_harrow

So you can feel at ease meeting our illustrious mayor, here is his photo. He is wearing his badge of office - and a red coat!

Angela Lansbury is a past president or HARROVIANS and with the help of Indra Sikdar has compiled the first copy of the History of Harrovians speakers club, illustrated with photos of founder members Indra, Imke, Kayode, the Harrow & Wealdstone pub with the supposed Weald Stone marking the boundary of Harrow Wealdstone, and the heritage plaque, and many more previous well known members, such as Alan McMahon, now Toastmasters Area Governor and highlights of events - such as being locked out of venues, performing speeches on street corners and parks. Price of paperback £10. It can also be downloaded.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons, CC ACG, is the author of twenty books including two paperbacks which may interest you: Quick Quotations for speakers and writers; Who Said What When? quotations for every day of the year, Jan 1 to Dec 31.

Post being updated with more text and photos. Come back later.

What I learned about Improving Improv at Brighton Conference

At the Brighton conference autumn 2014 we were entertained and informed at an amusing workshop presented by the Brighton Improv group 'Maydays'.

 Angela Lansbury (left) with a member of the improv group Maydays, at Toastmasters conference in Brighton, England.

As usual I sat in the front row, hoping to be seen and selected to go on stage. I had with me my latest prop, a talking toy which I had bought the previous day on special offer at Morrisons Supermarket in London.

THE FAKE PANEL OF EXPERTS
One of the Improv sessions involved members of the audience forming a panel of so-called experts who had to comment on a nonsense subject. I think I was supposed to be an expert on trees, talking about tree safety or preservation. You had to be both original and yet not totally absurd, mocking the sort of character you represented, saying the sort of things they would say - but exaggerating more and more.

The rule of three in humour is to say something true, something else true, then something totally untrue which seems to follow from the previous two remarks, or contradict them.

RHYMING ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
Our next task was to reply in rhyming couplets. As a poet, for me this is easy. My dream is to be a rap singer. My problem is not the rhymes, but singing in tune.

Maydays - the group's name in red on their black polo shirts.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

THE IMPROV MUSICAL
The finale was the professional group asking members of the audience what they thought of the event - then for a couple of volunteers to tell us about themselves. Any romantic or recently married couples? His name. Her name? Where did you meet? What kind of activity do you share together?

The professional group of four then made a mini-musical about the couple in the audience. They told a story. I can't remember exactly how it went, but my half-remembered version will give you the idea.

First verse from a female member of the cast about the couple - mentioning both their names - sitting in the audience. Then another member creates a chorus couplet - the audience asked to repeat it verbally then sing it.

Then a male member takes over and sings a verse about the man's name and his hobbies. Choruse with the audience.

Then a female member sings about the lady and her hobbies. Chorus with the audience.

Then a man sings about where the couple met. Chorus with the audience.

Then the entire group reprise. Finale - end with chorus. Applause for the couple in the audience. Applause for the group on stage.

I spent several weeks thinking about this and how they did it. I imagined that if they did the same sort of thing at every event, and they were good at rap, it would come naturally.

But, if you don't want to leave things to chance, you can set up the scene.

BOOKS ON IMPROV
I searched on the internet for books on improv singing. I just read a book about improv singing, Instant Songwriting (Subtitle Musical Improv from Dunce to Diva) By Nancy Howland Walker. I've only just started. I recommend it to any imrov performer, songwriter or poet.

It suggests you practise rhymes every day, first thing. I do this anyway. You look around at breakfast. Table, able, Chair, hair. Glass, pass. Spoon, moon. Mat, hat. Fridge, ridge, bridge, midge. Oven, coven. Hob, knob. Clock, dock, rock, sock, lock, block. Door, bore, boar, roar, war, more, oar.

Now we've practised rhyming, some couplets.

I sit down at the table
As soon as I am able,
And pick the highest chair,
and comb my long blonde hair,

Then I pick up my glass,
but don't let this first chance pass,
draw circles with my spoon,
an imaginary moon etc etc

AUDIENCE NAMES
Now let's go back to I m p r o v with the audience. You can plan your questions. You are doing to ask a man and woman their names. If their names are hard to pronounce, change the name to a nickname of your choosing.

Ask their names.
His name is Patel, just as well. If the name is too long, or you can't think of a rhyme, you make a joke, we called him Patrick/Pete.

NAMES & AGES
You can pick English names or nicknames. One for each letter of the alphabet. Write out a rhyme.

Andy - he was handy (played the piano, was a builder, DIY enthusiast, an accountant, banker)
Adele - she looked swell
Barry wanted to marry, A cute little girl called Carrie, but she was in love with Harry, so she would not tarry ...
Brian, Brian/ John/Jon, is a man you can rely on.
Dave always wanted to be brave, he did not want to be a slave, he looked for someone he could save, , went to a rave but ended in a grave
Joan was always on the phone, she liked to have a good old moan, and did not want to be alone, and twenty cats filled up her home
Jim / Tim always looks so grim, you wonder what's wrong with him
Mary is scary, and often contrary, you'd better be wary, her brother is a fairy ...
Patrick - that was his hat trick.
Pete - gives a smile when we meet.
Petula - was his junior (if she is younger)
Suzie is a floozie, gets boozy and then woozy. She won the lottery, went on a cruise ee. I thought how lovely that would be, and I wished she'd taken me to sea, that would be fun you must agree, to see the world with Suzie.
Yves - you won't believe, keeps three aces up his sleeve, don't play cards or you will grieve
Zoe - hair/skirt/poems long and flowy

AGES
Find a rhyme for each decade
teenage - early stage
over twenty one - their married life has hardly begun
over thirty - he looked shirty
Forty plus - one of us
He's fifty - did you say fifty?  yes I said fifty - that's why he's so thrifty, that's why he's so nifty, it's great to be fifty!
Fifty two - just like you
Fifty three - just like me
Fifty four - still on the dance floor
fifty five - we'll survive
fifty six - and knows some tricks
fifty seven - half way to heaven
fifty eight - never late/always late
fifty nine - she's on time - will you be mine - no she's Patrick's
sixty - drinks coffee not tea, drinks decaff tea
Retired - came here to get inspired
age uncertain - draw the curtain
She won't say - anything but 'go away'

If you practise this two or three times with a group of three or four of you, taking names drawn from a hat, you can soon develop a routine. You would soon improve if you did this on a regular basis for a living. Imagine doing three shows a week, or, like the magician who performed for our Writers' group at Christmas, in season three a day.  You'd find you soon improve your improv, with foresight, hindsight, heckling incorporated, and inspiration of the moment - remembered and repeated.


Angela Lansbury is a speaker, comic poet, tutor, trainer, and aspiring songwriter, on blogger.com, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook; author of ten books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts; Etiquette For Every Occasion (from libraries); Quick Quotations; Who Said What When; (Quotations Calendar in preparation; sold by Lulu.com - or direct from the author to get a signed copy.