Angela, queen of props - for table topics

Problem
I am hunting for suitable pictures to go with a flyer on queen of props.

Why am I called the Queen of Props? When I prepare a speech I often have four or five props on the table.

I am a collector, a hoarder. in the UK my props include:
Four carrier bags of soft toys labelled a-d, e-k, l-r, s-z. I have props such as a parrot puppet, a teddy bear, an own whose head turns, a stick rocking horse which neighs when you pull its ears, a scarecrow. I used to go into a charity shop and ask for any tee-shirts or puppets or toys which made a noise.

I won a club humorous speech contest with the scarecrow and the rocking horse about conquering fear. The funniest part was that I could not turn off the neighing horse. Eventually I had to dump it in the waste paper bin in the corner of the room, where it neighed at intervals.

After Christmas I would look for unwanted puppets being sold secondhand, or at a discount in the January sales.
My prize puppet is the Harry Potter own I bought from the Warner Brother Studio Tour. I would talk to it, asking rhetorical questions. I assured the audience it was listening or agreeing with me. Eventually I would ask a question and it would turn its head.

My greatest successes were
1 The mobile phone
2 The yellow Daffodil
3 The Toastmasters Manual
4 The Bounty Bar

Bounty Bar Prop

What do you like about your prize-winning destination?

I was in Harrovians toastmasters Club in London and the food for the break was laid out, including Bounty bars with pictures of palm trees. I thought of picking up one to put it in my pocket for later.

When I volunteered to speak on a table topic, my topic was:

Paradise - obviously I was going to choose Singapore which I know well. Singapore seems exotic to those in the UK.

I edged across the stage towards the table with the food, grabbed the Bounty bar. I held up the bar and talked about the coconut palm trees and the coconut being used in the bars being sweeter than fresh coconut.

 So there I was:,

a) topic I knew well, 

b) interesting information -

c) and a prop!

If I were to enter a table topics contest again, I could buy a bounty bar, or save a Bounty Bar Wrapper, or print a photo of a bounty bar and keep it in my props box.

Books as props. Hold the book still.

Ribbon as prop. Best evaluator. Who is presenting to whom? look carefully and the presenter has his arm behind the recipient. I have two hands clasping the ribbon. HOD in London, England.

Timing cards as props for the timers to show their role.

Sina at HOD Toastmasters in London demonstrating climbing a mountain in Iran.

Props needed: Chair, table, climbing pole, flag, large plastic flower, backpack, food container bag attached to waist, outdoor sports jacket.

Two chairs as props.

Here is the speaker at Harrovians using the chairs to lift himself. Props - two chairs, own body. Story of heart attack or hospital bed or exercise.

Achieving DTM, party at a restaurant. Balloon with word congratulations.

Cards for mentor and mentee. Print word large in bold.

Mentor card.

Halloween ghost. Pack of white paper ghosts for decoration, made larger by holding towards the camera.

Halloween mouse.

Halloween spider placed on pack of chocolates for contrast.

Mask worn by Indra - my mentor at Harrovians who taught me to use props.

Printed prop. 

Harrovian Speakers, London, England. Pumpkin prop

Two small props used to decorate the break time food.

Slides as props.

Halloween theme bowl to collect votes at Senja-Cashew in Singapore.

Senja-Cashew couple - she is wearing Halloween horns.

The flickering candles video behind the table topics speakers.

Angela Lansbury's ribbons from 2018 in Singapore. in a frame.  

(I have another frame with two more. Plus more than 50 framed on the walls on London, England.)

Angela Lansbury is Best Evaluator at Toastmasters in Christ, 2018. 

Halloween. Everything costs two dollars at Daeso, Japanese company in Singapore.

Fold-down cheap and quick to produce prop for those who don't have access to a computer or a projector. Can be make any size by taping together pieces of paper, fold up concertina style, remove tape to reveal word hidden below, next idea, or answer to a question.

Bow ties for pets, can be used as props for people. From Daeso.

Blow-up giraffe and big balloon.

Daeso - price always two dollars.

Gloves costing two dollars from Daeso. Black for Halloween, orange.

Table decoration.

Plastic pumpkin containing break time treats.

Wall hanging for Halloween.

Bridal ribbons on car handle

Christmas tree or Halloween horror tree. From Bukit Timah TmC.

Bananas cut with chocolate button eyes and mouth.

Leng Kee Advanced Toastmasters. Diver from Thai cave rescue, wearing the diving association t-shirt, and his colleague wearing diving gear.

Life sixe figures outside a restaurant. For weddings you can order lifesize cardboard cutouts with photos of the bride and groom to set up at the venue entrance to welcome guests. (The same life-size portrait could be made showing a VIP speaker, event or subject of the speech.)

Season Diwali decorations on a downtown train which runs through Little India MRT station.

Diwali decorations on the Singapore MRT train on the Downtown line which runs through Little India.

Chairs as props. A large chair in the Sheraton Towers Hotel. I posed in this and got a lot of comments on Facebook.

Shapes and paper hearts as props. A pack of hearts, used for feedback and thanks to visiting toastmasters. I received one as thanks for being the Language Evaluator. Can also be used for Valentine's day, meetings on the theme of love in the month of February.

Photo of 6th Avenue station to show the Chinese number six in the middle.

PEOPLE AS PROPS

Take the three figures on the left and you have an arch. Take the three on the right and you have a u. Line them in height from right or left and another shape. Stand the taller ones behind the smaller ones for another effect.

EMBARRASSING TABLE TOPICS

Talk about love between a dog and a human from a dog's point of view.

One girl who was given this topic was outraged and walked out.

I couldn't believe it. The topic was perfect for acting and humour. Everybody knows of elderly people who dote on dogs, and dogs which have platonic love for humans.

Start - my owner is tall dark and handsome. So tall - look up.

When away I am sad. When they return I wag my tail.

I get dinner, from a tin. Doesn't everybody like dinners from tins. Tinned dinners are the best. The dog on TV says so.

Speech Structure

Beginning, Middle End

End Dramatically

Tear up a piece of paper and throw it in the air.

Throw a flower into the audience.

Move

Dance off the stage.

Run off the stage.

Noise

Shout with triumph.

Or end framing - back to where you were.

End Ironically

Contradict your vow or advice. eg

"How will I celebrate losing 2 stone? With a seven course meal."

Angela Lansbury ACG ALB

Subjects For A Demonstration Speech?

Problem
Where do I find props for a Demonstration speech? The demonstration speech is one project in a manual.

Props to add to a speech or props for demonstrations - the same objects can be used. Think food, sport, safety, household items.

Food
Members of Harrovians (Harrovian Speakers' Club in Harrow, London) have demonstrated how to make a trifle, and how to make and cook croissants. Anything you can eat is sure to be a success. 

Sport
A Shanghai speaker demonstrated tennis. A Harrovians speaker demonstrated playing frisbee and organising Scout competitions. Another showed tai chi.

Teaching and Health
At HOD in London a speaker who trains dental nurses showed slides on how to brush your teeth, plus of course toothbrush, paste and floss. Choose something useful to your audience. How to teach children to swim. Checking a smoke alarm. Why, where and how to learn CPR.

Serious - or humorous?
Serious and Humorous As an author I have demonstrated self-publishing books of different sizes such as A4 and A5, with spines wide enough for titles; and amusing book disasters, such as upside down covers.

Author
Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Mentoring a Speech - and ideas for speech and props

It is very true that teaching others helps you to learn. I have just mentored somebody with their speech. One idea I gave them about props I have just used for my own speech. Can you guess what it is? Read on.

I wrote to my mentee: What project is it? Five? Your body speaks?

Video yourself and note the gestures you make and exaggerate them and write them into the draft in another colour. Make sure you have a gesture or movement every couple of sentences.

From what I remember of your test speech at Harrovians’ contest, as well as other people’s, you had good stage control already, and lots of conversation. Although this project is not about voice, you need to remember these 

points:

1 When asking a rhetorical question pause, raise eyebrows. If you don’t want shouting and heckling tell them to make a mental (or written) note.

If expecting an answer, show the audience you expect an answer.

2 If this is a speech to Toastmasters (eg to deliver as an officer training workshop or a training for newcomers, rather than simply rehearsing at Toastmasters for another occasion such as a wedding speech) make every other sentence related to Toastmasters, (eg climbing through the manual). You could alter your tone for each part - eg extra enthusiasm, smiling, speaking louder for all the sentences relating to toastmasters, or vice versa. 

3 Avoid being monotone - find a word to emphasise and underline it in the speech

4 Allow extra time if you are crossing the stage without saying anything or if walking about will slow down your delivery.

5 Try to get the important word  at the end of the sentence. Don’t tail off at the end of the sentence, going quieter or losing the last word. eg end on mount TOP, rather than top of the mountain. Add a few shorter sentences for variety.

You already did a good job of conversation in your last speech. Maybe you can invent an imaginary mountain climbing guide, perhaps with a German accent, encouraging you or not allowing you to fall back or ignoring your protest.

Which country is the mountain? Plenty of scope for two different accents. 

I hope this helps.

Now, dear reader, you may have gathered which tip I am using in my speech.

 Two or three copies of the photo in progressively larger sizes.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons, CL, ACG.

Traffic light colours to time speeches demonstrated with scarves by Angela

Timing with red, yellow and red scarves
 As timekeeper, getting ready to go to Toastmasters, I had thought of demonstrating the lights with three coloured cards, red, yellow and green.

Then I decided to wear a red scarf. I thought that although red is my colour, which suits me, and is stimulating, perhaps as timer I should wear an encouraging green scarf rather than red. I put on the green, leaving on the red, reluctant to remove it, then decided to add yellow to demonstrate all the colours.

In this video you see Toastmaster of the Evening (a role recently renamed event manager) introducing me as timer.

I explained the importance of time, the speech lengths, and when to go on seeing green.

I demonstrated by waving the scarves in turn. (See previous post on entire meeting.)
Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG.

Checklist for speakers, training, contests and other meetings

We just had a setback to a an area training meeting. Only three days before the training we discovered the person who normally books the venue where we meet had not booked it. He now said that the venue had been booked by another group. Other choices included a church hall which would be occupied with religious ceremonies on a Sunday. Other committee members said they had no time and it wasn't their problem.

The President was cross, conceded that the buck stopped with him, but he was out all next day (Friday) and had to find somebody else to fix the problem. You either delegate down or up. So he texted up to the Area Governor.

How can you prevent this sort of disaster happening?

I think the only way is to send around a checklist to every person involved station what you are expecting them to do and asking them to confirm by email that they have successfully decided, done or planned to do tasks including:

1 Book venue.
From time you need to set up until time you have packed up.

2 Arrange catering.
Inform attendees about catering lack or catering and restrictions. (Tea and biscuits provided. Free sandwiches / cake/ fruit provided before, at interval, at end. Please eat first. Please bring sandwiches (any kind - or any restrictions eg no meat in Hindu/vegetarian venue). Please bring drinks/ water. Or no drinks allowed.

3 Organise Props and stationery:
Flip charts, projection, extension leads, computers, thumb drives, banners, certificates, agendas, voting forms, badges. Lecterns.

4 Reminders and directions.
Send participants reminders of date, time place and directions. Google maps. Club website.

Organise key holder and those setting up room.

Contacts
1 List phone numbers of contacts of property owner (in case you reach venue and find it is locked);
2 Tell everybody the phone of the trouble shooting contact: club president, or SAA, or VPE, key holder, whoever is required to be first on the scene.
Tell everybody the contact before and during meeting who has a phone on silent vibrate to help anybody lost en route, near the building, outside, or inside looking for the room.

Angela Lansbury, speaker, photo journalist and author.