Angela Lansbury Speeches and Making Speeches

I just made a list of ribbons which I had won for speeches. 

First I wanted to know how many ribbons I had for each type of speech. A few days ago I had won a ribbon for evaluating. 

 I had a new ribbon to put in a frame. I used to write on the back of the ribbon the place, date and subject. But now it seems easier to write on the front. Although it defaces the ribbon, once you have two or three or four in a frame they all look the same. I want to remember when I won them, and where.

I had twelve ribbons, but I don't count the ones for the first speech and the tenth speech. They are rewards for milestones, for numbers of speeches given, quantity not quality.

Look at what I discovered about my ribbons.

I had 12 ribbons: 2 for completing 1st and 10th speeches; 3 for evaluations; 7 for impromptu speeches. But none for planned speeches!

Clearly my most successful performances are impromptu speeches. So I should continue with my plans to do stand-up comedy.

Ribbons
For completed speeches (2)
1 Ice Breaker (First speech) Harrovians 2004 (& HOD 2004)
2 CTM (Tenth speech) Harrovians

Ribbons for Best Table Topics
1 Holborn, UK, 8/11/2005 ‘Speak for turkeys at Christmas.’ Remember the turkey which escaped from the overturned lorry? As PR I had turkeys on TV but they ran away, all over the set, amongst the audience, like this (making noise and fIapping wings I gallop down the aisle back to my seat) ...’

2 Shanghai 2006 ‘Is computer dating and blind dating good?’ (Yes - except for my blind date with a bearded man - there was one on the restaurant doorstep, 3 inside ...)

3 Shanghai 2006 ‘How would you sell a bicycle which supports a ladder?’ (Illustrated) ‘I’d say: use it to hang washing in trees; be seen in traffic when meeting your friends.’

4 Harrovians 2007 ‘Thatcher said, “Ask a man to speak but ask a women to get something done”. Do you agree?’ (Yes, but father was action man and my mother did all the talking - because my father was deaf; after she died I did the talking and found out he’d been deaf for years.)

5 Harrovians Jul 2007 ‘Is Computer Dating successful?’ (Yes, I’m on 40 dating sites, under different names. I date men with viagra and heart bypasses and hopeful virgins.)

6 Harrovians Aug 6 2007 ‘How does a blind baby make sense of the world?’ (Sniffs the Toastmaster; feels the beard of a man in the audience, pats his shoulders and waist ...)

7 Harrovians July 2008 ‘Should we tax the rich?’ (No. they’ll emigrate. Make the rich run on treadmills in gyms to power buildings. You in the audience could be powering light bulbs, please stamp your feet.)

Ribbons for Best Evaluator
1 Singapore Props 2006 Company club evaluated Chinese girl speaker who acted an old and a young man. (I recommended props - baseball cap for younger man. She did not know what props were.)

2 HOD June 22 2006

3 Harrovians July 7 2008 Evaluated Warren Sheng facing a hostile audience. (He bravely got Shirley to heckle and throw water, which was convincing, ‘she’s that type of person’ and he did not get angry but got the audience on his side.)

I belong to Harrovians and HOD clubs in London. Both of them give you ribbons. But Holborn club in central London also gives you a certificate showing the club and date. I think that's a good idea. It saves you having to spoil the ribbon by writing on it, or having to type and print your own caption. Or forgetting where and when you won the ribbons.

I had made a list on the back of my Toastmasters manual of the competitions I'd entered and won. Then I added a list of ribbons. 

I hope to persuade Harrovians speakers' club to start printing mini certificates to go with the colourful red or white ribbons with the glamorous gold lettering. The committee are a bit doubtful about this idea. 

They were thinking of giving a certificate for the fifth speech. Then decided that the sixth was a milestone. So if you had a certificate with every ribbon, a certificate for the sixth speech would not be appreciated so much. 

I think it would be. If a ribbon is always special, so is a certificate. Just as you get ribbons for best speech as well as for 10th speech, you can have certificates if you are voted best speaker, as well as for doing your sixth speech. 

The alternative is to give a larger A4 certificate for the 6th speech. Or a small A5 certificate for the 6th speech and larger A4 certificates for prize-winning speeches.

If you win certificates or ribbons or trophies for speeches or anything else, it is good to have a record.  When I am listed as a speaker in speakers' bureau or agency, it will be advantageous and prestigious to be able to say how many ribbons I have won.