Washington Park Toastmasters Advance In Humorous Speech Contest

Each year, Toastmasters International holds a speech contest. This year’s theme is “Humorous Speech” and members of Newark’s Washington Park Toastmasters, located in the Audible.com headquarters at 1 Washington Park, were prepared to go the gut-busting distance.

In late August, Washington Park Toastmasters started their club contest with with Table Topics. The rules for Table Topics are simple: each speaker is giving a question or statement and they must give a 1-2 minute impromptu speech. If the speaker falls outside of the 1-2 minutes, they are disqualified.

Ioanna Malendrennias, of Union, and Andrew Stanislawski, of Clark, battled head-to-head when asked “What social convention do you not understand and wish did not exist. Andrew had a humorous albeit awkward time of explaining that he doesn’t understand Hashtags or social media. Ioanna is in favor of the taboo social convention of children on leashes due to her wily younger brother.

The second part of the meeting consisted of two 5-7 minute prepared speeches by Oren Levin, of West Orange, and Taj Shareef, of Irvington. Oren gave a hilarious speech about having some technical difficulties while helping his kids with their Kindle. Taj gave a whimsical speech about how Mother Goose was secretly enticing children into dangerous activities like arson (Jack be nimble) and adrenaline chasing.

Ioanna and Taj were the winners and went on to the area contest on September 18th at R65 Bergen Street in Newark, which was chaired by Area Governors Nisha Aidasani, of Area 11, and Yassah Amara, or Area 12. The question for the Table Topics contests was “If someone were to ask you about Toastmasters, what would you tell them?” Ioanna answered that she would tell them it’s an opportunity to network with others and to develop your inner storyteller, as well as learn about others’ inner storytellers. Taj gave his speech about Mother Goose.

Both speeches left the Judges in stitches. Taj and Ioanna both won first place in their Area and will be representing Washington Park Toasmters at the District content on Oct. 9th. The contest will be from 6-9pm, at 65 Bergen Street, Auditorium 3 on the 3rd floor, in Newark. Come by for a good laugh!

For more information on Washington Park Toastmasters, please click here.