These have ranged from movie-based speeches, to team contests, and today, we had a really special event.
For our special meeting on 30th September, we were joined by a special guest, Kimochi-san, who is an English Rakugo performer, along with being a fellow Toastmaster at his own club.
Our meeting was run as always by our very capable chairperson, TM.H, and hosted by TM.B as TMOE since it was her idea.
TMOE B. ran the meeting with a deft precision and enthusiasm that was impossible not to be engaged by throughout.
Finally, to add an additional challenge to the evening, TM K. introduced our ‘Word of the Evening’ – unique – which we all tried to make use of throughout the course of the meeting.
However, unlike most meetings, this one had a slightly atypical flow to it.
For the first half, Kimochi-san dazzled us with a spectacular array of Rakugo stories, all presented with flair, passion, and a boatload of laughs.
He gave us three important pieces of advice to help us enjoy watching a Rakugo performance:
1)When you feel like laughing, laugh (don’t hesitate)
2)When someone else laughs, laugh
3)We have different tastes in humour, so some jokes might not land. When Kimochi san gives us a sign, we should laugh.
This really relaxed everyone and created a wonderful atmosphere for us all to enjoy the performance.
Then, after a short interval, he proceeded to run a workshop for us, introducing how we could intentionally apply comical elements to our regular speeches.
Here, he focussed in on 3 core concepts;
1) (zurashi) – how to create a level of surprise in your story by diverting from the expected path of the narrative, but without going too far (which can confuse the audience and make you look like an idiot – )
2) (hiyu) – how to use parallels and metaphors to add colour, clarity, and fun to our stories (ex. my stomach was rumbling like a volcano)
3)Call backs – how to create an ‘inside joke’ early in your story, and then ‘call back to it’ in a later punchline, creating a reward for those paying close attention, and keeping everyone engaged.
There were, of course, far more details than I have time to go through here, so I’ll follow this with a separate post highlighting the 8 key takeaways I got from this wonderful evening of interactive entertainment.
Thank you Kimochi-san, for a wonderfully memorable evening.