Humorous Contest Overview
For this contest which is set in Autumn you have two speech contests.
The first half will be a prepared speech contest lasting 5 – 7 minutes
The second half will be a Table Topics Contest
Humorous Speech Contest
An original speech with humour value, but also displaying good speech making abilities. Speech Time 5-7 minutes
Goes as far as District level.
Green Light | Yellow Light | Red Light |
5 minutes | 6 minutes | 7 minutes |
Table Topics Contest
The topic should be general in nature and not require specialised knowledge. All Contestants are taken out of the room and brought back individually by the Usher.
Thereby a Contestant does not hear the topic or any other Contestant’s speech before delivering their own speech. Speech Time 1-2 minutes
Goes as far as District level.
Green Light | Yellow Light | Red Light |
1 minute | 1 minute 30 seconds | 2 minutes |
District Level
As part of toastmasters international we are made up of sections.
The winner of each competition will go on to the Area contest, then the winner from that will go to Division, winner goes to District.
FYI: The international speakers competition will go to the regional contest
Club | The Club is made up of a minimum of 20 members |
Area | Clubs are grouped into Areas consisting of 4-6 Clubs |
Division | Areas are organised into Divisions with 4-6 Areas per Division |
District | Divisions are grouped together to form Districts |
Region | Districts are grouped together to form Regions |
Time Parameters
Contestant will be disqualified if they fall short of the minimum times, or exceed the maximum times.
Sounds very official …. of course, taking part is just as much fun but make sure you end between the times as it would be upsetting to miss out on winning because you were a second over (yes it’s happened before)
Contest | Minimum Time | Maximum Time |
Humorous Speech | 4 minutes 30 seconds | 7 minutes 30 seconds |
Table Topics | 1 minute | 2 minutes 30 seconds |
You will notice that the disqualification timings are 30 seconds either side of the speech times as signaled by turning on the green and red lights – except for Table Topics, where Contestants must speak for at least one minute to avoid disqualification.
Eligibility
To be eligible a Contestant must:
Be a ‘member in good standing’ – that means renewals for the member have been paid by the Club to WHQ on time (2 month grace period applicable);
And be entering on behalf of a ‘Club in good standing’ – that means renewals for at least 6 members have been paid by the Club to World Headquarters on time (2 month grace period applicable);
And for the International Speech Contest only, have completed at least 6 Competent Communication manual speeches (unless a charter member of a Club chartered since the beginning of the Toastmasters year).
Whether Contestants are ‘members in good standing’ of ‘Clubs in good standing’ can be ascertained by emailing speechcontests@toastmasters.org.
Even if meeting the conditions above, the following members are ineligible:
– District and International officers and candidates.
– Presenters of education sessions at the Contest event.
– Members serving as Judges at any level for a Contest in which the member is still competing.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Toastmasters EasySpeak for the resources for this page
https://toastmasterclub.org/kb.php?mode=article&k=27
And https://www.d6tm.org/organization/