Five Possible Ideas For An After Dinner Talk
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by: Dirik Hameed
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Word Count: 544
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 Time: 11:38 PM
After dinner speakers should understand the genre within which they are working. It demands social grace and elegance. The aim is to round off a pleasant social occasion with cleverness and suave sophistication so the speaker needs to be someone who is at ease, confident and socially well respected. His job is to entertain.
Frequently business people are invited to a dinner to celebrate an occasion such as an anniversary to mark a centenary or number of years that the company has survived. In such a case the best topic for the after dinner speech may be the organization itself, under a topic such as 'You and the company you keep'. This would allow some space for analogies, puns and amusing allusions from the after dinner speaker.
When the exact nature of an audience cannot be known in advance it is best to search for a topic that has universal appeal. Many stories for children begin with a line such as, 'Once upon a time there was an old man'. The universal themes of time and humanity are implied in these words. A topic that emanates from these two themes will usually fit well within what people expect.
Two other broad categories that may help to distinguish an audience are town and country. Although a gathering may often include both urban and rural people, it is often the case that one or the other predominates. If the group is predominantly rural a topic such as 'Country themes' may hold appeal, but a more sophisticated urban audience may prefer a topic such as 'Fashion Tips'. Both topics could be interpreted from humorous angles and an after dinner speech invites humor above all else.
Sports people love to have dinners. Rugby players especially enjoy the camaraderie of joking and socializing, perhaps because they play a rough game. After eating and drinking heartily they like to laugh and remember funny instances of the rough and tumble that their game involves. A topic like 'Reminiscences' will sum up all that a speaker will have to do. Simply by recalling things that actually happened he will have his audience crying with laughter.
An essential rhetorical skill is to judge the mood of an audience and adapt accordingly. An experienced orator might omit some lines or modify others but one who lacks experience and therefore confidence might stick to his script. This is probably best. An inexperienced speaker who hesitates may get swept away by confusion.
Good dining tends to breed geniality and good cheer, so a speaker's task is often made much easier by the time he has to rise and perform the task for which he was invited. If the diners' mood is sufficiently euphoric he may elicit howls of laughter even for lame jokes and banalities. If a speaker relinquishes his responsible role and joins wholeheartedly with the mood of carefree celebration he may enjoy giving his speech as much as his audience enjoy hearing it.
The proclivities of after dinner speakers will influence what topics may be suggested. What some may consider 'great' may cause others to scratch their heads. When orators worth their salt are invited there will almost certainly be requests for details about the context of the speech, the audience and suggested topics.
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