Table Topics

 

     One element of most meetings at every Toastmaster's club is Table Topics. TT is an exercise to practice extemporaneous speaking. One member is the designated Table Topics Master. That person's job is to come up with a list of questions to ask other club members during a meeting. The member that is asked a question must speak for at least 30 second and no more than two minutes on the question given. 

   Most members are scared of TT, they find it intimidating and frustrating. There's no time to prepare or think through what you want to say.

   I'm the oddball in that I love TT. It's my favourite part of the meeting. I wonder what will get asked and how I would handle the same question if I were asked. Not only do I like answering TT questions, I also like asking them.

   I was TT Master today and was very pleased with how it went. Here are a few of the questions I asked and the inspiration behind them.

   What is something that you have that you never use? I thought of this question as I renewed my North Dakota pharmacist license. I've never used it. I got it in the middle 1990s when the Red River was flooding in the spring for a few years. The North Dakota Pharmacy association was looking for out of state pharmacists that could come in and work so that resident pharmacists could deal with their flooded homes. By the time I got my license, the river stopped flooding and I never had to use it. It's not expensive to renew and I have to do the required CE anyway so I keep renewing it every year.

   What is the strangest thing you remember?  Many, many, many years ago I was driving back home at about two in the morning. Sometimes when I'm really tired I see things. I saw a giant pink octopus on the interstate in front of me. It's tentacles were splayed out toward the shoulders of the road. I swerved slightly to miss it. There was no one else on the road and I didn't go off the road, but it was scary. From that time on I vowed I would no longer drive tired.

   I asked Jamie, who is a writer, what inspires him and where does he get his ideas from. I asked him this as he writes horror novels and short stories. He has published one or maybe two books and hopes someday to be a best selling author in the genre. I figured that authors usually go on book tours and this is a question that he will get asked. He might as well practice now. He joked about getting ideas from the idea factory in Schenectady New York.

   What movie could you watch over and over again? Recently, C and I watched the movie, "Music and Lyrics". It's a favourite and one that we watch every so often. The movie I do like to watch over and over again is, "Chocolat". I especially like to watch it with the directors commentary track on. I like commentary tracks in general because I'm interested in what goes on behind the scenes and why certain things get done the way they do.

   What distracts you? C and I have a running joke. When something distracts him one of us will say "squirrel!" This comes from the Pixar short character Dug. Dug is a dog that is easily distracted by squirrels.

   It was a good TT session. I think everyone had fun. That's important to me because making it fun makes it less intimidating. (at least that is what I think....)