AFTER DINNER SPEECHES & STORIES: HOW TO DELIVER YOUR SPEECH WITH STORIES FOR ALL OCCASIONS, John Bolton

Anyone who has ever attended a Dinner where After Dinner Speeches and Toast have been the order of the day knows very well just what a difference a really good speaker making a first class speech can make.

All too often the After Dinner speaker is inarticulate, in comprehensible and much too long-winded. The Dinners are generally keen to get on with the rest of the evening's entertainment which is usually dancing, but which could be a smoking concert, a display of some sort or a cabaret and, at the best, the speeches become merely a means of filling in the time while the company relaxes and digest its meal.

The good speaker knows how to make a witty, memorable speech; she knows how much to say, how to say it and when not to say it! She does not bore his listeners with long, wearisome anecdotes about himself and other people who are not known to the present company, nor does he use the After Dinner Speech to pay off old scores. Unlike the political, the After Dinner Speech is never heckled nor interrupted in any way, and the speaker who takes advantage of this fact by attacking an individual or a group who are prevented by good manners from replying, will probably not again be asked to speak at such a function.

To be good After Dinner speaker is an asset that can be acquired by anybody willing to spend a small amount of time in the preparation of the speech and another amount of time in practising the speech. Very few people can make a good, impromptu speech and the beginner should certainly never try to do so.

In this book we have included all the aspect of speech-making at After Dinner functions--we explain in detail just how to prepare a speech, how to deliver it, some specimen speeches, some useful quotations and some good After Dinner stories which judicially introduce into a speech will bring humour and help to create an atmosphere of hilarity.

The jokes too, should be used sparingly always in context. They should be not dragged in merely for the sake of humourus appeal. To tell a golfing story at the Golf club's Annual dinner will be appreciated, and you will acquire a reputation as a witty speaker; to use the same story at Dinner given for a visiting celebrity will merely label you as being "rather stupid". Make full use of humour label when the subject demands it, but make sure you are using the humour that fits the situation.