My first Toastmasters class

Tonight I decided to join "Toastmasters" for those of you who may not know what Toastmasters is. It's an organization, a club where you join and practice public speaking. I thought it would be great for my magic because I really want to be able to have both strong magic as well as a presentation.

Well here are my thoughts on the first day of class. I was quite impressed. "Toastmasters" is well thought out and organized. Tonight I got a chance to hear and see three speakers in the class. The first speaker talked about the poor people in Brazil where they live in a place called "Favela" which is a fancy word fro slums. 

Only a few hundred feet away are high rises with huge balconies. Each balcony has it's own pool The people in "Favela" don't pay taxes . They actually have their own grocery stores. They made their own little city made out of whatever material they can find. Wood, metal, tarp. Another speaker talked about the high taxes in Illinois and came up with a solution of the high taxes using an example of a layered cake and how each layer represents a income bracket. The last speaker talked about immigration and the positives that we don't hear about. Why immigration is good and how they help drive the economy. Overall I thought the speeches were good and it really gave me a clear perspective of what Toastmasters is all about. At the end of the class the Toastmaster panel gives you a rundown on what was good, strong, needs work and the "Ands" and "Ums"

My first assignment that I had to do tonight was to pick a index card from the toastmaster. On each card was written an animal . The toastmaster set up a scenario. The scenario was that Noah was boarding animals and he only had room for one more animal I had to talk and convince Noah why he should pick me and not the other animals. It was designed to be improve so it will help us think fast I picked the card that said "Snake" and so it went something like this. "Helooooow ahhh Noahhhhh. I think you shoulddddd pick meeeeee...ssssssssssss, because I'mmmmmm a snakeeee.....ssssssssand I'm slitheryyyyyyy and if you don'tttt pickkkk meeeeee. I willlll squeezeeeee youuuuu. sssssssss, so think about it....." I was told that I did pretty good for my first time. 

As magicians I think that our props are sometimes our security blanket. We let our props speak. When our props are gone. It's a different story. My first assignment is to speak about myself. I will start video taping and posting them on the social media and this blog. Each video will be numbered so you can follow up on my progress. One day! Mark my words! I'll be on "Ted Talks"