AIDPSC After-Dinner Speaking
Overview
An after-dinner speech is the kind of speech that is given after a formal dinner to an audience who have a common interest or share some aspect(s) of identity, employment or character (e.g. the left-handed society or the dental association).
This category includes the kind of speech given at a convention, e.g. by the Chairman or sales manager of a firm or specialised group, reviewing the practices, policies or employees of that firm or group.
The speaker must address an imaginary audience of his or her own choosing. They must deliver some new and relevant insights to them in a way designed to inform and entertain. Although not necessarily human, both speaker and audience must be credibly capable of communication through speech: i.e. they may be vampires or aliens, for example, but they may not be animals. The only exception to this rule is that the speaker and/or audience may be animals if they are derived from books, films or plays/musicals in which they already have the power of speech; e.g. characters from Animal Farm.
The speaker may ask the chairman to announce who is being addressed immediately before he/she delivers the speech. In that case, a brief and suitable form of words must be provided. Otherwise the speaker will identify the audience in the opening lines of the speech.
Speaking Times
The speech must be 6 minutes long, with a 1 minute grace period either side of that time (i.e. speeches must be between 5 minutes and 7 minutes in length in order to avoid time penalties).
Do not push your speech up to the 7 minute maximum time, as you will need to leave time for laughter during your speech.
Time penalties are especially severe in this event, so you must be well practiced.
Scoring
The overarching aim is simple: make people laugh a lot, but in an intelligent and structured manner.
Accordingly, you will be marked against the following criteria:
- Quality of theme and ideas
- Quality of entertainment and delivery
- Adherence to format
- Organisation and structure of speech
You can download a copy of the AIDPSC After-Dinner Speech Ballot here: AIDPSC After Dinner Speaking Ballot
Things to Consider
An after dinner speech is not a stand-up routine, in that a stand-up routine is usually a disconnected series of jokes, often switching focus or going off in random directions. Rather, an after dinner speech is a structured stand-up routine that is unified around a common theme or focus.
You should be hilarious if you want to do this topic. Getting a few chuckles, or speaking facetiously, will not be enough.
It appears that after dinner speeches score significantly lower than persuasive speeches. For example, the top-placed persuasive speakers at the 2014 WIDPSC was a full ten points above the top-placed after dinner speakers, knocking most after dinner speakers out of the higher overall rankings. Therefore, it would seem that picking this option will make it very difficult to finish in the top ten at the AIDPSC, although given the smaller number of people who choose this speech, you are more likely to make its final.
You are allowed to take up one double-sided cue card of 10cm x 14cm. However, and this cannot be stressed enough, you should have you speech memorised and avoid using the cue card. If you decide to have a card, it should remain in your pocket until required.
No other props beyond the cue card are allowed.
Do not say anything offensive. Anything classified as ‘hate speech’ will result in elimination. Anything which a judge interprets as offensive will result in marking penalties, and getting more than one judge off-side will severely hurt your scores, so play it safe.
Often the best-performing speeches are those with the widest appeal, not those which gain the loudest laughter. It can be better to be placed second on everyone’s score-sheets than first on one person’s and fourth on everyone else’s. Your speech should be humorous, but keep in mind that your judges will be mainly English and humanities teachers of varying ages and sensibilities.
Intelligent humour will be rewarded, but only if those judging it understand it. Juvenile humour will be punished.
Do not delivery a series of one-liner jokes. This will be seen as unstructured, unintelligent and will become tiresome after several minutes.
Examples of Successful After Dinner Speech Topics
Selecting the right audience and topic for your speech will be key. You get to define your audience, but you should still keep in mind that the people judging your speech will be ordinary teachers (so don’t make your jokes too dependent upon inside knowledge). That said, expect to do research into your chosen area so that you can present a speech that is well targeted, intelligent and insightful, as well as very humorous. If you do not pick or identify an audience, then it will be assumed that the speech is being presented to a ‘general audience’ (i.e. ordinary people). This option is discouraged as you will find it difficult to effectively focus your speech.
Examples of successful topics that people have done previously include:
- ‘Sod off Shakespeare’ (an organised group of Shakespeare-hating individuals)
- A School Valedictorian
- The New Zealand Film Association
- A Debating Association
Examples of After-Dinner Speeches