| Disclaimer: |
| The following expresses the opinions of the speaker and should not be taken as an endorsement by the club, it's officers, Toastmasters International in general, the State of Connecticut, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or any anthropomorphic turtles that practice ninjutsu in my basement... But at least I now have your attention! |
The opening of a speech is Important.
Someone wise once said that "the key to a good speech is to have a good opening, a good closing, and keep them as close together as possible."
While the opening has several functions, one of the main one is to get people's attention. Once you have their attention you need to hold on to it for dear life, becaue attention is very slippery.
There are a lot of ways to get people's attention in your opening:
I once saw a speaker in a contest trip on the way to the lectern, turn it into a somersault, stand up in one motion and continue walking; but that was a professional who had training and experience and knew how do it without getting hurt.
What ever you do, you must get people's attention to focus on you.
And you must keep it. If you tell a joke it must be relevant or people will wander off when they realize that your speech isn't as funny as your opening joke suggested, even if it is funny but just not about the same topic as the joke. One thing I would not do is point at an imaginary person in the back of the room and yell "You, in the back, eyes forward" because while I moved people's focus of attention, I've moved it away from myself and thus my message.