Put in My Place!

Haven't had much time for comedy, but did get in a little stage time at the Toastmasters Humour contest. I talked about education in general, my experiences with it, and, in particular, how my daughter Allison managed to go from a grade nine drop out to her first year in university. It was fun; I went with a tight opening, a loose ending, and a compendium of way too many jokes to place between the two.

A Latvian MBA talked about how the dream of most citizens of former Soviet States is to take a vacation in America, and his own experiences doing the same. A robustly elderly woman of Danish descent did a nicely ironic piece on, “Why?” One lady did a bit on her cats’ toilet training, or lack of same, and my pal, Terry McBride talked about how to manage a frugal vacation in Norway.

I was also ‘persuaded’ to go into the impromptu portion of the evening’s contest, and was given, as my verbal assignment, the question, “Where do you find inspiration?’ It was fun, and funner still to listen to how the other contestants responded to their own questions.

When all was said and done, I managed to squeak into forth last place in the Impromptu Contest, and a steady, second last in the Humour Contest. To my mind the funniest person there was the Danish lady with her ponderings on, “Why?” All told, a fun night.