idol speech
700 words - about five minutes
Mister toastmaster, fellow members and guest.
With your permission, I'd like to lower the tone of Balmain Toastmasters tonight.
Don't worry I'll be keeping my clothes ON.
Over the past few weeks I've had the priviledge of listening to some great speeches on topics ranging from the workings of a thorium nuclear reactor to the philosophy of giving.
But tonight I'd like to talk to you about ...... reality TV.
I'd like to tell you a little bit about one reality TV show - Australian Idol - where it came from and why I enjoy it.
Let me start by explaining for anyone who's unfamiliar with the term that reality TV is a genre of television that does away with scripts, sets and actors.
Instead the television camera follows real people as they go through their lives or enter into an extraordinary situation.
Reality TV really took off in 2000 when television executives in the US came up with the idea for Survivor - marooning a group of people with different personalities on an island, giving them chance to vote each other off and seeing who was the last man standing. In the UK at about the same time TV producers had a similar idea which they called Big Brother.
The critics panned these shows as voyeuristic and pandering to people's basest emotions.
But the public loved them and voted with their remote controls, tuning in in their millions.
Not long after Survivor's success a British music producer by the name of Simon Fuller had a bright idea.
In 2001 Fuller came up with the concept for a show called Pop Idol that was both simple and ingenious. It was a knock-out competition for singers to decide who would get a recording contract.
The format involved auditioning thousands of people across the country to find the 50 or 60 most talented.
Heats were then held to whittle that group down to 12 finalists who were to battle it out over 12 weeks.
In the first week of the finals all 12 singers performed and the public voted on who they liked best by SMS or phone.
The singer with the lowest number of votes was eliminated and the process went on week after week until just one singer was left standing - the idol.
The public was helped in making up its mind by judges representing different aspects of the music industry.
Britons loved the show when it debuted in 2002 and it was quickly spun off around the world as American Idol, Canadian Idol and .... Australian idol.
Personally, I'm a very occasional TV watcher and I usually avoid reality TV. It's good fun.
In the first year of the series in 2003 the judges were former popstar Mark Holden, soul singer Marcia Hines and music executive Ian Dickson.
The show quickly became one of the biggest hits on TV and at the end of 19 weeks the afro-haired Christian Guy Sebastian edged out country boy Shannon Noll.
The second series was also popular and in the end a larger than life girl named Casey Donovan was voted idol.
Her victory was a little overshadowed when one of the show's sponsors Telstra took out huge ads directing people to what was supposedly Casey's website. Unfortunately they left off the dot au from the address and mum, dads and kids looking for casey ended up on a gay porn site.
I'm really enjoying the current series where there are seven contestants left.
A Beyonce-like singer called Emily is shaping up like she could be the eventual winner, but it's early days. Anyone could win and it's exciting to see who's left week after week.
I also believe idol can teach us a thing or two about being better public speakers.
Each week the contestants get up and perform and sometimes they are clearly nervous. And each week they strive to be a bit better.
I think that's brave and inspirational and I think it's a little like what we do here.
It may sound funny, but I think if we can bring a little bit of Australian idol to toast masters each week, that may not be such a bad thing.
Mister toastmaster, fellow members and guest.
With your permission, I'd like to lower the tone of Balmain Toastmasters tonight.
Don't worry I'll be keeping my clothes ON.
Over the past few weeks I've had the priviledge of listening to some great speeches on topics ranging from the workings of a thorium nuclear reactor to the philosophy of giving.
But tonight I'd like to talk to you about ...... reality TV.
I'd like to tell you a little bit about one reality TV show - Australian Idol - where it came from and why I enjoy it.
Let me start by explaining for anyone who's unfamiliar with the term that reality TV is a genre of television that does away with scripts, sets and actors.
Instead the television camera follows real people as they go through their lives or enter into an extraordinary situation.
Reality TV really took off in 2000 when television executives in the US came up with the idea for Survivor - marooning a group of people with different personalities on an island, giving them chance to vote each other off and seeing who was the last man standing. In the UK at about the same time TV producers had a similar idea which they called Big Brother.
The critics panned these shows as voyeuristic and pandering to people's basest emotions.
But the public loved them and voted with their remote controls, tuning in in their millions.
Not long after Survivor's success a British music producer by the name of Simon Fuller had a bright idea.
In 2001 Fuller came up with the concept for a show called Pop Idol that was both simple and ingenious. It was a knock-out competition for singers to decide who would get a recording contract.
The format involved auditioning thousands of people across the country to find the 50 or 60 most talented.
Heats were then held to whittle that group down to 12 finalists who were to battle it out over 12 weeks.
In the first week of the finals all 12 singers performed and the public voted on who they liked best by SMS or phone.
The singer with the lowest number of votes was eliminated and the process went on week after week until just one singer was left standing - the idol.
The public was helped in making up its mind by judges representing different aspects of the music industry.
Britons loved the show when it debuted in 2002 and it was quickly spun off around the world as American Idol, Canadian Idol and .... Australian idol.
Personally, I'm a very occasional TV watcher and I usually avoid reality TV. It's good fun.
In the first year of the series in 2003 the judges were former popstar Mark Holden, soul singer Marcia Hines and music executive Ian Dickson.
The show quickly became one of the biggest hits on TV and at the end of 19 weeks the afro-haired Christian Guy Sebastian edged out country boy Shannon Noll.
The second series was also popular and in the end a larger than life girl named Casey Donovan was voted idol.
Her victory was a little overshadowed when one of the show's sponsors Telstra took out huge ads directing people to what was supposedly Casey's website. Unfortunately they left off the dot au from the address and mum, dads and kids looking for casey ended up on a gay porn site.
I'm really enjoying the current series where there are seven contestants left.
A Beyonce-like singer called Emily is shaping up like she could be the eventual winner, but it's early days. Anyone could win and it's exciting to see who's left week after week.
I also believe idol can teach us a thing or two about being better public speakers.
Each week the contestants get up and perform and sometimes they are clearly nervous. And each week they strive to be a bit better.
I think that's brave and inspirational and I think it's a little like what we do here.
It may sound funny, but I think if we can bring a little bit of Australian idol to toast masters each week, that may not be such a bad thing.
posted by Daniel Dasey at 11:04 PM
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