Tasks for semi-humorous TableTopics

Greetings fellows.

Recently I have led some more (semi-)humorous TableTopics, and I'm ready to share some details on that - maybe they'll help you prepare your own TableTopics or re-use those at your club.

For the TableTopic every speaker had to imagine himself or herself as someone who occupies position of a City Mayor or possibly a leader of influential party or political fraction within City Council - any imaginary person that has the power to initiate some major changes within the city (I know that's not exactly realistic, but it's just fine for the sake of TableTopic - after all it had to have some humour in it so noone would get bored (-: ).

The speaker was given a task - a description of certain change that he/she as an influential figure was about to do to the city. He/she had to explain why this change is good for the city and why exactly this thing is his/her top priority for current time. Usually that change was something eccentric, so that the speaker would had to think how to present it in as something beneficial and relevant.

So, here are the tasks (descriptions of aforementioned hypothetical changes to city life) from two recent TableTopics:

TableTopic one:

1. Turn city fountains into a free swimming pools with a hot water working all the year around.

Crooked politicians - a humorous table topic

Greetings toastmasters,

Recently I've made a humorous table topic that seemed to worked pretty well in our club, so here I am sharing the idea with the world (-:

Every volunteer had a task of impersonating a crooked politician - in a humorous "tongue-in-cheek" way of course, nothing too political (which would be against the rules). The volunteer had a task that sounded like this: "You are a politician that did something very unethical or sometimes even criminal (explanation of the deed included). Now that new elections are coming how would you explain yourself to public to clean your name?"

The task had really made the volunteers to make an effort to think. And also as you can probably imagine some of the excuses our "guilty politicians" were making were hilarious (-: , so the table topic was both interesting and funny.

To share some fun here's a little teaser video:

There were seven tasks written in total, and I'm sharing the task texts here so you could use it in your club if you want to, or make your own based on those:

Table Topics Contest

Great news everyone! Last week we have conducted a Table Topics Contest. After the great response we got last year, we have decided to make this our annual tradition.

Each meeting is fun and interesting on its own, but from time to time we want even more emotions, a spirit of contest, communication with other clubs. That is what contests are for: to show what we can do, and to watch others in action! People from different clubs gathered in Lviv this time to compete for the titles of Best Table Topic Master, and Best Table Topic Speaker.

What are Table Topics anyway? Table topics are small impromptu speeches. They are just 2 minutes long, but need to have perfect structure, to be emotional and inspiring.


Table Topic masters announce the rules and general theme for talks. They conduct the show, talking on a subject to help speakers form their own story or a viewpoint, they also make transitions between speakers and their speeches.

This year we had four contestants who prepared their Table Topics sessions. Four judges, two from Lviv, and two from Kyiv, apprised the Best Table Topic Master based on fixed criteria and cold-minded analysis of strengths and flaws of each of four contestants. We paid much attention to fair metrics, so that a cheerful smile and contagious positiveness do not outperform thoughtful preparation and elaborate rehearsal. This is our second contest already (see the Table Topics contest 2009), nevertheless we still see the ways to improve our scale.

A fair democratic voting was our way to let the people’s hearts choose the best Speaker and the Chosen Table Topic Master. This way we made sure that no pure technical trick or weeks of thorough preparation would outperform the natural charm and enthusiasm!

Lyuba Lazarenko was first to present a topic of cartoons. The cartoon heroes we all know appeared in different situations on her pictures. Speakers were asked to describe the story behind the illustrations. All the stories were quite unexpected, and interesting :) And as one of the speakers, I must admit that they were challenging to compose. Only when one tries walking in Table Topic Speaker's shoes, can he understand how brilliant some stories and speakers truly are!

Christina Domashchuk asked the audience to come up with an alternative story based on well-known fairy tales. As in the childhood, the tales were entertaining and had a happy ending. But unlike hearing your grandmother tell the story again and again, knowing every next word, no one could ever guess what comes next! The listeners were roaring with laughter at very unexpected turns of the plots.

Yustyna Holubets was about to found a Total Happiness Organization, and conducted interviews with candidates to the head positions of departments of Confidence, Luck, Success and Creativity. Speakers presented their own ways to run the organization and help people according to their department’s competence. Very thought provoking, the topic has led to interesting ideas and thoughts that make us look at our ways of life from different angles.

And no discussion today can be conducted without trendy social networks! Yuriy Karabach lead the discussion, asked provoking questions, and even called 2 speakers at once to make a sketch on personal communication in an office while facing an impatient deadline. I am personally not a big fan of all the e-social stuff, but the discussion made me consider: maybe it’s worth a second try? It definitely sounded cool!

All the masters were hilarious and creative in their own way, and speakers were a good match to them!

Overall, the contest turned out to be a success. Ancient streets of old Lviv met the first snow, while in the SoftServe’s meeting room Toastmasters enjoyed the cozy atmosphere of friendly talks, stories, and presentations, the rage of a contest, and the joy of sweet victory.

Congratulations to Lyuba Lazarenko, she was chosen by the audience to be the Best Table Topic Speaker!

Congratulations to Christina Domashchuk, she received the Audience Choice Award!

Congratulations to Yustyna Holubets, she was chosen by the jury to be the Best Table Topic Master!

Congratulations to all participants and guests, we had a whole weekend of fun, and that was brilliant! :-)

Table Topics Contest

I love Table Topics! Love participating in them, love conducting them, love evaluating them, and just plain watching them. Because a Table Topic session is always a show, it's the most exciting and dynamic part of every meeting where everyone has the opportunity to think and speak on their feet.

And of course the key to a successful Table Topics session are the witty, intriguing and entertaining questions and comments of the person leading the session – the Table Topic Master. Every meeting we reward the best impromptu speaker; there are all sorts of speech contests, but the Topicsmaster always remains the man behind the scene.


That's why last week we held our very first Table Topics Contest. This was a great opportunity for the members to achieve recognition for their creativity, presentation and organizational skills and to exchange experience and some exciting new ideas for Table Topics.

The results exceeded all expectations. All Table Topics were unique and riveting.
First, Yaroslav took us on a journey in time, to the far past, to bring civilization to primitive tribes. We were to explain to the prehistoric people how to use some of the everyday appliances we have in our time.


It's amazing how we take most of the things we have for granted, so when it comes to explaining them, we don't know where to begin. Especially if the questions are a bit... unexpected :)


The next Topicsmaster, Olena has provided us some food for thought with her Table Topics devoted to emotions, good and bad. With her Table Topics session she showed that everything is not black or white and even anger can sometimes be useful.


Alex's Table Topic session was rather unusual. It transported us to a courtroom where we took part in a civil case process between a dog owner who was walking his dog without a leash and a man, whom the dog allegedly bit. Despite the gravity of the matter, the whole trial was hilarious, thanks to the colorful and vivid acting of the participants.

The next Topicsmaster, Reno, had some deeply philosophical questions. He drew parallels between human behavior and the survival mechanisms of orchids. Apparently no matter how evolved we may be, we still adhere to the same rules as the rest of the animal kingdom.


The last participant was Andriy, who also made us travel in time, this time into our own childhood. It was very interesting to hear about the childhood memories people have. And some of the stories were really amusing. Like, you know that cats always land on their feet, and a sandwich always falls butter down. But do you know what happens if you put butter on a cat's back and throw it out the window? It lands on a tree. Go figure... :)

At the end of the meeting 3 winners were determined.


The best impromptu speaker chosen by the majority of votes was Christina, our new member, who won the audience over with a hilarious story from her childhood.
The best Table Topics Master was Yaroslav and the audience choice award went to Andriy.

Overall, the contest turned out to be a success. It was a lot of fun and very educational. I think we'll make such contests a tradition along with the annual speech contests.