South Main Monthly

Vol. 2 No. 2 South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609 August 2007

The mission of the Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually

supportive and positive learning environment in which every
member has the opportunity to develop communication and
leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and
personal growth.

IN THIS ISSUE: President’s

*President's Corner

*Anniversaries and Milestones

Weilie Pan, Lu Yao
Brian Zhang, Gary Chen
Annie M. Ballatore
John Davis Reynolds Jr. (JR)
*Calendar of Events
Aug 5: Education Session with Michael Plaks
Aug 19: Humorous and Table Topics Contests
*New Member Spotlight
Xiao Yang
Eda Morita
Mark Desouza
*Features
“July’s Special Educational Speaker: Yolanda Bynum”
by Vivian Li, CC
“My Favorite Stand-up Comedians”
by Ranjith Poduval
“Life Cannot Be without Computers" by Jane Shen
The South Main Monthly is a monthly publication of the South
Main Speakers Toastmasters club. We meet every Sunday at
1:30 p.m. in 10305 South Main Street (Houston Chinese
Church), Room 411. For more information, please visit our
website at: http://groups.msn.com/southmainspeakers
If you have any comments, contributions, or suggestions
concerning this or future issues, please send them to
judycyan@hotmail.com. Thank you for reading!
Corner
Time to Compete Again!
By Vivek Rajan
The Fall 2007 Humorous and Table Topics contests are
coming up this month and it's time to compete again! Our club
will hold the club contest on the 19th of August, and the
winners will represent our club at the area level. Remember
that Toastmaster contests are not about
winning; they are about improvement.
If you are new to competing in humorous speech
contests, don't worry about how to make people laugh. Our
diligent VP of Education, Vivian Li, has organized two
educational sessions by veteran humorous speakers -Yolanda
Bynum and Michael Plaks. (Video of Yolanda's session:
http://www.atmajnana.org/SouthMainSpeakers/Videos/July15-
2007/.) Michael's educational session, "Humorous contest is
SERIOUS business", is going to be held on August 5th. Don't
miss this opportunity to learn from the 1st place district winner
in the 2004 Humorous Speech Contest. The videos of this
session will also be made available online. In addition to
honing your humor skills, you can also hone your impromptu
speaking skills by competing in the Table Topics contest. You
can even use your contest speech towards your educational
goals. To get this credit just tailor your speech to the objectives
of the speech project. "Your body speaks" and "Vocal variety"
projects from the Competent Communicator manual are ideal
projects for the humorous speech contest.

-Judy Yan & Vivian Li, Editors Say yes to the speech contests! Compete and take you
speaking skills to the next level!
 August
Anniversaries & Milestones
 Congratulations to Weilie Pan, who
celebrates her fifth year anniversary
with South Main Speakers this month!

**********

 Congratulations to Lu Yao, Brian

Zhang, and Gary Chen, who celebrate
their first year anniversary with South
Main Speakers this month!
**********
 Congratulations to Annie Ballatore,
ACB & CL, for winning the
Distinguished Club President award!
**********
 Congratulations to JR (John Davis
Reynolds Jr.) on his promotion from
US Army Captain to US Army Major
effective June 17th and his appointment
as Area Governor for area 7 in District
77 (Northeast Central Alabama).
**********
August 5: Special Education Session
Michael Plaks, 1st place winner in the 2004
Humorous Speech Contest at the district level, will
speak from his numerous experiences on how to best
prepare for the humorous speech contest, and show
videos of past contests to help familiarize contest
hopefuls with humorous speeches and the contest
format. This is a must-not-miss opportunity,
especially if you plan to compete. And even if you
don't plan to compete, come for the great laughter
and merriment!
August 19: Humorous and Table Topics contests
The Fall 2007 Humorous and Table Topics contests
are coming up this month. Our club will hold the
club contest on the 19th of August, and the winners
will represent our club at the area level. For more
information on the contests, you can visit:
http://www.toastofchicago.org/hsrules.htm
http://www.toastofchicago.org/ttrules.htm

New Member Spotlight

South Main Speakers has been experiencing fast growth this year. This month we
had 3 new members joined our club!

Please give a warm welcome to our newest members, Xiao Yang, Eda Morita, and Mark
Desouza!

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 South Main Speaker’s July
Special Educational Speaker:
Yolanda Bynum
To help us gear up for the club’s
Humorous Speech Contest, Yolanda
Bynum, this year’s 3rd place winner at the
regional International Speech Contest,
gave an educational session: “Laugh and
the world will laugh with you, cry...and
they still may laugh: How humor can
work to your advantage in any situation." Sam getting some face time with Yolanda

It inspired many members to start

thinking of the speech contests and they
were able to get advice directly from this
star veteran speaker in a wonderful
reception afterwards. Many thanks
Yolanda!

Vivek timing a staring contest between the

Russian (Michael) and the French (Annie)

Ranjith starstruck in Yolanda’s presence

Yolanda sharing her words of wisdom with Jian, Please come again!
Gary, and Renay

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My Favorite Stand-up Comedians
by Ranjith Poduval
Stand-up comedy is the art of presenting
jokes, humorous stories, and one-liners in
front of a live audience. It is usually done by
a single comedian and often involves props
in their acts.
I have loved to watch stand-up comedy for a
long time. Stand-up comedy is something
you can enjoy whenever you have time. The
art of stand-up has evolved and perfected
over time. It encourages one to look at life
on a lighter note. Each comedian has his
unique style of delivery and range of topics
that they like to talk about. So there is a
wide variety of performers out there for a
wide variety of audience.
Jerry Seinfeld is probably the first stand-up
comedian I have seen. His bit encourages
you to take interest in the whole art of stand-
up comedy. Jerry usually talks about the
little idiosyncrasies in relationships and the
basic philosophies of men and women. He
would say things like:
"Men, I mean, men are with women. You
see men with women. How are men getting
women? Many people wonder. Let me tell
you a little bit about our organization.
Wherever women are, we have a man
working on the situation right now. Now, he
may not be our best man, OK, we have a lot
of areas to cover, but someone from our
staff is on the scene. That's why, I think,
men get frustrated, when we see women
reading articles like: "Where to meet men?".
We're here, we are everywhere. We're
honking our horns to serve you better……”
George Carlin is another stand-up comedian
that one shouldn’t miss. He is probably one
of the shrewdest and most incisive
comedians to walk on stage. His selection of
topics ranges from the weird use of the
English language, cunning interpretations of
everyday events, to deep philosophies, the
bits he does more and more of now. His
style of delivery is mostly outspoken, brash
and in your face. Some of his favorite bits
can have you in splits:
"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with
yesterday."
"Think of how stupid the average person is,
and realize half of them are stupider than
that."
"I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing
changed."
For those who have watched Lewis Black,
they would have seen a style much more
different from the subtleness of Seinfeld and
brusqueness of Carlin. Lewis Black usually
does his bits showing anger and frustration,
and the audience loves it since his anger is
directed at general policies of government
and pointing out what is wrong in society.
Some of his most famous excerpts: "In my
lifetime, we've gone from Eisenhower to
George W. Bush. We've gone from John F.
Kennedy to Al Gore. If this is evolution, I
believe that in twelve years, we'll be voting
for plants."
"The Republicans are the party of bad ideas.
The Democrats are the party of no ideas."
One more stand-up comedian of the present
era one should never miss is Chris Rock. His
comedy is more of a mixture of current news,
racial issues, and men women relationships.
The style of delivery is loud and he uses a
lot of pause as well as strong facial
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expressions. As soon as the jokes reach the
audience, the enactment captivates them.
Some of his most famous bits:
"A man is only as faithful as his options."
"I live in a neighborhood so bad that you can
get shot while getting shot......"
In the world of today, where life is fast
paced and we live in turmoil of events
socially and politically, stand-up comedy
comes as a breath of fresh air. It gives a new
perspective to life that it is not meant to be
taken seriously, but lightly with a pinch of
humor. Amen.
************
Life Cannot Be without Computers
by Jane Shen
I was so interested in the theme of this
Sunday’s meeting, “Pondering Life Without
Computers.” Similarly, it raised again the
question debated for a long time: does the
computer bring more positive or negative
impact to people? Like almost anything else,
the computer has its good and bad sides.
Today, most computers are used for the
Internet. Some parents, educators,
psychologists, and crime experts are worried
that computer’s influence has been
extremely harmful to the young, since the
young spend too much time on playing
electronic games on computers or surfing
online to catch violent scenes in videos.
But for me, the computer is a
valuable and important tool. I cannot live
without computers. I have to use computers
to do my homework and search for some
useful information or answers to my
homework. In addition, it opens windows
toward the world in my life. I like to look
through news on websites every morning so
that I know what happened at local places or
elsewhere. It not only delivers the news
instantly, it also shows it in pictures or video
on the screen. Also, a computer brings me a
lot of fun. In my spare time, I can watch
movies, listen to music, or chat with my
friends on computers.
Moreover, our modern societies can
not develop further without computers. The
applications of computers are penetrated in
all kind of fields: industry, education,
agriculture, economy, etc. If you cannot
imagine the consequence of breaking down
all computers in crucial fields, you should
see the horrible scene described in the movie,
Live Free or Die Hard, where the
government is in a state of chaos when most
computers of the government are intruded
and infected with viruses.
It is certain that computers have
deeply changed our lives and our society. It
is also certain that, along with its benefits, it
has many serious problems. To these
problems we must soon find a solution
because, whether you like it or not, the
computer is here to stay. So we should take
good advantage of it to make our lives better.
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