Division C District 51 Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contest

We were dead tired as at last we reached the Subang KTM Station, when I say we I mean the 5 of us – Ruby, Jer Venn, Jane, Wai How and lastly myself, Mathew. Once we reached the station, we quickly hurried off to Mr. Victor’s car and somehow managed to squeeze into the car before setting off to the destination of the Division C District 51 Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contest which was at SEGI College, Subang Jaya.

Upon arriving at the place we had to first register ourselves and after doing so headed in to the hall. We found an empty row and all five of us crashed into the seats whereas poor Mr. Victor had to sit on a seat in the row in front of us. There was a delay due to some problem with the audio systems and around 2.15 p.m. the organizing chairman, ALB CC Ismail Omar gave his welcome address. He apologized for the delay and made a good welcome speech making us all feel at ease. He then introduced the Master of Ceremony or the Toastmaster of the Day ACB CL Ravinder Singh.

First off was the Humorous Speech Contest. The contest chair for the competition ACB CL Chew Shel Ling explained the purpose as well as the rules of the competition. At last after about 7 times asking us whether we were ready they kicked off the competition with none other than the well-known Stephen Fernando. His speech was titled “Some things never change”. In the speech he explained how technology had advanced and how it used to be like for people like him growing up those days. He also mentioned how some things never change such as the love between people.

After setting such a high bar for the other contestants to follow, Stephen Fernando left the stage for the next contestant Chong Jay Vee with her title “Skirts of the new world order”. In her speech she said how politicians nowadays should wear skirts so that they wouldn’t be able to keep the bribe money. She also went on to say how women are allowed to wear pants whereas guys are not allowed to wear skirts since it’s not accepted in general. She also said in her speech that guys should wear skirts to increase the birth rate which according to her is decreasing around the world.

After that “startling” speech, came our 3rd contestant, Jeremy Teo Wee Sheng. The title of his speech was “The secret to a happy marriage”. In the speech, he said how the secret to every successful marriage is the ability of the person to lie to his/her spouse and if each one of us could lie in a convincing manner, we would have a successful marriage.

The 4th contestant was Alvin Leo with his speech entitled “Alvin or Veronica?” In short this speech was about how we should accept transsexuals in our society and how we shouldn’t blame them over something that they cannot control. The last contestant of the Humorous Speech Contestant was S.K. Ratnam. The title of his speech was “Looking back”. In his speech he reminisced how he got married and how his father-in-law tricked him and made him say that he liked the daughter. After that hilarious speech we had a 20 minute break in which we were given refreshments as well as some time to mingle around.

After that we were ushered back in for the next contest – Evaluation contest. We had CC CL Chan Guan Leong who came up and explained the purpose as well as the rules of the evaluation contest. He then introduced the test speaker who the contestants would be evaluating on, Ritchie Ganesh. The test speaker delivered his speech entitled “The priceless glory of the atmosphere”. In his speech he explained how the clouds are formed, the different types of cloud, how lightning is formed as well as many other interesting facts on clouds. It was not only a very informative speech but also a very passionate one.

After that, the contestants of the Evaluation Contest stepped up to give their 2 cents worth of opinion regarding the test speaker’s speech. First up we had Fabian Fidelis who shared his comments about Ritchie’s speech. Next up we had Yong Yin May with her evaluation. She startled everyone by saying that she would give Ritchie an F, a big, big F. She added that she would give him an F because it was F-antastic, F-illed with information and lastly F-unny.
Then came Allen Gan and he said how he had never ever seen someone else so passionate about clouds. He said how the test speaker gave a very detailed explanation and how informative he was. After that, Gregory Sim Han Meng came on stage with his opinions and lastly followed by Alvin Ang.

We then had an interview session with the contestants which were done by the contest chair members while we were waiting for the judges to sum up the final decision. And after a few minutes the results were announced to us. The results were as below:

Humorous Speech Contest
1st Stephen Fernando
2nd S.K. Ratnam
3rd Jeremy Teo Wee Sheng

Evaluation Contest
1st Allan Gan
2nd Yong Yin May
3rd Alvin Ang

With the end of the prize giving session, the Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contest came to an end. We left after learning not a few things on how to crack up a crowd as well as how to give an encouraging evaluation, it was truly a learning experience for all of us.

By Mathew.