I had fun judging at the state speech tournament yesterday. My assignments were humorous acting, prose, and informative speaking. The best performance I saw all day was by a squirt of a kid with a mouthful of braces who presented a hilarious piece about a little boy being chased up a tree by two bears. The premise was lightweight, but the kid's delivery was heavy duty. I was mesmerized at his ability to tell this goofy story, and in no time I, the usual straight-faced judge, was busting up.
I always like judging the informative speeches to see if I can learn anything new about the world. The ones I heard were on agribusiness, malaria, laughter, flirting, the honey bee, and aspirin. I awarded first place to the honey bee girl. She was so sweet--yikes!! I got to thinking about what informative topic I would choose if I were in a speech contest today and got it narrowed down to: "How to Take a Bubble Bath" and "Cleaning Up Cat Upchuck." I'm already an expert on these subjects, so little research would be required.
The only thing I didn't enjoy about yesterday was having to rise and shine at 4:30 AM in order to get to the judge's meeting on time. I'm not a morning person, but the oldies on KEYN radio helped to keep me awake at the wheel. Freddy and the Dreamers, Connie Francis, and Gary Lewis and the Playboys, I thank you very much! You rock!
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