What a double contest night we had on Wednesday! I laughed so much my jaws hurt 🙂
After the contest chair for the night, Bryant, had briefed all the contestants on the contest rules, and the chief judge, Laurent, had briefed the judges, counters and timers on their duties, the contest was opened by the Phoenix president, Isabel.
First we had the table topics contest, with 5 participants: Mike, VanZyl, Roland, Atul and Grant
The topic they had to tackle was “The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy”. We had different approaches to the topic, including avoiding the question and hoping for a heart attack.  Well done to all the topics contestants for their courage!
Whilst the votes were counted Bryant, our brilliant Contest Chair, started a rolling story about a little girl called Sophie, to which everyone in the room had to add to her fortunes and misfortunes.
After the break, we had the humorous speech contest, with three contestants: Shane, Atul and Roland
Well done Shane, for completely improvising to cover a contestants gap and entertain us with a wedding speech that made the audience roar with laughter.
Next, Atul delighted the audience with his advice about “finding the right partner”. With a brilliant use of visual aids, Atul told us funny stories about some of his past girlfriends and his wife, but not least about his passion for cricket playing!
Last but not least, Roland entertained us with a brilliant parody of our obsession with mobile devices and gave us some useful tips to communicate with our mobile phones with sign language. I must try that with my beloved mobile phone.
Whilst the votes were counted Bryant directed a table topics session.
When the judges came back, the chief judge announced the winners of the two contests:
On table topics, the winners were:
1st place – Roland
2nd place – Grant
3rd place – Atul
Congratulations all, especially Roland!!
On the humorous speech contest, the winners were:
1st place – Atul
2nd place – Roland
Well done both, especially Atul!
Very big thanks to everyone that made the contest a success, including sergeants at arms, counters and timers, Contest Chair, our president, our courageous contestants and all judges.
Next round will be the Area contest on 24 September were the Phoenix winners will have to compete with winners from other clubs!