By :
Dirik Hameed
An after dinner speaker is invited to speak after a meal in order to entertain guests. A formal dinner may be an excruciating affair if one finds oneself seated beside a bore, or worse, a chatter box. The introduction of a speaker once a few glasses of wine have been consumed can be an opportunity to sigh with relief, and sit back whilst someone else makes an effort.Invited after dinner speakers are most effective if they encourage the mood of relaxation and enable guests to digest their dinner with a few chuckles. Every orator should understand his function well. It may be to inspire, persuade or console. After dining the function is first and foremost to entertain, though some light hearted instruction might be acceptable under certain circumstances.A sporting or social celebrity often comes to mind as an appropriate guest of honor. However, hosts need to be cautious. A successful sports person who can utter a few closed lipped banalities into a microphone after a match is not necessarily capable of a thirty minute urbane and witty speech.However, guests might feel let down if a local mediocrity who the diners know well is invited to be the guest of honor. This means that event organizers need to select from quite a short list of celebrities who are also accomplished speakers.A person who has managed some sort of celebrity status, even it is entirely undeserved, is likely to bring in invitations to speak at formal dinners. For a person who may have been picked for a team but have very little public speaking expertise this can be a testing time. The path from fame to fortune can be slippery.Some people are born raconteurs. Without any training they can instinctively tell a joke with perfect timing and nuance so that an audience will fall about in laughter. Another person without those inherited aptitudes may tell exactly the same joke, downloaded word for word from the Internet and be met only by blank stares and polite murmurs. Nevertheless anyone who becomes famous, if only briefly, may be invited to speak at least once.There are few simple rules of thumb that may help anyone in such a dilemma. In preparation one should think of a few simple but serious points that need to be made. Then, even if every joke, witticism and sally falls flat, at least the speech may be ended with some semblance of purpose. It should be remembered that an after dinner speaker usually has a receptive audience ready to laugh when given a cue.Delivery will always be the difficult part. A few simple rules can solve difficulties. The first rule is to audibly address a person at the far end of the table, remembering the serious thread that has been worked out. Second, a speaker should put aside self-consciousness and concentrate on cloaking the points that he has to make with irony, hyperbole, analogy and such specific ploys that have served entertaining speakers for centuries. If this is graciously done many other invitations to be an after dinner speaker will surely follow.
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