Table Topics Ideas - NORMAN TALON

What is Table Topics?

A typical Toastmaster club meeting can be broken into two sections. The prepared speech where a member goes through a series of planned speeches. Then there is the Table Topics section.

In the Table Topics section, each club member, and guests, volunteer and give a 1-2 minute impromptu speech. This is where we practice thinking on our feet, quickly organize and express our thoughts by giving a speech on a subject determined by the Table Topics Master before each meeting.

There are no set rules for choosing a subject. In its simplest, this can be a set of random questions that each speaker just needs to answer and elaborate on. This is acceptable as a beginning Table Topics Master. In time, as you evolve as a speaker, so should the subjects you select. Keep in mind that these do not have to be in a question-and-answer format. You can ask the speaker to act out scenes or situations. Some clubs use the Table Topics to concentrate on eliminating crutch words in their speech.

A Table Topics Master should make every effort to prepare a well thought of Topic, interesting and entertaining. Putting in the effort shows that you value the club and its members.

There are many tools available for choosing Topics. Search the web and you will find many sites that give suggestions. There are also apps that you can use during your club meeting that have the same purpose.

The list below are some ideas I have for Table Topics. When I volunteer to be Table Topic Master, I come up with a list of questions, scenes, or themes, weed out those until I find one I think will make the speakers think, and enjoy themselves. I have not used every idea. I will elaborate more on some topics.

General Themes

Theme – Things you might find in the kitchen. I used this the first time I volunteered as the Table Topic Master. I brought in a paper bag to the meeting. In the meeting, I had some common kitchen items like a mini Babybel, cheese grater, a kitchen clip. I asked each volunteer to pull an item out of the bag and give a 1 – 2 minute speech about the item.
Theme – You wake up at night, go down to the kitchen. You turn on the light and you crawling on the wall. This is a variation of the above theme. It might have been fun to try these out. But I am concerned about peoples phobia. This can dissuade visitors from returning.
Theme -St Patrick’s day. Bring items that are green, or write these on a piece of paper.
Theme – You visit your Psychologist and he shows you some ink blots. What do you see?
Theme – Vacation. Bring photo, artwork, postcard. Talk about the photo, what is happening.
Theme – You did what? Talk about your very first job, even as a child.
Theme – You did what? What is your most embarrassing moment?
Theme – Father’s Day. Tell us something about the Father figure in your life. I did not think about this very well. I had forgotten that the Father of one of our members left them as a child. But I mentioned in the beginning that it can be an Uncle, Grand Father, Family Friend. Still it was a little awkward.
Theme – Nouns and Verbs. Have a list of nouns and verbs and have the speaker talk about this.
Theme – Toastmaster Club meeting roles. Write each role in a piece of paper and have each volunteer pull one. Pretend you are taking on one role in a typical club meeting. For those who pull out the evaluator role, recall a previous speech you made and test that, unless a current speaker accept two evaluations, one from you and one from the actual evaluator that day.

Movie Themes

So far everything has been very good in the Marvel Cinematic universe. Almost all their movies had been big money makers. You were just offered the chance to play the role of one superhero, who would you be, and why?
Pretend to be the hero from above bullet and tell us about your day.
In the movie “Independence day”, the US president asked the captive alien what we humans needed to do for peace and the aliens said, ” Die”. What would you do to convince the aliens that we humans deserve to live?
Tell us about a movie you plan to watch?
Tell us about a TV show or series that you enjoy watching.
Movies such as “The Social Network” and “Jobs” gave as a glimpse into the lives of tech giants who not only changed the world but also made mind-boggling amount of wealth for themselves. With that kind of wealth, what would you do to change the world?
Think about the worse movie you ever watched. Now convince your audience to watch it.
For 2 mins, talk about any movie or television series that comes to mind.
State the general topic then ask then question after volunteer comes up.
Select 26 subject or item based in the letters of the alphabet. Write each on a piece of paper and put into a paper bag. Each volunteer can choose one. Alternately, you can just have Each volunteer pick a letter and you can read them the subject.

Conversations

These scenarios play out like a conversation between you and the volunteer speaker.
The Table Topics Master plays the part of Joe, and the Realtor. The speaker plays the role of a home buyer. Joe asks the buyer to describe the type of home he wants to buy, and community he wants to live in. Thank you for allowing me to serve you today as your realtor. So I may serve you better, please describe to me what your dream home is and location?
You get to the office on a Monday morning, and you come across Joe down the hallway. Joe asks you “How are you today and how did you spend your long labor day weekend?”.
Table Topic Master is leading a meeting of a bird watcher club. “Welcome to the first meeting of the birdwatchers club of Germantown. To begin, let us start by having everybody say something interesting about themselves.”
You get to the office on a Monday morning, and you come across Joe down the hallway. Joe says ” I didn’t know you went on a vacation! Tell me about it, where did you go? Did you have fun”
Just came back from lunch and you you come across Joe down the hallway. Joe says “Jane came in a few minutes ago and she said you did not enjoy lunch. How come?”

Vacations

Where should I — The Table Topic Master of the day — go for my next vacation. I write the name of 5 places that interest me. The speaker’s job is to talk about the place and try to convince me that this is the place to go. I encountered a few problems with this theme. Some volunteers did not know where and what the place was. So I told that they could talk about any place they might think is a good place to take a vacation.
Theme – Camping. You wake up and you see a bear. A racoon eating your lunch. What do you do?
Theme – The last days of Summer. Here we are, the last days before the unofficial end of summer. That is the theme of today’s table topic. I have a series of pictures of situations or items that you may have done during summer, or perhaps wish you can accomplish in the next few days. You can talk about the pictures, describe these or about a situation these pictures remind you off.
1. School supplies
2. Picnic table
3. Beach
4. Swimming
5. Bonfire
6. Camping
7. Roller Coaster

Job Hunting

Theme – The Elevator Speech. Ask the speakers to give their Elevator speech. Just provide an alternate speech since not everyone has a prepared elevator speech.
Theme – Toastmaster Club meeting roles. Write each role in a piece of paper and have each volunteer pull one. Pretend you are taking on one role in a typical club meeting. For those who pull out the evaluator role, recall a previous speech you made and test that, unless a current speaker accept two evaluations, one from you and one from the actual evaluator that day.
Theme – Job hunting. Ask the club members to close their eyes. Now imagine that you are all attending a job fair and you are about to give a panel interview for a job that you really, really want. Now ask for volunteers. As a loophole, I gave volunteers the option to speak about anything they want to. About 50% opted to take the loophole subject. I liked this topic. It is a realistic scenario compared to a Q&A format. I also liked the answer one volunteer speaker gave. She said ” I started working at 16. I did very well, but I hated that job. I also worked in college ferrying students around. Did very well, but I also hated the job. I did very well in my marketing job after college. Again hated it. Now, If I did very well working on jobs I hated, how do you think I would perform on this job that I really want to have?” I liked that answer.