Speech!

One week then, until I stand up in front of a room full of relatives, friends and relative unknowns to deliver a speech as my brother’s best man.

Dry throat, expectant faces, being the final speaker of the day… Let’s just say I’m not exactly looking forward to the prospect.

Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking I’m going to read straight from A4 double-lined sheets, as opposed to prompt-cards or straight from memory. Try as I might I’ll strive to maintain a bit of eye contact with the audience here and there.

I’ve been working on it for the best part of a month now but it’s a tricky beast to get just right.

Do I stray too far into humour and end up with tumbleweeds rolling past?

Or do I keep it serious and watch the heads drop into the leftovers of the wedding breakfast.

The temptation is to steal the best one-liners from the book I bought on this very subject; however the long-suppressed writer in me thinks I should be shot for even considering such a thought.

I think I’m going to tread down the familiar route of recounting a few amusing stories from my brother’s youth – steering clear of any taboo subjects such as ex-girlfriends and-the-like.

I’ve got at least several minutes to fill and I’m too much of a coward to take any more of a risk than that.

However, any clever ideas / tips you may have – feel free to stick them on a comment or email. Should the speech be satisfactorily received then I may even publish it on here in the long run.