AP5 Speaking After Dinner

AP5 Speaking After Dinner from The Entertaining Speaker Manual

Timing: 8 - 10 minutes

Objectives:

(1) Prepare an entertaining after-dinner talk on a specific theme.
(2) Deliver the talk extemporaneously, using the skills developed in the preceding entertainment 

Evaluator: Coen Tan from Tampines Changkat TMC

FREE FACELIFTS

Look at me? What do you see?

You don't see my dazzling mega-watt smile?

You don't see my sparkling white, perfectly aligned front teeth?

Do you know why I have such beautiful teeth?

Because I use Sensodyne! No, I was just kidding.

It's because they are all fake teeth! This is a secret I have kept for many years, please do not tell anyone!

I see some of you shaking your heads and gaping in disbelief. Fake teeth belong to tottering old ladies with wrinkled faces! Why would a young lady like Joni in her 20s have fake teeth?

I know I look like I'm in my 20s but actually I've already hit the 40s. That's another secret, please don't tell others.

Well, you see, something happened years ago that totally changed my...

teeth!  Let me share with you the story.

After my A levels, I went to relief teach at River Valley High School. One day some of my colleagues planned an outing during a public holiday.  We went to East Coast Park to cycle. It was a bright sunny day, with a bit of a breeze. We will happily cycling along when we spotted a group of children cycling towards us. My group was going in one direction, and the children in the opposite direction.

Suddenly, a small, dark boy came out from behind the group of children.  He was hell bent on overtaking the group of children who were going too slowly for his liking. He was pedalling fast and furious, going like a whirlwind.  He came straight onto our lane and before I could react, he was in my face, literally!

Wham! Bang! Collision. I was knocked right off my bike and I was seeing stars.  There was a commotion around me but I was too dazed to realise what was happening. All I could feel was pain in my mouth and wetness on my shirt. I looked down and saw BLOOD!!  Not drips of blood, not trickles of blood but pools of blood! I think I almost fainted.  

What happened was my teeth had made contact with the boy's forehead.  Other than teeth marks on his forehead, the boy survived the accident unscathed, while I was lying on the grass patch, bleeding profusely.  Two of my teeth had been knocked out on impact.  One colleague frantically called for an ambulance, while the other attended to me.

After what seemed like an interminable wait, the ambulance arrived and I was placed on a stretcher and ferried to the SGH.  Fortunately for me, my colleague's aunt worked in SGH dentistry department so after some string pulling, I was able to see a dentist without having to wait too long.

The dentist examined me and shook her head. "You will have to wear dentures for now, while we arrange to have crown made. But that will cost at least one thousand dollars."  With my mouth wide open, I could hardly say anything to express my shock and dismay.  I could only utter 'ah' sounds while lying there helplessly.  Any ah counter would have had a field day counting my 'ah's!

After several visits to the dentist, I finally had crowns to fill the gap in my teeth. That Christmas, the song All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth took on a special meaning to me.

That's the end of Part 1 of the story. Part 2 of the story happened 10 years after the accident.  I began to notice that my smile was somewhat crooked. It bothered me a lot! That made me self-conscious and unwilling to smile. My teeth were not aligned straight, instead they were overlapping.  One day, I came across an advertisement about smile makeover.  It promised to solve all kinds of dental problems and give you something to smile about.

Intrigued, I called immediately for an appointment. Dr Ong was very warm and effusive. He showed me all the before and after photos of previous customers and I was sold.  I underwent two sessions of measurements, customisations and fixtures, and several thousand dollars later, I had fake teeth or more correctly, porcelain veneers to correct my teeth alignment. My smile makeover was complete. Finally I had something to smile about!

Did you know that smiling lifts the face and make you look younger? So if you want a free facelift, smile!  Smilng is also contagious, which explains the saying "Smile, and the whole world smiles with you!" Research has also shown that smiling releases endorphins and helps you stay positive. It also makes you appear successful. 

So if you want to look young and attractive, SMILE.

If you want to feel happy and positive, SMILE.

If you want to appear confident and successful, SMILE.

And you know what's the best part about that? Something that all Singaporeans like.

It's FREE!

Time taken: 7 mins 50 secs 

I was 10 seconds short of the timing of 8 to 10 minutes.  Evaluator Coen suggested that I could dramatize the story further to up its entertainment value. For example, show a crooked smile and pose it for exaggerated humour.  Or play up the scene about the dentist.  Put all inhibitions aside!!