I'm basically a slightly reserved, if not shy, guy. I prefer the safety of a shadowy background to the bright spotlights of centre stage. I don't crave attention.
In spite of this, I have a remarkable talent for ending up in situations that require me to drop a few of my inhibitions and act as if I enjoy being in the spotlight: My day job require me to talk to strangers every day, I've played live music for small crowds a few times, I've given some presentations and speeches and now I have one more thing to add to my growing list of things I've sworn I'd never do: being toastmaster in a wedding.
Yes, my good friend Mikael was married to his Grete this Saturday, and by chance (or Mikael's remarkable negotiation skills) I had ended up as the toastmaster for the event.Woah. Seeing as neither me nor Mikael (I'll refer to him as M from now on) had a particularily good idea about what this whole toastmastering business was all about, M figured it'd be an easy job ("Just announce the menu and the speakers... oh, and stay sober.") and I figured he was right ("How hard can it be?"). So, with this settled, I left for my Summer holidays and M went about his business reassured that he'd chosen the right guy for the job. Ahem.
A week before the wedding, I get the first call from M's mom. Ok, so there are a couple of more minor tasks that I have to see to during my forthcoming toastmaster gig. I take notes, and she says she'll send me a short list of suggestions and questions on e-mail a little later. Now, keep in mind that the job description as written by M was about three lines - M's mother's list was about two pages. Oy vey! At this point, I felt the need to do a little research on this whole toastmaster thing, and stopped by a few wedding-themed websites to get some ideas. Bad move. The first site described the toastmaster as the guy with the responsibility for the wedding dinner. All of it! I was starting to feel a little clammy. A second website described him as a cross between a stand-up comedian, presenter and maitre d' - now, a flicker of panic embraced me for a short time.
So, what to do? Analyze. Sort. Arrange. Prepare. These words are my personal mantra whenever I'm thrown into situations like these - and as I said earlier, I tend to get thrown into them wether I like it or not. Being a methodical geek, I prodded M's mom with questions so I could see what I was heading into. A small family wedding, about 55 guests, mostly people I've never met. Right. I made a list of all my tasks and then a rough schedule for the night that I sent to M's mom. I prepared a few anectodotes, and some light-hearted introductions to myself and a couple of the speekers (that I knew). The schedule was revised a couple of times (new speekers, songs etc.) but we ended up with a nice, structured plan for the day that would be of great help to both me, the kitchen and M's mom.
How did it all go in the end? Pretty good, actually. We were on a tight schedule, so my plan was constantly changing during the day, but all speakers gave their speeches, many a song was sung, and a tired but happy toastmaster could treat himself to some coffee and cognac at about nine o'clock in the evening.
Would I do it again? Well, I can say "no" but like I said: I seem to have a talent for ending up in these situations...
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