Badges, badges, badges

Frank Setchfield from Loughborough has over 150 thousand badges. He collects all types except military and he specialises in button badges. He has sporty badges, funny badges, ones with saucy slogans and political badges that have changed the world. I interviewed him for my BBC series on Collectors. Here’s the report.

Fireworks

I’ve compered many events for companies over the years, but I’ve never compered a bonfire night before. Until now. On November 4th I was at the global headquarters of Boots to run the stage at their 7th annual fireworks night. It was for their staff, but as Boots is such a massive company, there were […]

Orange Feet after the Monsoon

I have orange feet. It’s been three days and I still have orange feet. It all goes back to Saturday night, the night West London was gridlocked and the heavens opened. West Ham earned a fighting draw against Fulham. It wasn’t a classic, but it was our fourth game unbeaten, and there are lots of […]

Edinburgh Talk

I’m off to Edinburgh next week for the festival. On Wednesday night I’ll be giving a talk on how to keep an audience’s attention using comedy. Forget jokes, I’m a big believer in telling true stories that have happened to you. It’s called ‘Putting the U in Humour’ . It’s a talk I’ve done many […]

The Bakewell Show

The Bakewell Show Here’s some pictures of Thursday’s BBC East Midlands Today roadshow at the Bakewell Show in Derbyshire. I smiled a lot at people and if they looked short sighted, I signed photos that weren’t of me. Viewers had a chance to read the news. The vicar of Bakewell was a star at doing […]

My stadium gig

I So we’re up and running again. It was great to be at the Boleyn for the pre-season friendly against Deportivo La Coruna for the SBOBet Cup.  Even better to win it on penalties.Avram Grant has won silverware in his first home game. It was a hot day. I could have done without wearing the […]

Meeting the viewers

I’ve spent the day meeting the public in the centre of Leicester. I pulled on a large red BBC East Midlands Today tee shirt and an even larger smile and joined up with my colleagues to meet real people. That may not sound scary to you, but trust me it is. In general I really […]

Speaking oop north

It’s good to be back in the land of the long vowel sounds. I’ve just spent the week on the road oop north where baths and paths are much shorter than I’m used to. On Tuesday I was in Nottingham reporting on the British Open Wheelchair tennis for BBC TV.It’s just the same as abled […]

Putting the ‘U’ in Humour

One of my most popular talks is on how to use humour effectively when you are speaking in public. As a professional speaker I use humour a lot.  It helps keep the audience engaged. If they are being entertained, they are less likely to switch off and stop listening.  It’s so much easier to put […]

Splitting my trousers on stage in Johannesburg

I’m smiling in the picture above, but a few hours earlier I wasn’t feeling as comfortable. I was in Johannesburg at the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa’s international convention. It was held at the very swanky Emperors Palace, so swanky it doesn’t have an apostrophe. I was honoured to be the only European to […]