Mind Your Language
At some point in the last couple of years it has apparently become OK to swear onstage at business events. What the flip is going on?
No speaking gigs till July
I’m not taking any more after dinner speaking gigs until the end of June, otherwise I’ll never get the book finished. Once it’s safely handed in to the publishers I’ll be back on the chicken dinner circuit. If your firm, golf club, sports organisation needs a speaker, please consider me. Details of my fees, subjects […]
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.
On my wavelength
Here’s the latest in my series on Collectors for the BBC. Phil Rosen from West Bridgford in Nottinghamshire has over a hundred valve radios. They’re beautiful pieces of furniture and have lovely rich tones you just don’t get with modern radios.
If you can remember the Sixties you weren’t there.
I’ll be taking my autograph book with me on Saturday for the West Ham v Newcastle game. We have some legendary West Ham players from the sixties, coming down for a chat pitch-side before the game. The names I’ve been given are Ken Brown, John Bond, Alan Dickie, Alan Stephenson, Ronnie Boyce, Brian Dear, Jack […]
Matchday Column
How I became the West Ham announcer. I moved to East London from Cambridge when I was six. I think my parents may have done the driving, but I imagine I did most of the packing and dealing with estate agents. Growing up in Clayhall it was a no-brainer that I should be a Hammer. […]
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 […]
A free chapter from my book
I’ve co-written a book called MediaMasters with my good friend Alan Stevens. The aim of the book is to learn how top sports stars, performers, business people, politicans and others in the public eye, use the media to best effect. Below is a free chapter about one of my footballing heroes, Brian Clough. We didn’t […]
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 […]
Public speaking shouldn’t be scary
Public speaking shouldn’t be scary. It’s just talking out loud, which most of us do every day. If it’s on a subject you know about and have prepared for, it should be no harder than talking to a group of friends or colleagues. Unfortunately for many people that is not the case. It is one […]
