Susan McDaid wins DSTM Tall Tales Club Contest

Susan joined Dublin South Toastmasters shortly after the pandemic set in, and since then she has been one of the fantastic new members to give everything a go. For the annual DSTM Tall Tales Contest on September 21st she did just that. Her speech, entitled Birth Certificate fit the bill of the tall tale, blowing the judges and the audience away.

The tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Under pressure from six amazing speeches before her, Susan pulled a rabbit out of the hat, and after chasing it around the house after her speech to put it back, she won her first ever Toastmasters contest.

Winning a club contest is special enough, and especially when the competition was fierce, including two past winners of the contest in recent years. On top of that, considering this was her first contest is a very special and memorable moment.

We caught up with Susan after her fantastic achievement:

“As this was my first time to participate in a contest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did some research on tall tales contests and watched some winning speeches online, I was actually excited as I realised I could be as creative as I wished and just tell an exaggerated story.

I played around with a few ideas in my head, but decide to start with a true story. As I practiced my speech around the house, which is always to my children’s delight, I started to add to the story by exaggerating aspects of it, enhancing the characters and adding some humour.

I was absolutely thrilled to win first place! It was totally unexpected due to the other wonderful entertaining speeches on the night.”

From the point of view on the listener, it was everything that a Tall Tale could ask for. Huge congratulations to Susan!