Recently went to one with Esther Rantzen as host. Wasn’t looking forward to it, but she had the entire room in palm of her hand for the entire evening. Granted she’s for an older crowd, some of the younger ones enjoyed it but were asking who she is.
To expand on the Martin O’Neill claim, I saw him at a football dinner in 1994.
The League Chairman, a bloke in his 60s called Reg, spoke first and delivered the worst speech ever, dropping in some racist gags that went down like a lead balloon and then some political gags that also fell flat.
The Chairman sat down to an embarrassed silence and Martin O’Neill, then manager of Wycombe, stood up to speak.
”Well gentleman,” he began, in that lovely Ulster brogue, “Its been a very sad day today, in fact, I have been over in Belfast all day at my Uncles funeral, he died in a car crash last week....”
He let the moment hang, the audience silently waiting to hear the incoming line.....
”Still, I must say though, there were probably more laughs at my Uncles funeral than there were during Reg’s speech!”
Its also important what they are like in the "green room" and how they behave.
From what I hear:- Nice / engaging / accommodating; Richard E Grant; James Corden (though now a bit more than £20k); Rob Brydon Rude / unengaging /Diva; Michael McIntyre, David Walliams.
True.
We had Sir Clive Woodward come to our teeny office to give a motivational speak at a VIP client meeting. I was in the room beforehand trying to set up his laptop to our big screen. I couldn't get it connected, but luckily he had brought his own IT person with him... i went under the table looking at wires pretending i knew what i was looking at but in fact I was hiding . In the 10 or so mins it took to sort the problem out, not once did he look in any way annoyed and went on to thank me afterwards and reckoned i had sorted it all. I hadn't.
Have to say, he is one smooth dude. Not something i would have said before i met him and i'm not just walking about his head!
We're just looking at options for our for a client conference in October and the boss has asked me to vet.
Initial options are Matt Dawson, Eddie Jones, Ian Botham, Kelly Holmes (the comment from the agency is that she is a sincere and wonderful speaker, but also that she is "getting really good at speaking"), Ben Fogle, John Barnes or Denise Lewis. All come well inside the £20k budget.
Depends on what you are looking for and whether there is a theme to the event. If it is a formal client event, probably something linked to leadership, teamwork etc, which ours is, then these would be the sort of people we'd use.
In the past, we have had Clive Woodward and I'd agree with B that he was really good. A very nice guy and spoke really well, with a great presentation for an hour and then mingled with the clients afterwards as well.
We've also had Steve Backley & Roger Black, who were great. Had their own property investment business as well, but some great stories from their times as Olympians. Professor Steve Peters, who worked with the likes of Chris Hoy (who I saw at another event last year and he was excellent) and wrote The Chimp Paradox. Last year, we had Mandy Hickson who is a former Tornado GR4 jet pilot with the RAF and flew a lot of tours over Iraq (blue as f**k and a speech that no bloke could get away with these days, but very entertaining).
All of them spoke for an hour and took loads of questions. Roger Black was inundated with requests for selfies from the ladies in the audience,,,Woodward didn't have that problem!
Michelle Obama was pretty damn good when I saw her last year but the coach of the Dutch women’s hockey team is inspirational and funny if you want that sort of speaker. I’ve forgotten his name but I can dig it out if interested.
Meant to say...those above are the daytime corporate events. Have also had a few comedians for the evening, boozy events, including Jack Dee and Jimmy Carr. Both were superb.
Jimmy was getting into a joke about the larger individuals amongst us. Myself, a big lad, on a table with a few other fine specimens were laughing our heads off, but a woman on the next table who was obviously a stranger to diets had a face like absolute thunder. Jimmy's gag finished with him being called "fat-ist" to which the punchline was "Actually, I think you'll find that you're "fattest"!
Just at that moment, a banner that had been hanging on the wall above the angry, large lady's head decided to crash down and the whole room (about 450 people) and Jimmy Carr stared straight at her...comedy timing at its best, but awful for the lady herself who could not possibly have looked any more red or furious!
We're just looking at options for our for a client conference in October and the boss has asked me to vet.
Initial options are Matt Dawson, Eddie Jones, Ian Botham, Kelly Holmes (the comment from the agency is that she is a sincere and wonderful speaker, but also that she is "getting really good at speaking"), Ben Fogle, John Barnes or Denise Lewis. All come well inside the £20k budget.
Depends on what you are looking for and whether there is a theme to the event. If it is a formal client event, probably something linked to leadership, teamwork etc, which ours is, then these would be the sort of people we'd use.
In the past, we have had Clive Woodward and I'd agree with B that he was really good. A very nice guy and spoke really well, with a great presentation for an hour and then mingled with the clients afterwards as well.
We've also had Steve Backley & Roger Black, who were great. Had their own property investment business as well, but some great stories from their times as Olympians. Professor Steve Peters, who worked with the likes of Chris Hoy (who I saw at another event last year and he was excellent) and wrote The Chimp Paradox. Last year, we had Mandy Hickson who is a former Tornado GR4 jet pilot with the RAF and flew a lot of tours over Iraq (blue as f**k and a speech that no bloke could get away with these days, but very entertaining).
All of them spoke for an hour and took loads of questions. Roger Black was inundated with requests for selfies from the ladies in the audience,,,Woodward didn't have that problem!
We hired Kelly for an event about seven or eight years ago. She was delightful. Not a natural speaker it has to be said but she brought along her numerous gongs and posed for many photos with them. I suspect that her speaking ability has improved since then with practice.
We had Sir Clive the previous year (conference in Twickenham stadium) and he was dull as ditchwater although again very nice and accommodating.
Comments
Reckon he'd sweat more than Lee Evans these days.
Mark Nicholas was also very good.
My Dad reckons Bob Monkhouse was fantastic when he did his firm’s Christmas party....but you’ll struggle to get hold of Bob these days!
recent years I saw Freddie Starr - very funny and a cracking singer.
Frank Carson was wankered and made no sense
sol Campbell and Michael Owen were dull as dishwater
Quickfire, off the cuff, knowledgeable, very funny and as blue as fuck.
https://youtu.be/cC2vprpDtY0
And for gtfc couldn't of been that expensive.
The League Chairman, a bloke in his 60s called Reg, spoke first and delivered the worst speech ever, dropping in some racist gags that went down like a lead balloon and then some political gags that also fell flat.
The Chairman sat down to an embarrassed silence and Martin O’Neill, then manager of Wycombe, stood up to speak.
”Well gentleman,” he began, in that lovely Ulster brogue, “Its been a very sad day today, in fact, I have been over in Belfast all day at my Uncles funeral, he died in a car crash last week....”
He let the moment hang, the audience silently waiting to hear the incoming line.....
”Still, I must say though, there were probably more laughs at my Uncles funeral than there were during Reg’s speech!”
Brought the house down.
We had Sir Clive Woodward come to our teeny office to give a motivational speak at a VIP client meeting. I was in the room beforehand trying to set up his laptop to our big screen. I couldn't get it connected, but luckily he had brought his own IT person with him... i went under the table looking at wires pretending i knew what i was looking at but in fact I was hiding . In the 10 or so mins it took to sort the problem out, not once did he look in any way annoyed and went on to thank me afterwards and reckoned i had sorted it all. I hadn't.
Have to say, he is one smooth dude. Not something i would have said before i met him and i'm not just walking about his head!
Initial options are Matt Dawson, Eddie Jones, Ian Botham, Kelly Holmes (the comment from the agency is that she is a sincere and wonderful speaker, but also that she is "getting really good at speaking"), Ben Fogle, John Barnes or Denise Lewis. All come well inside the £20k budget.
Depends on what you are looking for and whether there is a theme to the event. If it is a formal client event, probably something linked to leadership, teamwork etc, which ours is, then these would be the sort of people we'd use.
In the past, we have had Clive Woodward and I'd agree with B that he was really good. A very nice guy and spoke really well, with a great presentation for an hour and then mingled with the clients afterwards as well.
We've also had Steve Backley & Roger Black, who were great. Had their own property investment business as well, but some great stories from their times as Olympians. Professor Steve Peters, who worked with the likes of Chris Hoy (who I saw at another event last year and he was excellent) and wrote The Chimp Paradox. Last year, we had Mandy Hickson who is a former Tornado GR4 jet pilot with the RAF and flew a lot of tours over Iraq (blue as f**k and a speech that no bloke could get away with these days, but very entertaining).
All of them spoke for an hour and took loads of questions. Roger Black was inundated with requests for selfies from the ladies in the audience,,,Woodward didn't have that problem!
Razor Ruddock was brilliant, very funny.
Did have about half the people offering him packets at the end of his speaking though, and he definitely took advantage of it.
Jimmy was getting into a joke about the larger individuals amongst us. Myself, a big lad, on a table with a few other fine specimens were laughing our heads off, but a woman on the next table who was obviously a stranger to diets had a face like absolute thunder. Jimmy's gag finished with him being called "fat-ist" to which the punchline was "Actually, I think you'll find that you're "fattest"!
Just at that moment, a banner that had been hanging on the wall above the angry, large lady's head decided to crash down and the whole room (about 450 people) and Jimmy Carr stared straight at her...comedy timing at its best, but awful for the lady herself who could not possibly have looked any more red or furious!
Michael Owen would be pretty good I reckon.
He crack the audience up with how simple he actually is.
He'll be rolling off obvious facts like he does when commentating:
"Whoever scores the most goals is going to win this game"
"If the goalkeeper had saved that it would still be 1-1"
"If he gets another yellow card he will get sent off"
etc etc.
They definitely want more of an entertainer type person as mixed crowd.