LOGLINE: This film follows an eclectic array of characters as they prepare for and compete in the 2008 Toastmasters International Championships, each of them vying for the title of World's Best Public Speaker.
SYNOPSIS: "SpeakEasy" is a documentary exploring the fear of public speaking and the ways people seek to overcome it. Specifically, "SpeakEasy" will follow several members of Toastmasters International, an organization dedicated to improving public speaking and leadership skills. Toastmasters International boasts a membership of 225,000 people in 90 countries. Chris Matthews became a Toastmaster while working as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter; Debbi Fields Rose credits Toastmasters with giving her the skills necessary to grow her "Mrs. Fields" cookie company into a $100 million success story; Academy Award Winner Forest Whitaker utilized Toastmaster's tips to prepare himself for his Oscar acceptance speech.
"SpeakEasy" will chronicle the journey of several individuals on the club, or local, level who are taking on their fear of public speaking. Most are hoping Toastmasters will help give them the skills they need in order to accomplish the goals and dreams they set out to achieve in their personal and professional lives. Some of those who conquer their fear, however, decide to take on bigger challenges, like competitive speaking.
Each year, Toastmasters International holds the World Championships of Public Speaking, where the ten best speakers in the world compete for the ultimate crown: the World Champion of Public Speaking. The tournament starts at the club level. Each local club sends it's best speaker to compete at the Districts. The winner of each District then moves on to the Regionals. From the Regionals, eight speakers from the United States and two from the rest of the world are selected to continue on to the World Championships. This year's finals will be held in Calgary, Alberta. The World Champion becomes part of a unique group of past winners who have been able to quit their day jobs and travel the world, giving inspirational keynote speeches to corporate groups and garnering paydays upwards of $50,000 for a few hours time.
Toastmasters International has existed for over seventy years and boasts a worldwide membership of over 225,000 active members, all of them working to become better public speakers. Each year, approximately 26,000 men and women, all members of Toastmasters International, begin the journey to the World Championships at their local club level. The "home" club for a Toastmaster is generally a small yet devoted group of 10 to 30 people that have joined together and, using the Toastmasters system, sought to overcome their fears of standing up in front of an audience and attempt to articulate a basic thought. The foundation to their system is the idea that if you are going to fail in front of an audience, it should be a forgiving audience. Each week an unusual positive energy forms when local clubs gather to help foster each other's goals and aspirations.
Toastmasters has clubs across the world, yet few are as unique as the clubs that are cropping up in a most unexpected place: prison. Indeed, many U.S. prisons now have active Toastmasters clubs, where inmates learn the same public speaking and leadership skills that they would in the outside world. The recidivism rate for a prison Toastmaster is significantly lower than average, as inmates learn how to operate in a "normal" setting: running meetings, making presentations, and, perhaps most importantly, getting up in front of a group and speaking. Many judges now include mandatory membership in Toastmasters as part of their sentencing, believing that participating in the group helps give the prisoner the social skills to integrate into legitimate society after release. The filmmakers have received permission from the State of California to film in several prison clubs as well as the notorious Angola prison in Louisiana, one of the nations toughest prisons with some of America's most hardened criminals. There are also unique clubs overseas. Many countries whose governments ban free speech are home to thriving Toastmasters clubs. The Middle East, for example, has Toastmasters clubs that serve as one of the few places where women and men can speak freely in the same room, or where the democratic process has a chance to essentially rehearse within totalitarian regimes.
A documentary is only as successful as its characters are interesting. Fortunately, the filmmakers have already identified several characters in the Toastmasters organization with a vast array of fascinating personal stories. Many members seek to improve their skill set to get a promotion in the middle management ranks of the corporate world. Many are new to the United States, using Toastmasters to sharpen their English skills. And for others, this is simply the place where they feel safe, alive, and connected to the outside world. All of them, however, have interesting tales of overcoming personal adversity. For example, Mou Chatterjee came to America with her husband from India. She spoke very little English, but worked hard to finally grasp the language. Still, a fear of being in front of people and an overwhelming shyness limited her to nights at home caring for their son, unable to interact with the new culture she lived in. She yearned to start her own textile import business, so she finally joined a Toastmasters club to help her communicate. After a year, she finally feels at home in America, and has created a successful business in Los Angeles. Another character of note is Rory Vaden. Rory, only 25, is considered a rising star in the public speaking world. From his home club in Cherry Creek, Colorado - and most recently in Nashville -- Rory started his own company, Success Starts Now. Once a door-to-door salesman of children's books, Rory's boyish good looks have helped give him a fan base of mostly young women who find his humor engaging and his charisma irresistible. To help give him an edge with his craft, Rory has hired Ed Tate, winner of the 2000 World Championships, to mentor him through the competition. Ed sees a mini-mogul in Rory, possibly even the next Tony Robbins. Not everyone shares Ed's fondness for Rory, however. A MySpace page devoted to "I Hate Rory Vaden" has popped up, and rivals abound everywhere. Undeterred, Rory soldiers on, lecturing to large groups of young audiences on how to achieve success through Discipline and Faith. His stated goal is to win "World's Best Speaker" and catapult himself into being one of the leading motivational speakers in the business. The filmmakers will follow Rory and others as they compete at the local club level, chronicling the broken dreams of the losers and the high hopes of the winners. The winners at the local level move on to...
The filmmakers will capture the District and Regional championships in Spring 2008. As previously stated, there are only 8 spots for competitors from the United States. Bryant Perguson, a nuclear power plant emergency task force manager, shocked District 1 last year, advancing to the World Championships with a speech about being a mentor to his children. He then prepared a different speech for the World Championships, also about being a mentor to his children. Bryant did not place in the top three, to the great disappointment of his 120 supporters who flew from all over the world to support him. Bryant is eager for his next speech, which will, again, be about being a mentor to his children.
The Toastmasters Public Speaking World Championships is a tense affair. Several of the same speakers "make the playoffs" year after year, including perennial finalist Mark Hunter of Brisbane, Australia, a paraplegic who quotes Tennyson with alarming regularity, and Douglas Kreuger of Johannesburg, South Africa, another returning finalist who was especially devastated in 2007 after his speech failed to place. It's a lonely journey for the International Finalists, but they remain dogged in their pursuit of the title of "World's Best Speaker". The 8 North American finalists, meanwhile, have been crafting their speeches for months. Last year, 2001 World Champion Darren Lacroix and 1991 World Champion David Brown mentored Bryant in a hectic set of rehearsals that led to the finals. This year, they aim to win the whole thing. "It's not about winning the big shiny trophy", they say, but their drive and commitment to Toastmasters -- and ashen faces after not placing in 2007 - suggest otherwise. 2007 saw Vikas Jhingran, 34, present his speech "The Swami's Question" to an audience of 2,000 at the Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 18th, which led to him being crowned Best Speaker. Vikas used only one prop - the envelope from MIT that was going to change his life. He held it up as he began his speech, asking the audience the question he had asked himself: Would the letter begin with "Congratulations" or "You've got to be kidding"? A native of Morabadad, India, Vikas is a specialist in offshore drilling and oil and gas production; he came to MIT in 2004. Since then, he's been steadily involved with leadership and communication programs, and he is an advocate of establishing communications courses as part of the MIT engineering curriculum. Vikas is now the reigning World Champion of Public Speaking. Who will be next?