Switcheroos: How to make an interesting speech

Recently, I switched Rotary clubs, leaving Watsonville and joining the Santa Cruz chapter, which meets at the Elks Club for lunch every Friday. The main reason for changing clubs, besides being a 30-minute drive to south county, was the fact that Jennie and I pick up three of our grandkids from half-day school on Wednesdays (the day the Watsonville chapter meets), and I don’t want to miss out on time with them!
 
Because of the switcheroo, I was demoted to rookie status at my new club. It just so happens that my great friend and neighbor, Dave Smith, left his Salinas Rotary group after thirteen years and also wanted to join the Santa Cruz group, so we signed up together.
 
As rookies, we were informed that we would have to give Red Badge speeches about ourselves in front of the lunch crowd. We’ve both heard similar speeches, and although they are fun and informative, a lot of the time they come across as lacking excitement—something akin to a listing of life events with an emphasis on one’s career.
 
To spice things up, Dave and I decided to do our talks about each other. After forty-two years of living next to someone, you get a pretty good handle on that person’s life history. Now, neither one of us is a superb public speaker, but we felt confident and up to the task. Personally, I always dreaded talking in front of a large group, but I’ve become much more comfortable after doing ten years of part-time teaching, mostly instructing teens at a local charter school, Cypress High. I’ve also done a few book lectures regarding my novel.
 
The speeches went exceedingly well. Dave gave a rundown of my early days growing up on a prune and walnut ranch in the Santa Clara Valley, followed by our family’s move to Capitola and my subsequent teen years, which led to my business career, marriage, kids, etc. then retirement. The presentation was enhanced with numerous PowerPoint® slides. I gave a similar talk about Dave’s life, highlighted by some twenty family photos starting from the late 1800s, as well as a humorous Christmas card from the Smith Family, circa 1972, and a sweet photo of Dave and his wife Betsy.

But the best part of our talk was the seven-question multiple choice test we put to the crowd. We had a lot of fun asking certain members of the club to pick the correct answer. More often than not they were way off base. And for the person who finally got the question right, we gave out a copy of my poetry book, A Jar Water.
 
Here are just a couple of the questions we presented.
 
What is NOT true about Dave?
* Had to appear in court for fishing with too many salmon rods
* Was hauled into jail for a bar fight at his wedding reception (first wife)
* Moved a campus police car to the opposite side of the library while attending UOP
* Lit a mortar at a 4^th of July party that went sideways and caught a tree on fire
* Watched the Tyson-Holyfield fight with friends at his wedding reception (second wife)
 
What is NOT true about Buzz?
* Climbed up some bedsheets to reach a girl’s dorm room at a UCSC cheerleading camp
* Fell off the Capitola Wharf when he was six and was rescued by his Uncle Woody
* Got a ticket for vagrancy when he was sleeping on Newport Beach in SoCal
* Caught a dead fish that had his name carved in the scales
* Once bought a cement sailboat

So, what’s your guess? What do YOU think isn’t true about Dave and me?