This Humanitix Host Has Given Boring Speech Nights A Glow Up

Humanitix hosts Hannah Reilly and Jonny Hawkins have worked in events for years; having sat through a tonne of boring speech nights, they decided to create their own. ‘I’d Like To Say A Few Words’ is a new comedy night all centred around one of our worst fears as a species; making a public speech. From public apologies to high profile resignations, pre-prepared breakups and wedding speeches gone awry, ‘I’d Like To Say A Few Words’ is a great way these event hosts have taken the worst of our industry and turned it on it's head.

Humanitix event host Johnny Hawkins, spoke to us ealier this week.

What was the original inspiration for your event?

Co-Creator Hannah Reilly and I once attended a Wedding together and marvelled at how interesting and potentially exposing Speeches are; It can become glaringly obvious that a lover hasn’t been paid much attention to the person they’re about to marry. There’s the chance a nervous father will make an awkward or offensive gag, or an excited mother might casually revel a family trauma and think it’s just sooooo funny. And then there’s always the risk that someone’s saccharine insights into love will make the perfect acrostic poem.

We cringe through alot of speeches, but they can also be very touching.

Yes, there’s also the real chance of stunning beauty during these intimate spectacles.

Your event is about taking these monents and looking at them under a spotlight. What types of speeches can attendees expect to hear?

We've curated a bunch of fictional speeches delivered without context. Hannah and I have invited our favourite clever and funny friends to write and deliver speeches to make you laugh and cry without any real-life connection to the characters involved.

What if we could just hear the Eulogy with the inconvenience of someone dying? What if we could hear the Bride’s terrible speech without cringing into last week because our best friend is currently making a tit of herself. What if you could pitch a business plan with no intention of going into business.

And that’s exactly what I’d Like to Say a Few Words is;.This show is an opportunity for writers to write, performers to perform and for audiences to be delighted by the stunning array of ideas, humanity and humour.

You run this event frequently all over the country; if someone wanted to perform, what makes a great fake speech?

1. Choose a context; make sure it is clear or will be made clear to an audience. Be Specific. Courtroom, Wedding, Workplace, Media Conference, Church Sermon. Make it clear.

2. Invent or emulate someone who is speaking; it can even be yourself, but have someone specific in mind, speak on their behalf.

3. Put them in a situation; what are the trying to express publicly, what do they want to express privately. Is this speech going well or poorly for them?

4. Don't forget to entertain me. I want to laugh or cry; I won't be very forgiving if you bore me.

5. Finish before your audience wants you to. Punctuate it. End definitely and at a point where we might even want you to keep going forever. This will make it linger on in our imaginations.

Event description

Join hosts Hannah Reilly and Jonny Hawkins for a celebration of humanity's most dangerous pastime: speeches. From public apologies to high profile resignations, pre-prepared breakups and wedding speeches gone awry, ‘I’d Like To Say A Few Words’ is hilarious, heartbreaking and often deeply inappropriate. A rich character study that allows us to be thrown into a new world with each speaker, written and performed by some of Australia's finest, including: 

FEB 23 (AUSLAN Interpreted)

Lou Wall

George Haddad

Alistair Baldwin

Jamaica Moana

Mama Alto

MARCH 2

Natali Caro

Brendan Maclean

Mistress Tokyo

Mohammad Awad

Caroline Elisabeth Cull