pocketspeak4e

Roasts and Toasts

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A roast is a humorous tribute to a person, one in which a series of speakers jokingly poke fun at him or her. A toast is a brief tribute to a person or an event being celebrated. Both roasts and toasts call for short speeches whose goal is to celebrate an individual and his or her achievements.

Prepare. Impromptu though they might appear, the best roasts and toasts reflect time spent drafting and rehearsing. As you practice, time the speech.
Highlight remarkable traits of the person being honored. Restrict your remarks to one or two of the person’s most unusual or recognizable attributes. Convey the qualities that have made him or her worthy of celebrating.
Be positive and be brief. Even if the speech is poking fun at someone, as in a roast, keep the tone positive. Remember, your overall purpose is to pay tribute to the honoree. Also, be considerate of the other speakers by refraining from taking up too much time. This is particularly important for toasts, which are expected to be very brief.

At the 2010 annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Barack Obama used self-deprecating humor to poke fun at himself:

It’s been quite a year since I’ve spoken here last. Lots of ups, lots of downs, except for my approval ratings, which have just gone down. But that’s politics, it doesn’t bother me. Besides, I happen to know that my approval ratings are still very high in the country of my birth.³