Birthday speech
Birthday speeches fail in the same two ways: they become a list of adjectives, or they become a roast that goes one joke too far. The fix is specificity. One story that only you could tell does more than ten compliments. Podiumi takes your stories, orders them so the laugh comes before the feeling, and keeps the whole thing under the length of a song.
Usual length
1.5–3 minutes
The shape it takes
- 01A story to open
- 02Who they are to the room
- 03One or two memories
- 04What you wish them
Where these go wrong
- Mentioning the age more than once.
- Ending on a joke instead of on warmth.
- Speaking before people have a drink in hand.
What to dig out before you start
Two to five of these, written as fragments, is everything the tool needs. Specific beats impressive every single time.
Open the writing room- 01The most them thing they have ever done.
- 02A time they showed up for you without being asked.
- 03A running joke you have had for years.
- 04Something they have become better at this year.
Finished birthday speeches
Warm & nostalgic · 3 min
A car park, in the rain, refusing to be lost
The first thing I remember about my father is a car park in the rain, and a man refusing, on principle, to admit he was lost.
Years later, the same car park on Sunday mornings, and me at fifteen, stalling repeatedly while he said nothing at all. I understand now that the silence was the lesson.
He still calls at six on a Sunday. Not five past. Not half past. Six.
- Car park. Rain.
- Refusing to admit he was lost.
- He still calls at six.
- Not five past. Six.
- Glasses up.