- December 15, 2025
Residents from all over Ormond Beach gathered to participate in the Ormond Speechmasters’ Humorous Speech Contest Aug. 18.
The 11th floor classroom at the Florida Hospital was roaring Aug. 18 from the Ormond Speechmasters’ Humorous Speech Contest. Four people participated in the contest that are held to provide opportunities for speakers to improve abilities and recognize the best speakers in the club.
Jami Monahan won first place with her speech “Confessions of a Yoga Teacher.”
“I’m a full-time, peace-loving yoga teacher,” Monahan said. “It is the only job I know where I get paid to tell people to drink water and just breathe and they don’t give me the middle finger.
Second place went to Dennis Alsobrook for his speech “It’s Not My Fault.”
“When I was six years old, my brother left his BB gun on the porch,” Alsobrook said. “So I got it and I was trying to aim at something on the ground. But I aimed a little to the right and when I pulled the trigger, the BB bounced off my tricycle and right right through my Uncle Wilbur’s brand new car. I hated my brother got blamed for it.”
The other two contestants, Fred Bergerson and Renny Roker were disqualified due to a time qualification. Roker had the audience howling with his speech about his golf experiences, including when he taught his wife how to play and she got a hole-in-one.
“We got to the clubhouse,” Roker said, “ and she tells the guy working there ‘I got a hole-in-one. My husband has never had a hole-in-one.’ The guy said ‘I got a special award for you.’ So he gave her an award. Every time since then when I said I was going to play golf, the award appears somewhere.”
Bergerson entertained the crowd with his tales of working for a computer repair hotline.
“Yes Mrs. Jones. You said you broke the cup holder on your five-year-old computer,” Bergerson said. “And you need it replaced? I’m sorry ma’m but what do you mean by the cup holder? So you’re telling me that when you push the middle button on your computer and the cup holder comes out that you set your coffee cup on it and it broke?”
Both Monahan and Alsobrook are going on to compete at the Area 73 Contest Sept. 20 in Daytona Beach.
