Public Speaking

“With this interactive lecture I took the ultimate challenge by presenting it to a group of tough 17 year old rugby players in South America.  At the end of the lecture they asked me to continue.”

EXAMPLES OF TALKS DELIVERED:

  • Managing “Difficult” Staff
  • Classroom Management: A Journey Through Various Scenarios
  • Norwegian Culture Through the Eyes of a Foreigner
  • Rant Against Racism
  • Poetry
  • South Africa: Stranger Than Fiction
  • Language is a Loaded Gun 
  • Cancel Culture
  • Sport

Highlighted talks

POETRY ALIVE

Poetry can inspire us. 
It engages our emotions and sometimes directs them. 
It can increase our awareness of the beauty around us and make us think about the darker sides of life. 
Sometimes it comforts us and often it is just pure fun. 
​It can even have a physical effect on people.

This playful, inspiring and interactive presentation brings poetry alive by connecting it to the lives of students.

In this interactive and “easy to follow” lecture, Alan Drop inspires students to connect with poetry.  He engages their emotions and thoughts by linking it to their lives and then extending the boundaries.  The “lecture” has surprises, using stories, poetry and audience interaction.  Students are taken on a journey into a classroom in England, a World War One trench in France and into the head of someone deeply in love.

Alan has a masters degree in English literature, has taught in 7 different countries and now works as a stand up comedian and public speaker.

He writes, “With this interactive lecture I took the ultimate challenge by presenting it to a group of tough 17 year old rugby players in South America.  At the end of the lecture they asked me to continue.”  In Norway he hopes to encourage students to read more poetry and hopefully write their own.  Alan wants them to connect with the poetry in their personal lives.

SOUTH AFRICA: Stranger than fiction

This show uses true stories from South Africa to bring the history and politics alive. It focuses on the humans who lived through apartheid and beyond. 

It includes the story of:

  • the woman who helped a prisoner escape during the Mandela trial
  • how oppressive laws gave birth to township jazz
  • why Robben Island was called the University of the South
  • how the British created the system that led to apartheid
  • how a fishing trip gone wrong played a key role in moving towards democracy

Alan was born in Durban, which some claim is the most multicultural city in the world.  He was involved in the anti-apartheid movement and worked in SA as a journalist and teacher.  He believes that, “To get to the heart of a culture you have to go beyond facts and statistics, into the incredible stories of the people who live through it.”
 
He takes a break from his main job as a stand up comedian to share these fascinating, emotional, bizarre and sometimes uplifting stories.