An Immeasurable Gift ─ Margaret Edson's Smith College Commencement 2008

The cohost of ABC breakfast radio in Adelaide, Jules Schiller delivered a beautiful best man speech for his old comedy partner Tony Moclair when he married Kate in 2003. It's a Speakola favourite, and in this episode, Jules comes on in the aftermatch of a Married at First Sight best man speech abomination to talk about what makes a great best man speech, or wedding speech generally. 

Opening audio is from Tony Moclair afternoons on 3AW. 

I wrote a piece about best man speeches recently for the Speakola podcast. 

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For the sixth year running, Tony awards his speeches of the year on Triple R's 'The Grapevine' with Dylan Bird. This year, no Kulya who has moved on from the show after 13 years. Congrats Kulya. Thank you to Triple R for the audio. Dylan will be back in 2024 with a new show called Future Perfect.

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Merry Xmas, Happy holiday, have a great New Year

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For 15 seasons and 181 episodes, Julia Zemiro and Brian Nankervis have been the dual hosts of 'Rockwiz', bringing their wit, charm and performance energy to Australia's legendary music quiz show. In this episode Tony chats to them about what makes a good MC, and they share tips and yarns from several decades of hosting big events.

In the second half, Tony's 12 year old son Jack joins the conversation. He's a big fan of Julia and Brian (and Rockwiz), and fancies himself as a bit of an MC himself. He prepared some questions for his heroes, and it's a lovely and funny end to the episode. 

There's some extra Jack questions that will be in the bonus Patreon feed, and on the Speakola newsletter. 

To read about Jack's visit to the Rockwiz Good Friday Show.

To read and see video of Jack going to the Bruce Springsteen show at AAMI Park. 

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Lahra Carey's husband Ben Cowen died in paragliding accident on 8th of January 2017. A few days later, Lahra spoke at her husband's graveside, paying tribute to 'the Ben effect' and summoning friends and mourners to 'Ben's Army'. The speech is recreated for the episode, and Lahra talks to Tony about love and loss, and the challenge of giving a eulogy in the toughest moments. 

Lahra Carey's eulogy for Ben Cowen is one of the most popular speeches on Speakola. 

Lahra Carey's speech at time of one year anniversary is also amazing.  

Lahra works at Narrative Comms in crisis management

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Donate to the Cowen kids Parachute organisation, to help children who are dealing with death, illness or divorce of a parent, and are under financial hardship. 

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Dr Brendan Nelson was Liberal Party leader and Leader of the Opposition in Australia in 2007-08. After he retired from politics, he became Director of the Australian War Memorial, and has a masterly knack of sharing the stories of this country's military heroes. The feature speech here was delivered in 2014 at a Soldier On charity fundraiser. Tony's cohost for this episode, comedian and Utopia star Anthony 'Lehmo' Lehmann was MC that night, and watched in awe as Dr Nelson explained the significance of a George Lambert print and its special frame, and watched bidding rocket from $1000 to $40,000 immediately. Lehmo says it is the greatest speech he ever saw live. The original audio is not available but Dr Nelson told the story as part of his 'five most significant artifacts at the Australian War Memorial' section of his Howard Oration in 2021, and that audio is included. 

There is also some beautiful singing at the end of this 50th episode of the podcast, by Private Ken Gant who was killed at the Battle of Long Tan, and recorded a song for his mother the day before he was deployed. 

/If you enjoy Speakola please do one or more of the things that help poidcasts: 

Tell someione; Rate or review us in iTunes, or support me financially. There's no production company for this, just me. 

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Brendan Nelson's autobiography 'Of Life and Leadership' is available here. All proceeds to Legacy and Lifeline. 

You can book Lehmo for comedy and more, here. 

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Clare Wright is an award winning author and documentary maker and a previous guest on this podcast (Ep 46). This very personal speech about depression was delivered at a The Wheeler Centre event called 'Epic Fail' featuring well known authors and artists sharing their stories of failure. 

Clare's description of a state of depression is so evocative that Melbourne musician Suzannah Espie wrote a song using the words of the speech as lyrics, 'I'm sorry, I failed'. The episode concludes with that song. 

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This episode is sponsored by DocPlay. Sign up here for 45 days free on the world's best documentary streaming site, then if you choose to continue, $7.99/m. Clare's narrates the film, Utopia Girls , which you can stream at Docplay. 

Tony's personal writing blog is Good one, Wilson!

The number for Lifeline Australia is 13 11 14.

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Brendan Gale became CEO of Richmond in late 2009, and delivered this speech to the whole of the football club in the rooms in the old Punt Road grandstand in early 2010. it was a vision for the future, and it was mocked in the press at the time. Richmond had not won a final for 30 years and had competed in finals twice in the previous fifteen. Gale outlined a plan to win three premierships in ten years. It's an articulate corporate speech in a sporting environment with brave goal setting. I spoke to Brendan Gale as part of interview process for my Allan Jeans biography (Yabby, Hardie Grant, 2024) 

The transcript and audio reenactment of Gale's speech is on Speakola. 

Join Speakola newsletter for free here or you can choose to pay. Thanks also to those who are donors or Patreons. 

This episode is sponsored by DocPlay. Sign up here for 45 days free on the world's best documentary streaming site, then if you choose to continue, $7.99/m. 

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Tomorrow is ANZAC Day in Australia, our most important day for commemorating and recognising the sacrifice of armed servicemen and women. To coincide, here is a re-release of speechwriter Don Watson's interview about the Paul Keating's 'Eulogy to the Unknown Soldier' delivered at the Canberra War Memorial on Remembrance Day 1993. 

The occasion was the interment of the remains of one Australian solider, dug up from a battlefield on the Western Front.

It is a revered speech in this country, the words are now chiselled into the Australian War Memorial itself and the phrase 'He is all of them, and he is one of us'; was even at the centre of a political stoush in 2013 over whether it should replace Kipling's 'Known Unto God' on the graves of Unknown Soldiers. (Kipling won the day).

This is a shorter episode than the usual Speakola length. If you are interested in Don Watson and his speechwriitng career, the previous episode is much more detailed, and discusses Watson's somewhat broken relationship with the former Prime Minister.

Watson's most recent books are 'There it is Again' (Collected Writings) and The Bush.

The speech is now up on Speakola for the first time with vision thanks to Rhett Bartlett and Rhettrospective. 

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Read analysis of this speech in newsletter 

Read the Barry Humphries speech mentioned in the introduction, 'Through the Thin End of an Asparagus Roll', National Press Club, 1978

Make a donation or join the Patreon. 

Please subscribe to the podcast, visit Speakola,  and share any great speeches that are special to you, famous or otherwise. I just need transcript & photo /video embed. Speakola also has Twitter and Facebook feeds.

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A bonus episode with Walkley winning journalist Andrew Rule recorded when we chatted about his eulogy for his father (episode 44) 

This episode is about Andrew's eulogy for Les Carlyon, a fellow legend of Australian journalism and writing. The speech was delivered on March 12th 2019 at Flemington racecourse, the home of Australian racing and the location for some of Carlyon's most beautiful writing. As Andrew says in the speech, he was the poet laureate of the turf. 

Andrew Rule has a 'Life and Crimes' podcast and I was a guest talking footy rogues, 'Black sheep in footy boots'. 

I read out a list of thank yous in this episode to people who have been 'super subscribers',(Beyond the $5 per month) either as 'founding members' at the newsletter or 'Standing Ovation' donors on Patreon 

I'm also very grateful to every person who has helped me over these last two years to provide an income stream for this project. 

Thanks also to those who are donors just through Paypal

This episode is sponsored by DocPlay. Sign up here for 45 days free on the world's best documentary streaming site, then if you choose to continue, $7.99/m. 

Tony's personal writing blog is Good one, Wilson! 

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We've just had the terrible news that Ron Joseph, Speakola's guest for E36 of this podcast, died this week aged 77. He was so accommodating with this interview, and we chatted for nearly two hours about his incredible life in footy administration and in particular the North Melbourne footy club. I'll put up some of the general (non speechy audio) from that day on the Good one, Wilson podcast, which is at my personal newsletter page. 

This is a republish of that episode from last year, which featured Ron Joseph's eulogy to Lou Richards, which is one of the great AFL speeches. 

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RIP Ron Joseph

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