21st Birthday Party Speech

Need help with writing a speech for a 21st birthday? Here we have help from The Presentation Doctor, responding to one of the queries of one of our readers.

Its my 21st birthday party and I have about all of my friends and family attending. I am not very good at speeches and am praying you can advise me what to say or not to say. I know I need to include thanks to my parents for hosting this party, and thanks for everyone showing up, and hoping that everyone has a great evening, etc., but this sounds very traditional and boring.

Advice from The Presentation Doctor:

There are a couple of things to try. First is to realise that a birthday speech is best kept quite short and quite witty. It is you who will be standing between the audience and carrying on with the party. Around three minutes should be best.

As well as thanking your parents for bringing you up, it would also work well to tell an amusing anecdote, or two, from your childhood.

You could tell a couple of jokes.

Here is a few examples.

“I have realised that the height of my intelligence came between the ages of 4 and 18. At four I knew all the questions, but at 18 I knew all the answers.”

“I learnt at a fairly early age to follow the family motto. If at first you don’t succeed, …try reading the instructions” (another variation on this one is if all else fails try reading the instructions).

Alternatives to a formal speech are to do a slideshow showing a selection of photos of your life with your friends and family This could be a formal slide show or you could mount the pictures on presentation boards when people come in.