Talkaoke

Talkaoke is a pop up talk show that has been gaining popularity in festivals, clubs, galleries, theatres, conferences and on the street. it consists of an illuminated round table with a host sitting in the middle on a swivel chair. Participants sit around the outside and are passed the microphone whenever they want to talk, coming and going as they please. The conversation is a journey from one unexpected subject to another. It can be topical, funny, deep, out-there, or all of the above. The participants must come up with the topics and it’s up to the host to keep everyone engaged.  Talkaoke is a great chance to hear the latest ideas that people are talking about and to generate and discover new ones.

The Talkaoke Promo video shows how table comes together, or see an example of it in action at This is Talkaoke. Or see our Residency at The National Theatre.

The Talkaoke table has been custom made and designed by The People Speak. It’s battery powered and can be deployed almost anywhere. The table has built in speakers and a microphone to amplify the conversation. It has lights and video recording equipment. The agenda is: there is no agenda. It is up to participants who sit round the table to come up with a collective direction. Our experienced host keeps the chat flowing.

Recently we’ve begun building new Talkaoke tables and running training courses. We have worked closely with the Antenna Gallery at The Science Museum, In Situ artists’ group in Lancashire and The Basildon Academies who are now all running their own successful Talkaoke sessions and events. If you are interested in setting up your own Talkaoke, please get in touch. We would love to help.

The art of facilitating a Talkaoke based conversation should look easy, but there are certain skills and tricks to keeping the conversation flowing. We are always looking to try out new people in the middle of the table to expand our pool of hosts and are running regular training nights at our studio sessions once a month. Check our events page from time to time to see when we are next running a studio sessions are.

Early days of Talkaoke at Rich Mix, London


Talkaoke at The Mix Festival, Peckham


Talkaoke in French at Pete The Monkey Festival

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 3rd, 2011 at 5:59 pm. It is filed under Our projects, Talkaoke. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.