And Dave Sabes tells the small crowd how he was able to grow a 40-pound tomato in his backyard: "I found out where the BALCO labs were, went behind the building and located a box labeled 'Top Secret: Barry Bonds.' I saw a bunch of pills inside, planted them next to my tomatoes and watered the plants. After I nurtured them, I grew a tomato that not even Cosentino could comprehend!"

Their stories, of course, aren't true. And although the two men may be lying, the audience listening is far from regarding them as liars.

They're all part of the Renaissance Toastmasters Club, a Campbell-based organization that meets every Tuesday during the noon lunch hour at the Stuft Pizza on Campbell Avenue and San Tomas Aquino Road. And they're participating in an exercise called Table Topics.

Table Topics, says member Adam Dorsay, forces people to think extemporaneously and on their feet.

"It's yoga for the mind," he says before presenting others with strange scenarios. "We're asked to speak on a situation we're not prepared for so we can improve our speaking fluidity. It's not about telling the truth and it's not about being accurate. It's really just about spitting stuff out."

He asks one member to explain why she thinks Coke is healthier than water, another member why she decided to wrestle a vicious crocodile in the Australian outback, and another member to explain what possessed her to invent a back-mounted jet pack.

They all give their answers quickly, "riantly" and without hesitation.

But Table Topics is only one of a number of activities the group engages in during the hour its members are together. People regularly tell jokes, offer and receive constructive criticism, and give speeches, all in an effort to improve how they speak in public.

"There are many reasons why people might want to improve their speaking skills," says Jackie Talia, the immediate past president of the Renaissance Club. "A lot of people want to improve communications skills for work. And then there are people who are simply afraid of saying something that might be construed as unintelligent."

Whatever the reason, many of them find their way to any one of the multitudes of Toastmasters clubs that can be found in most communities.

At one point, the Orchard City had four clubs, says Lee Dimmitt, a retired airline pilot who founded the Renaissance Toastmasters Club in 1997. But recently, with the closing of the Coco's restaurant on Hamilton Avenue, where most of them used to meet, many have relocated temporarily to other sites.

The first-ever Toastmasters Club was founded 80 years ago. It was established in 1924, when a group of men assembled by Ralph Smedley began meeting in the basement of a YMCA in Santa Ana, Calif.

The group's motive was "to afford practice and training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings, and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members."

Six years later, so many people in so many communities around the country had started their own clubs that a national Toastmasters federation was needed. The federation coordinated all the clubs' different activities and standardized a program of activities. It wasn't long before groups started sprouting in other countries, which led to the formation of Toastmasters International. According to the Toastmasters website, more than 3 million men and women in 80 countries have benefited from the organization's communication and leadership programs.

These groups have international conferences where members from all over the world get together, talk about the direction of the organization and participate in speech contests.

Mary Whiteman, the vice president of public relations for the Silver Tongue Toastmasters Club in Los Gatos, says that at this moment many of its members are preparing to participate in that club's annual fall speech contest on Aug. 18.

"Every club holds one around this time of year," she says. "And each club sends a winner to district-level speech contests later."

Doug Gillison, a Campbell resident and member of the Campbell-based Swith-on Toastmasters Club—which now meets in San Jose—says his club was due to hold its speech contest on Aug. 16. The Renaissance Club won't hold its contest until sometime in September, Talia said.

But those who join don't necessarily have speech contests in mind, Talia says. They can be anywhere from professional speakers looking to maintain their speaking skills through constant practice to mere beginners who are simply looking to become more competent in English. The latter is why Sun Chen, a beginner, joined a Toastmasters Club.

Chen emigrated from China two years ago and just opened an acupuncture practice in Saratoga. She discovered that she needed to improve her speaking skills because her clientele consisted mostly of English speakers.

"Being able to communicate," she says, "is one of the most important skills you can have."

Realizing she needed improvement, she began to look on the Internet to find out how she could work on her weakness. She discovered Toastmasters a month ago and joined the Renaissance Club only a week later.

After less than a month, she's ready to give her "icebreaker," the speech that every new speaker must give that introduces the speaker to the club.

She's nervously smiling as she approaches the podium to give her speech.

With a thick but understandable accent, she gives her introduction to the members of the group, who listen intently with pencil and paper in hand to offer comments and criticism on her performance.

With little hesitation, however, she begins to relate her "My Dream" speech, a personal account of childhood memories, past experiences and dreams yet unfulfilled.

"In the beginning, I was actually nervous because I had only been in the country for two years and the language is still challenging," she says afterward about the speech. "But after I started speaking, my nervousness went away, because I was talking about my own emotions, my own dreams. And I knew the group was supportive of me."

She went on to tell the story of how her grandparents were herbalists in China, and how she had helped them since she was 4 years old to gather and carry herbs from the fields

"I used to walk 20 miles a day to carry the herbs," she says. "But I was proud of walking, because when I watched them treat their patients, I knew I was helping, too."

She says she became convinced at an early age that she wanted to become a doctor. And after studying hard, at age 15 she entered a medical school in China. When she graduated, she became a urologist.

Everything was fine until a patient of hers who suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, died in her care, and she became a bit discouraged with Western medicine.

"I thought that there must have been something else I could have done to help," she says. "So I began studying Chinese acupuncture."

For years in China, she practiced both Eastern and Western medicine to help patients stay healthy or avoid sickness, she says. But when the opportunity presented itself for her to move to the United States, she figured she'd be able to practice the same here. When she arrived, however, she realized it wasn't that easy. She had to do so much more in order to practice medicine in the United States.

"And when I got here with $100, I realized that I was poor," she says, explaining that she didn't have the time or money to get what she needed.

But, she says, she still had a dream that she would help people. And after studying to be qualified as an acupuncturist in the United States, she was able to open her own practice in Saratoga.

"Icebreaker speeches are some of the most touching, because they're about yourself," Dimmitt says. "And even though people are new and nervous, they know the audience understands what they're going through, because everyone here has done one himself."

Not everything said there is meant to be so heartfelt, however.

At every meeting, for example, someone is appointed Joke Master and is responsible for telling one joke. On this day, Dimmitt is that man.

Dimmitt tells everyone about a woman whose husband recently died.

"He left the widow $30,000, but she was complaining to her friend that she was broke," he says. "Her friend was confused and asked what happened to the money he left her. 'I spent $5,000 for the funeral, $1,000 for incidentals, and $24,000 for a memorial stone.'"

Dimmitt pauses for a second.

"The friend looked surprised, and asked '$24,000 for a memorial stone?'" he says. "The woman answers, 'Yeah, it was 3 carats.'"