GOTG 2014 - Round 2 - October 2013

Round 2 Winner - Viktor Morandini

Viktor Morandini has an MSc in geography and works with something completely different... for an American plastics company. He is more or less pure Hungarian, despite the fancy Italian sounding name. From time to time he feels the urge to speak on a stage, in front of people, in a foreign language, which led him to playing Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest; to becoming a regular member of Toastmasters International (and sometimes even competing in speech competitions), and eventually to finding the GOTG. Viktor's love of strange and/or dangerous sports such as orienteering, krav maga, kettlebell and urban cycling will probably feature in his GOTG appearance. Last year after coming 3rd behind the Buffalo monster and  his brother, he decided that he had to try his luck at least once more. He also promised somebody that he would come back, though he doesn't remember the name, face, or gender of the somebody.

Round 2 Competitors

Brandon Davis grew up on a small farm near the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. He  milked his first cow at the age of 5. When his parents slaughtered his pet goat, Ramses and fed it to the family when Brandon was 10, he vowed never to live on a farm again.  Ramses. He has broken that vow twice. As a rebellious fourteen-year-old, he travelled with an uncle who freelanced selling cotton candy with the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Brother's Circus. After following various jam bands around the States for several years making ends meet however he could, including a stint as a Pet Waste Removal Engineer, Brandon settled down in Denver, Colorado, where he met a Hungarian girl. With no reason to remain in his homeland, Brandon followed his heart and landed in Hungary. He has made Budapest his home for the last two years, where he  lives, far from goats, with his hetero lifemate, Adam, and his well-travelled dog of seven years, Tupac. His current passion is mastering the ukulele.

Marianne Powell  does communications for a living, which means she'd better be not embarrassingly bad at Gift of the Gab. She works as a writer, editor and all-round communications person for an international NGO. She also writes plays and comedy, and is one of the co-founders of Budapest Secret Theatre. She's anxious about round 2 - last year someone put antidisestablishmentarianism in the mix, which was just cruel - but otherwise very excited to be participating in Gift of the Gab.

Zoltan Vajda is an economist who has worked on health and pension reform schemes at the World Bank, the OECD and as a Hungarian civil servant (or state bureaucrat?) at the Ministry of Health, the State Private Pension Funds Supervision and finally as an advisor to the President at the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority. In summer 2010 he got fed up with how all projects he had worked on got dumped, reversed or simply forgotten and felt that he wanted no part of the political and professional turmoil that was to come so he left his career behind (prior to probably being fired though) on a Tuesday. He is now a proud small-time entrepreneur running his co-founded Speed Dating business and also managing in central Budapest's Gozsdu court his new Plaster Painting Playhouse that is now hopefully being frequented by more than just his own three daughters.

Kevin Simcock is young kid trapped in a grown man's body. He was born in Canada and has been a nomad for the last seven years living and working across Canada, the United States and now here in Budapest. Kevin is a madman. Which is to say that he works in advertising just like Don Draper from hit tv series Madmen. He loves his wife Dawn, his dog Max and langos with extra cheese.