Become a better story teller

Half an Hour before Wednesday’s Open Mic night, and my brother and I still had no song. We’d tried to write one, but it wasn’t ready. So in a panic we decided that I’d improvise a story and he’s play Alice’s Restaurant (by Arlo Guthrie) in the background.

It sounded a bit tenuous, but we came up with a skeleton storyline together, then winged the rest on stage…

It was a wonderful success! Even tonight, going out in a different town, we were congratulated on that performance. I also met another storyteller from whom I borrowed my intro, and got retrospective permission :-D

Wow this was amazing

I chattered to a couple of storytellers and got more feedback on my style… people seem to genuinely think I’m talented, it’s weird.

Then came the bit I was waiting for: Shonaleigh, one of the best female tellers in the world told a fantastic multi-embedded tale. I was spellbound, and you can be sure I was the first one to congratulate her as she left the stage.

My li’l brother played a song, and did it beautifully.

Then the bridegroom, Peter, gathered as many folk as would come to the centre and told such a moving tale of his engagement in fairytale form, with his newlywed wife contributing a song which grew into a duet. He was on fire, he was spitting story like the library at Alexandria, it was amazing and I think I want to get married.

At the end of the night, my brother said that his favourite storyteller is me. We agreed, however, that Peter and Shonaleigh are up there (ahem here) too.

This month I didn’t get to tell due to short time, and my story was too long :-(

I think there’s a message here: I need to learn flexibility.

And another: I’ve been told by several people that I go on a bit, and should keep the action up and not overdo the bits people have heard before, also I should practice with a clock. This is a big surprise, because I thought I was too terse.

Afterwards, I was in the car with the guest professional storyteller, a woman from Croatia. We talked about languages (a passion of mine) but she seemed bored by that, so I asked her some questions about storytelling (thinking she’d find this tedious) and she just lit up, and described to me the phenomenology of good storytelling. Stay centred in yourself, see the story around you, even bits you decide not to tell, if you control (“are king of”) your awareness you’ll control that of the audience.

Certainly some useful stuff, and I also loved the intensity with which she spoke.

And more: The founder of the storytelling group, who also co-ran the class I did, said he’d listen to me tell something and give critique sometime this month when I’m practicing again, and two of the best storytellers in Britain are performing nearby during April.

So no performance, but I have lots to work with.

I told half a story tonight, at about half past one. I like to tell them outdoors at night so I can be loud and no-one will hear me.

I say half a story because there was a sound of trickling water about halfway through, and I found a tramp sitting inside a wendy house.

He seemed pretty scared, I think the water was him pissing, but I’m not sure. I talked to him briefly, but he wasn’t really talking back, so I left him alone.

I’ve been reading aloud from Roald Dahl, he’s amazingly expressive, and it’s already contributed material and style to other stories I do.

I’d like to find some other cool childrens authors, and read a bit of their work.

it was in a library. I got there very late (mea culpa) but there was free wine and a flirtatious librarian, so it was OK anyway.

Someone read a section of a book, and I realised why oral storytelling is so important. It was so boring. Like reading, only slower. And there wasn’t anything special about her choices of words etc. It would have been much better if she’d remembered the jist and told it as a story. I have seen reading from a book look very natural (it was memorised though, and told asif spontaneous), but it seems to be a completely different artform.

I did my story “The Wendigo”, rewrought from Roger Lancelyn Green’s The Nung Guama.

Everyone seemed to think it was good, I was up to the standard of the other storytellers. One of the guest storytellers, a professional from america, was taking notes and came over to congratulate me afterwards. That was nice.

Storytelling club is this friday… I’ve extensively reworked an old Chinese story, but I’m not sure about it… I might try writing it, telling some other stories, and telling it (practice run) to my family.

It’s bothering me a bit.

There was a powercut the other day. In the candlelight I amused my mother by telling her ‘The Scorpion And The Frog’ and a story about an old woman who’s harassed by a troll.

She doesn’t normally like fairytales, but the TV wasn’t working so she was stuck haha… we had a good timeand she gave me some feedback too.

My storytelling gathering happened, and it was good and I got lots of useful feedback. It was the day after my brother’s 18th (that was clever, eh?) and i was tired, but I pulled myself into a very positive and energetic shape, and that was good.

I week later I told my story in front of a proper audience, and I’m told it was pretty good. Since then I’ve been practicing fairly frequently, although I’ve not yet founden a story for next month.