Tuesday night we will be talking with Hurist and storyteller Buck P. Creacy at 8pm on May 13th.

Who Is Buck P. Creacy?

Buck P. Creacy is a homegrown Humorist and a Storyteller. But that is hardly an adequate description of this very funny man. Buck P. has always used humor to make life better for those around him. In the process you can tell he has gained a passion for life and people himself.

He started his humor apprenticeship in Slim’s Barber Shop, Farmington New Mexico, at the tender age of 14. There he realized he could shine more shoes and get bigger tips, if he made his customers laugh. He is still putting a shine in peoples eyes and making them laugh.

Buck P. is also a real live “honest to God” Toolmaker, with nearly 30 years in the tool room, working, consulting and teaching for the benefit of companies all over America. Sharing his wit and wisdom with some of the best known international companies in the world such as Toyota, Dresser Corp., Osram Sylvania and the list goes on and on for more than 98 companies. Groups both large and small love him.

Today his focus on humor is as razor sharp as ever, but never malicious. He has chosen early in life to make his humor “safe” for any audience. Whether his audience is a group of first year students or industry team members or a family reunions, he manages to bridge the gaps with easy grace.

Buck P. sees the whole wide world just a little bit different. And that difference is enough just enough to make you laugh out loud.

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on April 15th, 2008 at 8PM ET when I spoke with Jeff Gere on Thinking Big with Radio and TV on the Art of Storytelling with Children podcast.

A BLUEPRINT: I offer a blueprint based on my evolution here in Hawaii mapping a progression from a teller to a story producer of a Festival, a radio, and TV series. I believe it is vital for us to moving storytelling into the blood stream of the mainstream.

MY OPINION: Storytelling is like folk music before Peter Paul & Mary. Its self-image loves small and intimate, is largely adverse and suspicious of media and documentation while the REST of the Web Entertainment World explodes bland content in an ever-growing variety of methods and technologies. Content is King, storytelling is a DEEP WELL of PROFOUND CONTENT, but it/we are NOT reaching the fast-food masses. Our self-image does not serve us. I believe there’s a need for Storytelling. We have an opportunity: We who drink in this well ARE the ones to bridge this gap, get OVER our techno-phobia, and feed this rich story mana to the Masses. OK, you say, but HOW?

“The First impediment is self-imposed” Helen Keller.

A FLOOD BEGINS WITH A DROP: (you): Start with YOURSELF. Do your homework, find your Voice & polish coal into a jewel with your tongue. Tell tell tell tell and tell: THEN get biz card, resume, and website. Start small and Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 2/12/2008 with Dianne de Las Casas who spoke about storytelling and how it can be a safari into literacy.

Dianne de Las Casas writes…
My whole life has been a safari (Swahili word for “journey”) of stories. The power of stories permeated and impacted my life so strongly that, at an early age, I knew I wanted to share stories with the world. It became my life’s dream, which I am realizing today through storytelling and writing books.

Because books, reading, and telling stories are such an important part of my family’s life, I am always saddened to watch the declining literacy rate in America’s school children. Nearly 2/3 of elementary age children read 2 grade levels below their expected reading level. Why is this happening?

Many of today’s families are not “storied” families. Stories are not a daily part of life – they are not shared at the “campfire” - the dinner table (many families don’t even eat at the dinner table together anymore). There are a vast amount of children who do not have a basic foundation of nursery rhymes and folktales. Imagine my surprise when I learned that my 6 year old niece never heard of Rapunzel because Rapunzel wasn’t a “Disney Princess!”

In addition, few teachers have time to spend doing something “fun” like storytelling. There are standards and benchmarks to meet as well as tests to administer. Many educators do not understand the value of storytelling and how storytelling is an integral part of literacy in the home and the classroom.

Of course, pop culture also plays a role. Stories are pre-fabricated for our children in the form of television shows, movies, and computer and video games, leaving little room for Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 1/27/2008 with storyteller Priscilla Howe about how to make a living as a storyteller.

Priscilla writes…

“Is this…the only thing you do?”
“Are you a teacher?”
“Can you really make a living as a storyteller?”

I hear these questions regularly as I go about my storytelling life. Yes, storytelling is the only Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 1/15/2008 with storyteller Steve Denning about how storytelling can be used to effect change in any work place setting.

Steve Denning writes…
In 1998, I made a pilgrimage to the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, seeking enlightenment. As program director of knowledge management at the World Bank, I’d stumbled onto the power of storytelling. Despite a career of scoffing at such touchy-feely stuff—like most business executives, I knew that analytical was good, anecdotal was bad—my thinking had started to change. Over the previous few years, I’d seen stories help galvanize an organization around Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference on 12/30/2007 with storyteller Bobby Norfolk The Brain is Hardwired for Stories.

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference on 12/11/2007 with storyteller the Margaret Read MacDonald and Brother Wolf discuss Telling Across Language Barriers.

This guest was interviewed on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 8 PM. If you are sorry you missed it join the email alert system to never miss another guest again..

Margaret Read MacDonald writes…
In 1994 one day the phone on my desk at the Bothell Library rang. A professor from Drew University was on the line. “Dr. Wajuppa Tossa would like you to call her in Thailand right away,” he said. “She wants you to come over there as a Fulbright Scholar.” I hung up and sat stunned. A Fulbright Scholar. To Thailand? Could I do that? I had a fulltime job as a children’s librarian. But maybe… I dialed the Thailand number right away to find out more. A very drowsy Dr. Wajuppa roused herself from her 3 am sleep to answer. First problem with communicating across language barriers? Get your time zones right!

It was in fact possible for me to go off to Thailand. The Fulbright program did accept me and the King County Library System gave me a sabbatical. So I arrived at the Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as livel on 12/04/2007 with storyteller the Yellow Springs Tailspinners and Brother Wolf discuss how to effectively start and form a storytelling group.

I spent an hour talking with my local yellow springs Tale-spinners about how we function as a closed storytelling group. We are fairly successful at supporting each other and building on our past successes. I think you will enjoy the conversation.

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 11/20/2007 with storyteller Tim Sheppard and Brother wolf discuss the Art of holding a storytelling space in front of an audience..

Tim Sheppard talks about how various traditions hold the responsibility of an audience differently. What is the moment of impact that storytellers can create and hold for there audiences?

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 10/10/2007 storyteller Brother Blue appeared on the Art of Storytelling with Children to talk about street storytelling and storytelling from the heart.

Brother Blue is one of three storytellers in the country whose work and style have directly influenced my own storytelling style and flavor. I am very proud to bring you this conversation about street storytelling and everything else related to storytelling with storyteller Brother Blue.

Eric Wolf

—–storyteller Brother Blue

Hugh Morgan Hill
(Brother Blue, Storyteller/Street Poet)

He is Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill, but everyone knows him as Brother Blue. He is called by many “the world’s greatest storyteller.” He says he wants his stories to be “bread for the mind, the imagination, the heart, the soul.” He says, “I speak my stories from the middle of the middle of me to the middle of the middle of you” [the people].

Brother Blue received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College (with honors) and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama. For his Ph.D. degree from the Union Institute, his final presentation or Project Demonstrating Excellence (PDE) was “Soul Shout,” a storytelling concert in a prison, accompanied by a musical band of over twenty inmates.

Storytelling festivals include the Corn island Storytelling Festival, in Louisville, Kentucky; Day for Sam, in Wrentham, Massachusetts, a festival commemorating the life and death of a five-year-old boy; Sharing the Fire, sponsored by the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling; Toronto Festival of Storytelling; Vancouver (B.C.) Storytelling Festival; and the Yukon Storytelling Festival. He has also appeared several times at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee; and at “In the Tradition…”, the festival/conference of the National Association of Black Storytellers, held in a different city each year.

He has taught storytelling in prisons, and in schools and colleges throughout the Continue Reading »

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