MArch 9- April 2, 2008

BRIEFLY: I had a BLAST in an exhausting collage of faces and places starting with Atlanta, Kennesaw (curriculum mixes drama and storytelling) with Irish teller Eddie Lenihan. Then up through the Smokey Mountains: Cleveland, Knoxville, and Jonesborough (SUCH A LITTLE TOWN!) Connie Gil hosted me. Met with NSN (Bobbie) and ISC (Susan/ Jimmy Neil) about a national story radio show. I did a workshop & tell there, then did lotsa ghost tours with my daughter in Savannah, and caught my breath at her house in Jacksonville, Florida. Then a wonderfully intense long weekend at the Florida Storytelling Camp and home on one of the last ATA flights. Continue Reading »

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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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I’m looking forward to discussing with Eric what it means to be a street Storyteller as well as the fusion between magic and storytelling. While I have performed in theaters, schools, café’s and more traditional storytelling venues, I most commonly perform for people under trees, in fields and on corners. This is actually a more traditional means of performing storytelling back when storytellers worked in the marketplace in the street or would travel from home to home singing for their supper. Largely I do this in the context of a Renaissance or fantasy festival but I have, in the past, taken it upon myself to just do storytelling in the modern street.

Why work in this storytelling fashion? Well for one it breaks the third wall in a very special way. One can actually reach out and touch ones audience members, clink mugs and adjust ones programming according to their expressions. Certainly this can be done in a theater but one gains a greater sense of control through a cluster instead of a crowd. And storyteller can pay greater individual attention to the storytellers audience. The storyteller can also judge them more effectively when storytelling with a tighter lens so to speak.

Picking the right story for an individual that you meet in passing can be very powerful. One is also afforded a greater Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on April 22nd, 2008 at 8PM ET when I spoke with Jan Andrews and Jennifer Cayley on The Power of Folktales in Children’s Lives on the Art of Storytelling with Children podcast.

Folktales bring us the wisdom of the ages. They have been honed and shaped over centuries. They are there for everyone, functioning on the one hand as entertainment and on the other through offering so many layers of meaning that they are accessible to all. Adults may proclaim that Jack and Ti-Jean, Cinderella and Red Riding Hood (and all those other lesser-known heroes and heroines of the stories we ought to be telling more often) are archetypes. Children simply recognize in these long-lived characters various aspects of their own being. Folktales become then one of the Continue Reading »

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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 April 8th, 2008 at 8PM ET when I spoke with La’Ron Williams on supporting peace and social justice through storytelling interviewed on the Art of Storytelling with Children podcast.

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on March 18th at 8PM ET when I spoke with David B. Epley on storytelling with comedy.

Comedy is one of the most effective tools for imparting any information:

• It actively involves the audience; laughter is not passive.
• It encourages the audience to focus on the process; you must pay attention to the setup in order to get the punch line.
• It makes the process fun.

All of these aspects conspire to make an event, an individual, or a particular subject matter, more memorable. Think of your favorite Teacher, Storyteller, Pastor, Politician, Actor, Choreographer, et cetera, and you will see the truth of what I’m saying. Comedy can be used to educate, to alleviate tension, to ease stress, to help in almost any situation.

Unfortunately, comedy can also be used for Continue Reading »

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Diane Williams will be talking about creating a storytelling classroom and literacy development in the storytelling classroom. Teachers, parents, storytellers and students can effectively get involved in a systemic, sustainable, and holistic approach to learning across the curriculum by incorporating story and storytelling elements.

This discussion delves into how a storyteller can Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 2/19/2008 with Syd Lieberman as he speaks about telling your family’s stories.
Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on February 5th, 2008 at 8PM ET with Brother Wolf and Joyce Slater on how to tell stories with teenagers who have newborns.

Joyce Slater writes…

Storypartners for Teenage Parents is an intergenerational storytelling/mentoring residency for high schools. It is designed to promote communication between teenage parents and parents of another generation. Like it or not parents have similar experiences no matter when they became a parent. This program gives all participants a chance to tell his/her own story to someone who is there to listen to them.

Before the residency begins, possible mentoring partners are interviewed and screened. After the mentors are chosen, they participate in a workshop designed to help them tell their own personal stories. The students participate in a similar workshop before the two groups meet.

The residency lasts two to three weeks with monthly follow-up gatherings for the mentors and the students. The facilitator meets with the parents and the mentors separately and together to develop the process of telling their own stories of child rearing. The facilitator also uses stories to illustrate topics of discussion, like love, hope, disappointment and fear. Sometimes music is Continue Reading »

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