Archive for January 2020

Last Saturday, Elysha and I produced our first show at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT. It featured a fantastic night of stories and a raucous, sold-out audience. We had to turn away people at the door. At the end of the night, my friend, Eddie, stopped me to comment on my performance. He said…

A week ago, a friend was dealing with an impossible situation involving a truly rotten person and asked me for some advice in terms of how to respond to her rotten words. I offered two suggestions that work in almost every verbally combative situation wherein the opportunity to change someone’s mind or otherwise improve your…

Last week, the Washington Post reported on a Christian school in Kentucky that expelled fifteen year-old Kayla Kenney after she posed with rainbow birthday cake for her birthday. Apparently, this photo was too much for the religious bigots who forbid gay people from learning stuff in their school and loving whoever they want and even…

This is a real thing that has happened to me many times. I’m drinking from a bottle of Diet Coke. Standing beside me is someone drinking a coffee. A third party (or the coffee drinker) comments on the unhealthy nature of my beverage choice, even though the coffee drinker is consuming a beverage with more…

As you may know, New Yorkers have an interesting way of stating that they are standing in a singular column of fellow human beings. Rather than saying that they are standing “in line,” they say that they’re standing “on line.” With this understanding, I would like to posit that there are two distinct types of…

Charlie is a seven year-old boy, so he likes jokes involving poop, vomit, and butts. It’s kind of hilarious but also a little tiresome. Recently I forbade him from using the word “butt” for the rest of the day. I’d heard enough “butt” jokes to last a lifetime. In response, Charlie drew this. He’s nothing…

On episode #81 of the Speak Up Storytelling podcast, Matthew and Elysha Dicks talk storytelling! In our follow up segment, we share about upcoming events in the Speak Up realm and update you on the condition of Nana! STORYTELLING SHOWS 2020 February 8: “Storytelling for Students” at Henry A. Wolcott School, West Hartford, CT February…

Activist conservative group and rabid anti-LGBTQ bigots One Million Moms (which at best has about 170,000 members) is taking aim at Burger King for using what it calls the “d-word” in a commercial promoting its Impossible Whopper. In the ad, a group of people taste-test the Impossible Whopper, then one man says, “Damn, that’s good.”…

I started working for McDonald’s in Milford, Massachusetts in 1987 when I was 16 years-old. Within a year, I was promoted to manager while still in high school, studying my management training binders while sitting math class. During my senior year of high school, I was working more than 40 hours a week for many…

I spend a significant portion of my life paralyzed by fear over the thought that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Bruce Springsteen might someday die. Sometimes I awake in the morning, honestly afraid to check the news on my computer in fear that I might discover that Ginsburg or Springsteen have passed away in the night.…