Posts Tagged ‘storytelling’
Speak Up Storytelling: The Podcast available today!
Elysha and I are thrilled to announce THE FIRST EPISODE OF OUR NEW PODCAST SPEAK UP STORYTELLING. Unlike most storytelling podcasts, which offer you one or more outstanding stories to listen to and enjoy, our podcast seeks to entertain while also providing some specific, actionable lessons on storytelling. Each week we will bring our expertise…
Read MoreDon’t be selfish. Tell a story.
I tell people to tell stories a lot. I know. It’s my clarion call. But allow me to say it again. Last Wednesday night, I performed in The Moth GrandSLAM at the Cutler Majestic in Boston. My plan was to take the stage and tell a story that was a lot more humor than heart.…
Read MoreRun to The Moth. Allow stories to lighten your load.
Here is my suggestion: Run to The Moth. On the radio, the podcast, or a live show. As you probably know, The Moth changed my life. It gave me a stage to tell stories. It provided me with a platform to be noticed. It opened the door to a new career. A bunch of new…
Read MoreI performed in the dark. Without amplification. The results were surprising.
The worst experience I ever had while telling a story was on election night 2016 at a live show of Slate’s The Gist. I was telling the story about my run for the Presidency of my college when things started to turn in the election returns and eyes quickly shifted from me to phones. Trump…
Read MoreFive sausages and a good story
The New England Patriots defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday in the AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium. It was the eighth AFC championship game that I have attended in my lifetime. Patriot fans have indeed been blessed over the last 16 years. Prior to the game, about ten of us gathered in the parking…
Read MoreWhen cowards hide behind digital walls and hurl grenades…
Someone did something rotten to me a few weeks ago. A person who I have never met but who performs in the same New York storytelling community as me, who knows many of the same storytellers that I do, and who was connected to me via Facebook, decided to block me. I didn’t notice. Though…
Read MoreHow I delivered an inspirational talk at a human trafficking conference (while knowing nothing about human trafficking)
I was speaking to some of my former storytelling students – children of Holocaust survivors who had gone through a workshop series with me that culminated in a storytelling performance. One of them told me, “Now I see stories everywhere. Everything is a story.” While I don’t agree that everything is a story, I knew…
Read MoreHow can you possibly have so many stories?
It’s a question I get a lot. Whether it’s stories that I’m sharing on the golf course or at the dinner table or on the stage, I always have a new story to tell. A small part of this is the unusual life that I’ve led, filled with chaos, bad luck, and at times, disaster.…
Read MoreTeaching is full of unexpected surprises
One billion years ago, I taught a third grader named Kaity to multiply. Last night, as Elysha and I were leaving for a Moth StorySLAM in Somerville, I asked Kaity, now an adult and frequent babysitter to our children, to help my third grade daughter with her multiplication homework. It was surreal. No one ever…
Read MoreA possible (though not advised) replacement for heart medication
I spent a week at Kripalu Institute for Yoga and Health last week, teaching storytelling to a dozen remarkable people. On Tuesday night I performed my one-man show, and on Thursday evening, ten of the storytellers from class took the stage and performed. It was an extraordinary night. One of my storytellers had not spoken…
Read More