Moth
Moth StorySLAM: Clara Wants a Sister
This summer I took about 30 young ladies from Miss Porter’s School to a Moth StorySLAM in Somerville, MA as part of a weeklong program on writing and storytelling. It was kind of a magical night for these young ladies, who came from all over the country and the world to attend this program. As…
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 MoreAs long as you’re not as sexually repressed as the Vice President, the gender-neutral restroom is working just fine
During intermission at last night’s Moth StorySLAM at The Oberon in Cambridge, I went to the restroom. The Oberon has converted its formerly gender-specific restrooms to gender-neutral restrooms. When I entered what was once a men’s room, I was greeted with the typical line that can be found during intermission, except that this line contained…
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 MoreSharing your vacation photos is lovely, but how about some wisdom and insight to go along with it?
On Thursday night I had one of those nights at a Moth StorySLAM where two sets of judges thought I did quite well and awarded me high scores, but the third judging team disagreed severely (earning a rarely heard chorus of boos from the audience), thus ruining my chances at winning. Always frustrating. I’ve been…
Read MoreSeven and counting…
One of our Speak Up storytelling shows earlier in the year featured four former storytelling workshop students who have gone on to tell stories at Moth StorySLAMs in New York, Boston, and Burlington, VT. In fact, two of them competed in the same StorySLAM in December of last year in New York, unbeknownst to them.…
Read MoreThe Moth: The Robbery
In March of last year, I told this story at the Brooklyn Academy of Music about an armed robbery that I experienced in 1993. It was the hardest story I’ve ever told but also one of the most important for me. Post traumatic stress disorder is a serious problem for many of our veterans returning…
Read MoreMy three greatest acts of storytelling cruelty
I like to think that I have been a supportive and positive force on the thousands of storytellers who I have performed alongside over the years, but I’ve also had moments when my judgment and disposition was less than ideal. My three most despicable moments as a storyteller: 1. On Thursday night at Infinity Hall,…
Read MoreFamous people who I’ve met thanks to storytelling
Louis CK: I said hello to him at The Moth Ball, an annual fundraiser for The Moth. He was the guest of honor that night. He nodded in my general direction. David Blaine: I met David Blaine at The Moth Ball. I told a two minute version of my GrandSLAM winning story, which Blaine later…
Read MoreStories are so damn important.
Few things have felt truer to me than this quote from the late Alan Rickman: I cannot tell you how many times a person has told me at the end of one of our shows that they feel like they have been renewed by an evening of storytelling. Their heart has been filled. Their mind…
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