Thanks to everyone who came out to the show last Thursday. I think we broke a record for number of storytellers on stage. I don’t usually put up that many but I wanted to get everyone up who I bumped the month before. Thank you for your patience. I know some of you had to leave at 8:30. I totally understand. I just didn’t want to send anybody home who had been practicing their story since December.

As always, we learned some valuable lessons at the show. Carin told us what happens when you chase New Jersey’s Biggest Cheese Wheel through an empty mall. Marjorie let us know that sometimes that sexy handyman you’ve had your eye on is actually a cat burglar. And Danielle showed us that the best way to make angry people like you is to knit them slippers.

Imagine what would happen if everyone in the world knitted slippers for the person who hates them the most! Let’s face it. You cannot be intimidating in slippers. Especially knitted slippers. Even if you were still angry after putting on your slippers you couldn’t pick up a weapon because you’d keep getting shocked from all the static electricity. Danielle, you may have just saved the world.

Special thanks to the first-timers who got onstage and told stories: Gaylin, Carin, Frank and Leigh. Gaylin came to the first storytelling workshop Bill Bernat held last month and got some great feedback on the story she ended up telling Thursday. I would love to see more people show up at Bill’s workshop. It’s free, it’s at a nice little coffee shop in Ravenna and it’s a great way to work on your story with a friendly bunch of people. Here’s the link if you want to join the meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop/

If you’d like to see a wickedly funny-but-also-very-touching show you can get a ticket to see Bill do his one-man storytelling show “Becoming More Less Crazy” here: http://morelesscrazy.com/

Yes, that was a shameless plug. But it’s a great show with fantastic storytelling so I’m happy to pass on the link. I’ve been twice and I might go again. If it’s worth me driving up from Olympia then it’s worth a drive across town.

Here is another cool storytelling-related thing. Six months ago a first-time storyteller named Carol got up and told a story that cracked me right across the heart. She talked about how uncomfortable she is with feelings and what that has cost her.

It may not come across in the audio but we could see her struggling onstage to say these things and open up in front a hundred strangers. I loved her honesty so much I asked her later if I could put her story up on our Facebook page. She wasn’t comfortable with that so I never put it up. I lost track of her after our correspondence.

A couple weeks ago I found out she just started a blog where she walks around Seattle solving little mysteries she finds along the way. I wrote to tell her I loved the idea and that I was happy she was starting to put her writing out there for the public. She said the reception she got from her story at FGS inspired her to start the blog.

Well, I just about dropped my coffee. Here’s a woman who suffered from debilitating anxiety attacks, found a way to work through them enough to go onstage a tell a story about it, and now, because of how supportive the audience was when she was up there she’s now going around town talking to strangers and writing about it. I don’t know what to say. Just by being kind and patient with a new storyteller you guys inspired her to go out and do something she’s never done. Thank you for making this such a special show.

Carol just gave me permission to put up the audio from her story back in June so look for that in a day or two. In the meantime, here is one of the stories from her blog:

https://carolinvestigates.wordpress.com/2015/10/09/invisible/

Here’s our Facebook page if you need it:  https://www.facebook.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-316944020508/

Thanks to everyone who got up and told a story that night: Jenny, Elliot, Barb, Gary, Marjorie, Connie (our favorite owl whisperer), Bill, Gaylin, Peter, Randy, Frank, Danielle, Chris, Leigh, Carin, and David (I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone)

The recording from last week’s show came out fine so I can give each of the storytellers a copy of their performance if they want it. I only give them to the people who told a story and it’s just the audio of their own story. Most performers don’t want their personal stories online so that’s why I only give copies to the people who told them

I hope to see a bunch of you at our next show which is February 25, 7pm at Roy Street Coffee and Tea. The them is “Tiny Things – Little things people said or did that made a difference in your life.”

I know, it’s a little wordy. I’ll write up the official invite this weekend and get it down to a manageable length 🙂

See you soon,

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com