Thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday and supported all the tellers. Every month the tellers and the audience members amaze me. I love that even after knowing some of you for two or three years you can still surprise me with your stories.

Dan, one of our first-timers, told us about the pitfalls of love, marriage and the TSA. If anyone out there tells you they value communication in a relationship ask them if they’ve ever climbed over a barbed wire fence and broken into a federal facility in order to tell their wife something.

Lauren gave us a peek into her childhood with her story about Spartacus, The World’s Toughest Goldfish. Chris told us what happens when a stranger slips a note under your front door and you take them up on their offer. And Rob told a hysterical story of Love and Time Zones. Are you put out by having to drive to West Seattle to see your partner? Well don’t be. Rob crossed a continent for his sweetheart. If all you have to deal with is the West Seattle bridge at rush hour then you’re getting off light .

Zoe shared a story about her mother and a mysterious cassette tape whose contents will never be known. The story was different from the type she usually tells and I was touched that she let us all a little deeper into her life. I could tell there were times during her story where it affected her more than she thought it would. Thank you Zoe.

Carin, our New Jersey ex-pat, opened the door a little more on her life too when she shared with us how far she’ll go to stick up for her deaf students. What made it extra special was that she signed the story as she told it. That was so great to see!

I don’t have space to keep telling you about all the other great moments we had on stage that night but I do want to give special thanks to all the first-timers: Julienne, Rob, Rachel, Dan and Susan. I hope each one of your comes back to tell again. Also thanks to the regulars who told that night: Jake, TC, Zoe, Chris, Lauren, Bill, Carin, Sea and David.

I do want to mention one thing before I tell you about upcoming shows and workshops. There were two people onstage that night that a number of people have written me about to see how they’re doing. Our youngest storyteller ever was there with her father that night. The young woman (she’s 14) went up first and told a really sweet story about being scared to go on a ride an Six Flags and doing it anyway. The next day one of the people in the audience wrote to tell me his favorite line of the night was, “If you can ride an upside-down roller coaster you can do anything.”

I brought the young woman’s father on stage after her and he shared with us the heartbreaking story of just how brave that little girl and the rest of her family was having to be right now. I’m not going to go into details because it felt like the story was just for the people in the room that night. But if she and her dad are reading this I want them to know that a lot of people are keeping them in their hearts right now. Thank you for coming out and sharing what you’re going through.

Our next show will be Thursday, Nov 10. (During the holidays the show is on the 2nd Thursday of each month instead of the 4th.) The theme for November’s show is “Unexpected Kindnesses.” I know it’s a short turnaround so I’ll try to get the invite out as soon as possible.

While you’re thinking about that I want to tell you guys about two great story shows and a new open mic coming up. Becoming More Less Crazy is the one-man show from our regular Bill Bernat. I love this show. I’ve been 3-4 times and brought friends each time. Go see it!

The show below that is Seattle Words and Music. Every few months one of our regulars, David, puts together a show of all his favorite stories and tellers that he’s heard at FGS. Then he gets me to host it 🙂 It’s at a nice little theater in Belltown called The Rendezvous. It doesn’t seat too many people so you’ll want to get tickets before it sells out.

The show below that is a new open mic that’s starting in Tacoma. It’s run by one of my favorite tellers and I will definitely be there telling a new story for the first night. Tacoma is a great place to perform and I’m excited to see a new storytelling open mic there. I hope I get to see some of you there on the 23rd!

There are three links at the bottom for storytelling workshops. I’ve heard good things about all of them so I am happy to recommend them.

UPCOMING SHOWS BY FGS REGULARS

Becoming More Less Crazy (Nov 5)

Seattle Words and Music (Dec 4)
http://www.seattlewordsnmusic.com/

This One Time (Open mic – Nov 23)
https://www.facebook.com/events/319133965132989/

WORKSHOPS

Storytelling 101 Workshop — Learn to Tell the Personal Story (Nov 15)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/storytelling-101-workshop-learn-to-tell-the-personal-story-tickets-28901559342?aff=fgs

“Tell Your Story” Storytelling development and presentation (Nov 3)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1179157265496011/

Bill Bernat’s FGS storytelling workshop meetup

I hope to see a bunch of you a the next FGS on the 10th 🙂

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick reminder that our next show is this Thursday. I hope a bunch of you can make it. Here’s the link to this month’s theme:

Fresh Ground Stories:Called to Action-Stories of being compelled to do something

Thursday, Oct 27, 2016, 7:00 PM

Roy Street Coffee & Tea
700 Broadway East – Seattle, WA

79 Story Fans Attending

Most of you don’t now this but my mom was a missionary for the Baha’i Faith while I was growing up. Since we lived in Alaska that involved jumping in tiny planes and flying around the state. There weren’t always roads where my mother brought her faith and frankly there wasn’t always a lot of interest in what she had to say either. The Aleuts and At…

Check out this Meetup →

I also want to pass on some fantastic news. In the last month, two of our tellers were featured on KNKX’s Sound Effect show. Every now and then I find a story that matches up with one of Sound Effect’s themes and I get to connect a teller at our show with the nice folks at our local NPR station. Click on the links below if you’d like to hear Margaret’s story about joining a cult in her 20’s and Chris’s story about how Alzheimer’s gave her the father she always wanted 🙂

http://knkx.org/post/trading-your-family-cult-one-womans-story

http://knkx.org/post/how-alzheimers-gave-seattle-woman-father-she-always-wanted

Quick shout out to one of our regular tellers, Bill Bernat. He’s performing his amazing one-man-show “Becoming More Less Crazy” next month on Nov 5. He worked out a lot of this show at FGS and it’s been a joy to see the full story evolve onstage. You can find out more about it here: http://morelesscrazy.com/

I also want to remind everyone that I’m experimenting with how to decide who gets onstage each night. If we get 10-12 people putting their names in the Mr. Coffee carafe then everyone will get stage time and nothing will change. But if we get 15-20 tellers like we’re starting to I’m going to have to bump some folks. It kills me to do that but the show really does need to stay to around 90 minutes.

You can read about those changes about halfway down the blogpost here: https://freshgroundstories.com/2016/09/24/thank-you-18/

Thanks for your patience and understanding while I try to figure this out. Email me if you have any questions.

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Most of you don’t now this but my mom was a missionary for the Baha’i Faith while I was growing up. Since we lived in Alaska that involved jumping in tiny planes and flying around the state. There weren’t always roads where my mother brought her faith and frankly there wasn’t always a lot of interest in what she had to say either. The Aleuts and Athabascans seemed fine with the faith they were raised in and our pilgrimages around the tundra seemed at best invasive and at worst condescending. Though I didn’t admire her calling I did admire that she had one. It was the most powerful thing in her life and it gave her strength in times when she had nothing else.

This weekend I helped one of our storytellers Keith with his own calling. He just started a sports camp for blind kinds called Camp Abilities and he asked if I’d like to partner up with one of the kids. I have no idea how to throw a javelin and even less of an idea how to throw a discus but I saw the same devotion in him that I saw in my mother so I told him to I’d do it. I just got back a couple of hours ago and I’m still smiling over watching those kids throw down their canes to kick soccer balls, run toward beeping bases, and sprint 100 meters while holding onto their sighted helpers with a little bit of rope.

Most of my life I wished I could find my own calling. I’ve seen first hand how powerful it is to be called to do something, even a little something. I saw my son spend two years helping kids at the YMCA for almost no money because he knew some of them needed a good role model, someone who showed up every day just to pay them some attention. I saw a guy down here in Olympia hold up a peace sign every day for an hour at the corner of 5th and Legion. He never said a word. He just stood there quietly holding that sign for years until one day he disappeared. I don’t know the reasons why he did what he did but I always admired his devotion.

Sometimes we’re called to inaction. Why did I stay in relationships longer than I should have? Why did I try to rescue a girl from a pimp once when any sane person would have just walked away? Why did I spend so many years onstage pretending to be someone I wasn’t?

I’m just now starting to understand the reasons why I did or didn’t do some of those things. Luckily for you I was out of town for work last week and spent the weekend running around a track with blind kids so I don’t have time to tell you those stories. But you guys now have a month to come up with your own stories of why you were compelled to do some of the crazy, weird, scary or inexplicable things you’ve done in your life.

Our next show is Thursday, October 27, at 7pm at Roy Street Coffee and Tea. This month’s theme is “Called to Action – Stories of being compelled to do something.” Bring a story about a time you did something that you never thought you’d do. Or maybe a story about a time you were compelled to do nothing but now wish you had. I don’t know if this theme will resonate with anyone but I’m going to give it a shot. The only thing I ask is that you keep the stories on a personal level and not a political or religious level. I know that’s a fuzzy line but if you have any questions about a story you want to tell please email me.

Remember to keep it clean, practice out loud on friends or pets, and make sure it’s under 8 minutes. Here are the updated Rules & Guidelines for telling a story at the show:

https://freshgroundstories.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/storytelling-rules-and-guidelines/

I hope to see you on the 27th!

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com