≈ Comments Off on NAMI mental health show is now accepting stories
Hi Everyone,
The big show I’ve been telling you about for months is now accepting applications for tellers!
NAMI’s annual fundraiser, The Brainpower Chronicles, features people sharing personal stories of living with a mental health condition or being a family member/caregiver of someone with a mental health condition. A number of FGS folks have been in this show over the years, including myself. It’s always a touching, inspiring night and I’m grateful they keep asking me to host.
Here’s a brief bit of text from their website:
“This is NAMI Washington’s signature fundraising event and features true, personal stories that are hopeful and inspiring while reducing the stigma of mental illness.
This year’s event will be held on November 16th at Kane Hall on the UW Seattle Campus. UW has graciously partnered with us to host BPC this year! UW students, alumni, staff, faculty are strongly encourage to apply.”
Here’s the link to the site if you want to know more:
The application deadline is August 30 so don’t delay if you want to try to be in the show. I’m not connected with the show in any way other than hosting so I can’t give you any more details than what they have on their website.
Good luck to everyone who applies. I hope to see you onstage in November 🙂
≈ Comments Off on Fools Rush In – Stories of acting before you think
This month’s theme is about one of my favorite things to do, rushing into things without thinking it all the way through. I do it for almost everything. Love. Work. Money. Hobbies. 98% of all my online purchases. Consequences? I don’t believe in consequences. I believe in delusion, impulse, and magical thinking.
From big mistakes come great stories. That’s what I tell myself after the consequences hit and I’m home on the couch shaking my head wondering how I got myself into this. Knowing I’m going to get a story out of whatever happens to me is how I keep going. It’s how I turn bad things into good. Or at least as good as I can make them.
These are the stories we’re looking for at our next show on August 15. Tell us about a time when you rushed into something without realizing what could happen if it didn’t work out. Did you rush into marriage? Quit your job in a snit? Maybe you got in a bar right with a guy who turned out the be the welterweight champion of the world. Did you learn anything from it or are you still rushing into situations you have no business being in? Whatever you rushed into, we’d love to hear the story, even if everything worked out.
Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. Please don’t get onstage if you haven’t practiced your story. The audience is giving you their time and attention. It’s not fair to them if you get up there and try to wing it.
All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email if you have any questions about that.
I’m also happy to help anyone with a story they’re working on. Send me an email and we can set up a phone call.
See you on Thursday, August 15 at 7 pm, at the Chabad of Queen Anne – Magnolia. 1825 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 (Remember, no non-kosher food in the building)
≈ Comments Off on New show on the east side + FGS next week
Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note to let you know that I and a handful of FGS folks are telling stories at a brand new show in Issaquah tomorrow night.
The show is free. The doors open at 6:00 and the show starts at 7:00. It’s not an open mic but I’d love for you to show up and cheer on the tellers. It’s being hosted by one of our first-time tellers from a couple months ago who was so inspired by our show that she and a friend decided to start their own show on the east side. If all goes well tomorrow, we might all have a new place to tell stories 🙂
Here’s the address and FB link: Eastside Fire & Rescue admin building 175 Newport Way NW Issaquah
Also, don’t forget our own show is next Thursday. The theme is “My Old Man – Dad stories” You know our themes are always broad so you don’t have to be a dad or even have a dad to tell a story on this theme. Click on the link below for more info:
As long as I can remember, I was always trying to get my dad to talk. I knew he had friends so he must have opened his mouth at some point but it was never to me.
Dad’s love language was taking me out for breakfast every Sunday to Leroy’s Pancake Palace. When I got older, it was Mr. T’s. He’d get bacon and eggs and I’d get an omelet. He’d read the newspaper and slide the comics section over to me. No matter how old I was, he’d read the news and I’d read the comics. Sometimes I’d ask him questions about this or that trying to get him to open up but he never replied with more than a sentence or two.
Then, in the summer of 2000, I came up with an idea to get him to open up and tell me about himself. I started working on a radio story about fathers. I began interviewing all my friends about their dads. The final interview was going to be with my dad. I figured if I could get him talking about his dad, maybe he’d tell me a little about himself along the way. Plus, I knew if he heard me on the radio he’d be proud of me and maybe that would open some kind of door between us.
What surprised me at the start of this project was it seemed that no one had ever asked the question, “What do you think of when you think of your dad?” My friends had all kinds of stories about their moms but very few about their dads. It felt like dads were UFOs in their homes. Occasionally seen, but not a lot of proof they actually existed. Turns out, my dad wasn’t the only one who didn’t say much.
When people did open up, though, they shared some great stories. Some sad, some funny, many incredibly touching. Fathers of a certain generation believed in a less-is-more kind of parenting, so when they did something their kids remembered it. I couldn’t wait to interview my own dad. I knew that when he remembered spending time with his dad, he’d realize how little time he and I had spent together and we’d start hanging out more
When I finally sat him down in his favorite chair at his house in Mt. Vernon, I couldn’t wait to hear about his dad and what it was like growing up in the 1920s and 30s. Twenty minutes later I wished I hadn’t asked at all. What I thought would be stories of fishing and walking through the woods turned out to be stories of whippings and anger and working in a coal mine. My heart sank as dad told me all the things he never wanted me to hear. By the end of the interview, I was desperate to hear one good thing about my grandfather.
So I asked, “What was the best thing your dad ever did for you?”
Dad looked at me and said, “Die.”
All those years I wanted him to talk about growing up and why he was the way he was, he was protecting me. He was quiet around me because he didn’t know how else to be. If any of you have come to Fresh Ground Stories, you’ve seen my son help me set up the room and often tell stories. I’ll always feel I couldn’t have done better as a father but I know I also could have done a lot worse. One thing my son and I will always share is our love of telling stories.
So come tell a story about you and your dad. Or you and a father figure. Or you trying to figure out how to be a dad. Is your dad a stoic, a singer, a goofball, a comedian? Did he take you camping and your tent floated away when the river flooded? Did he surprise you by showing up at a father-daughter dance? Maybe he left one day and you had to be the father for your brothers and sisters. Did you turn out to be just like your dad or the complete opposite?
We’re a month late for Father’s Day but that’s ok. We haven’t done a show on this theme since 2013. Last Friday, I told a story at 7 Stories in Burien about my dad that took me a decade to get right. I’ll tell it at FGS this time because my son missed it last week. I hope some of you will join me onstage with stories of the fathers in your lives.
Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. Please don’t get onstage if you haven’t practiced your story. The audience is giving you their time and attention. It’s not fair to them if you get up there and try to wing it.
All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email if you have any questions about that.
I’m also happy to help anyone with a story they’re working on. Send me an email and we can set up a phone call.
See you on Thursday, July 18 at 7 pm, at the Chabad of Queen Anne – Magnolia. 1825 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 (Remember, no non-kosher food in the building)
Fresh Ground Stories 