Hello everybody,
This is my first time on this newsgroup so let me introdoce myself.
I'm a man of wealth and taste :)
(It's such an old joke but I couldn't resist)
My name's Joe Platt and I spend much of my time studying dolphins in the
Outer Hebridies (A group of islands off the West Coast of Scotland).
Somewhere along the line while I was up there I fell into storytelling.
Personally I blame Ceilidhes. For those for whom the term is unfamiliar,
or who can't decipher my spelling, they're a gaelic dance/session/party.
You're expected to do a turn and in order to avoid inflicting my singing
voice on the ensemble I ended up telling a story <Neil Gaimen's Dream of
a thousand cats>.
It got a pretty favourable reaction, people particuarly liking the
story. With Ceilidhes being fairly common I thought I could do the same
thing next time and so started preparing a story for the next one. And
so the avalance started.
I started about two years ago and in the meantime have managed to
include some stories into a radio show called Fishtank which I do for
local community radio station Isles FM.
I've got to admit I'm completely hooked. Maybe it's the joy of taking my
inability to stop talking and turning it to a useful, nay creative,
purpose. Maybe it's the challenge because I don't know about you guys
but I find it very difficult. Remembering the story, keeping the
audience interested, maintaining clarity and above all keeping it smooth
and flowing. For some strange reason it seems a lot easier on radio. I
guess not being able to see your audience actually helps :).
Now that's who I am and what I do, so, why am I here?
Well first, it's always nice meeting people who you share a passion with
but I also wanted some feedback on something I've encountered,
particuarly feedback from people with experience in storytelling. I'd
come across the storytelling tradition in Scotland several years
perviously and quickly came to realsie that there were a small number of
dedicated people who are maintaining the tradition. So I, like I suspect
a great many people, associated the art with two main things.
Fairytales and children.
Every story I'd ever heard told was some variation on folktale or
legend, and almost exclusively was rooted in celtic/gaelic myth. Now
that's great. That's wonderful. Please don't think I'm criticising them
because really I'm not. I really enjoy them but when I started telling
stories myself they weren't the kinds of stories I was telling. I was
using material from short story collections, comics and some from TV
shows like X Files and Farscape.
Incidently it's suprisingly hard to find modern authors who write short
story anthologies. I'm very grateful to Stephen King.
And that's what people liked. I'm not that bad at telling them but what
got people hooked were the stories. They liked the fact that the story
was directed at them as an adult, and they liked the dark, and slightly
disturbing, nature of some of the stories I picked.
Talking to my audience I soon became clear that none of them had heard
storytellers telling stories aimed at a mature audience. So, getting to
my point at last, I was wondering if anybody out there told similar
stories and whether anyones interested in expanding into this area. It's
real fun even if it's never more than a party trick to entertain your
freinds.
Anyway love to know what you guys think. Please forgive my spelling and
that although I might be able to blather I can't write for squat. Look
forward to hearing from you.
Bye now.
Joe
P.S. There is one group of professionals who do tell ***y, funny
stories. Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, Bill Hicks. Some of the best
storytellers I've ever heard.
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