The message <ca0dd0a5c6548782383097923a1407e1.47334@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
from "Joe Platt" <jd_platt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> contains these words:
> Hello everybody,
Hello Joe,
> This is my first time on this newsgroup so let me introdoce myself.
Careful. You could come to grief introdocing yourself.
> I'm a man of wealth and taste :)
> (It's such an old joke but I couldn't resist)
For a moment I thought I might have been able to tap you for a half-crown.
> 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).
Yes, glad to hear they're still there.
> Somewhere along the line while I was up there I fell into storytelling.
> Personally I blame Ceilidhes.
ITYM Ceilidhean....
> 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>.
A one kilomog dream?
> It got a pretty favourable reaction, people particuarly liking the
> story. With Ceilidhes
Ahem!
> 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 :).
Maybe, but not with the timing, I'd guess.
> Now that's who I am and what I do, so, why am I here?
Good question.
> 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.
Not, may I point out, mutually inclusive where Gaelic tales are
concerned. Take the ghost at Creag a'Bhalaich for instance.
> 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.
Many of the ceilidhean I've been to on Eilean fhraoch have featured
humerous tales (usually untrue) about well-known local characters.
> Incidently it's suprisingly hard to find modern authors who write short
> story anthologies. I'm very grateful to Stephen King.
How many would you like? How short?
Shorther than (say) http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/gnu.htm
?
> 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.
Ah. Back to the ghost at Creag a'Bhalaich.........
> 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.
Hmmmm. Not lately. They all go down digitally ATM.
But I'll write up the ghost at......... if you like. It's true, BTW. And
checkable.
> 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.
Try using your spellcheck? It isn't infallible (and it won't know much
Gaelic unless you teach it some) but it would pick up on the ones I
assumed were typos.
> Bye now.
Ciaou.
> 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.
It's a gift, but it has to be worked at.
--
Mac the NiFe
'Gin a body meet a body'
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