The Art of Story Telling

Last night, I did something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, which was to attend the Detroit edition of The Moth story hour and tell a story.

When I learned that the theme was food for the most recent event, I made it my business to make sure that I attended.

Once I arrived at the event, I started to get nervous about telling my story but I sat with a table of friends and random strangers who encouraged me to just do it. After a Tanqueray and tonic, I had the courage and submitted my name.

The place was packed and many people were submitting their name for the random selection process, which I found comfort in because my name is NEVER called for anything.

Things jumped off at 7:30pm as the host walked up to the mic to call the 1st person to the stage. My fingers were crossed hoping that I was not called 1st. Going 1st in a competition is never easy. After the 1st person/story, I waited and waited nervously until my name was pulled from the hat. I believe I was 7th.

Actually, my name wasn’t called because the host could not read my handwriting. He asked 2 or 3 people in the audience to see if they could make out the name until they figured it out.

I was a little embarrassed but I do have fancy penmanship.

Now! I’m on stage under the lights and I have five minutes to tell my story about FOOD… Tons of people in the room watching me. May hair looking shiny & luxurious (not my words). A big video camera taping my every move, word, gesture, mistake!

My story was about a restaurant experience that I had with friends in Barcelona, Sp many years ago where I had the best fried chicken ever, got white boy wasted on sangria, rolled down hill and waking up naked in a hotel room with no sheets on the bed and a bottle of wine.

I can be very longwinded but I managed to get my story out in the five minutes. Along the way, I had the crowd laughing and I felt pretty comfortable. Guess I was nervous for nothing…

I walked off stage feeling confident but I didn’t feel like my story was as good as a few others but it was good.

When it all boiled down, I received 25.5 points out of a possible 30, putting me in 4th place for the night. I was proud of my score and happy that I was able to make this happen.

Next month, the theme is struggle. I have some great struggle stories and I think that I may give it a go once again….