The Moth Story Slam in San Francisco: Storytelling Live

Guest Blogger Lynn Krug joins us today with her review of the live storytelling event in San Francisco on Tuesday the 29th.

What are 3 Fast Facts about Krug?

1. She is a colleague at the Palo Alto Media Center, an award-winning community tv collaborative in California.

2. She is known for her art critiques.

3. She and her college-aged daughter share a love for National Public Radio (NPR).

Why are the Palo Alto Media Center and our Seattle SGL Media branch teaming up for this review?

SmartyGirls and SmartyFellas value the art of storytelling and the use of technology for excellent audio. The Moth is a nonprofit headquartered in New York. Its product? A radio podcast of true stories. Storytelling events this well produced? We wouldn’t miss it. Special thanks to KALW’s Matt Martin and The Moth’s Anna MacKinnon and Andrew Slusser for the invite.

What’s the call to action? 

Lynn Krug reports that San Francisco needs more volunteer storytellers to take the stage.

The Moth Story Slam
Producers: 
Anna MacKinnon
Andrew Slusser
Sponsor: KALW 
The “Public Works” Performance space at 161 Erie in SF.
The theme “Altered”
“Real people telling real stories for 5 minutes”.
 
The Moth Story Slam was a first experience of live story telling for me.  I must reveal, I  already held a jaw dropping bias for the Moth radio show, but it was a complete surprise what the experience of  “live” is when the audience (sitting next to you) are also the performers.
 
The Moth Story Slam at Public Works is an open fluid space with a celebratory atmosphere of happily anxious story tellers and their warm and encouraging audience. 
 
Judges are selected from the audience, and the speakers are selected at random. Memorable team names included: “Transformation”, “Fourth Date” ( with the daters), and “Loose Change”.
 
The host for the evening,  Dhaya Lakshminarayanan  sets a great pace with fast and witty humor for the audience, prompts the audience to wildly nurture each story teller up to the stage.
 
Each story teller is randomly selected from their entries by Dhaya. Once selected, it is like watching both semi professional and amateurs climb the ladder for the high dive.  You have no idea what to expect. 
 
This isn’t Ted Talk or Oprah-lite. The Moth stories are about being drawn in to a personal story.  A story teller is best when fresh, raw – and true to who they are.  Over rehearsed or stories that reveal the ending early won’t work.  it is all about the authenticity and the twist at the end.  
 
There is no “hook” for the performers.  There is only the audience’s anticipation and their willing  support.  Unlike the radio performances where you might change the dial, each 5 minute live experience may leave you rolling with laughter, paused in thought, or writhing in your seat.  With each speaker, I began challenging myself to be an active participant and go places emotionally that I would not normally experience.
 
Of the performers, the night launched with Silvio Menendez’s hilarious recounting of being a hospital Spanish interpreter in the operating room interpretting for a surgeon and woman having brain surgery while she was awake awake! 
 
A few speakers , as would be expected with the theme “Altered”, recounted drug experiences, as was told in a recounting of a Burning Man experience that was  screamingly inappropriate and funny…the advantage of unedited live theatre.
 
Mara Berg, was judged the winner with “I learned how to love at my first love’s funeral.” Her edgy discomfort and displacement of time and  space on stage, only made the story more real for how this experience could unexpectedly happen to someone, and bring them to a place where she (and now we) celebrate the life of her first love.
 
Reality TV has nothing on The Moth Story Slam. Get real. Get live. Connect with KALW and tell your story!