Lynn Krug - Smarty Girl Leadership

Our blog welcomes a return visit from SmartyGirl Lynn Krug. If you missed her book review of Lean In or her review of The Moth event in San Francisco last summer, then click on the links. Take it away, Lynn!

The Moth story telling at Berkeley, California, “Freight and Salvage” Performance space August 2015 was sold out and there is a reason why. People come for the magic. Storytellers are given a story theme weeks earlier, and are chosen to perform as names are randomly pulled out of a hat (a bag actually). The magic dust is showered on the audience and performers alike by the MC, and the audience is alive with the truth tellers and their fans. The laughter, the tears, and revelations all tumble through the story teller and the audience.

Photo Credit: Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse

Tuesdays performance in Berkeley was themed “Betrayal”. I anticipated the performances about betrayal to be predictably about personal love stories…and they were, but I was not disappointed. The audience and I laughter so hard my head hurt afterwards. I felt I had to catch my breath in empathy for some of the truth tellers.

What is it about “Betrayal” that captures us all? Is every story ever told about betrayal of a sort (?)…the heart, the plan, the challenge, the climb…or there would be no story. But, with personal betrayal the only prize is eventual acceptance or finding one’s own peace. Did I learn who I could be? Have I traveled those heights and depths? Was I the one who was betrayed?

No one told the story where they themselves were the “bad guy”.

The stories were triumphs over heart break, the ability to leave, honoring your own life, wondering where they are now…or not.

Story telling is a part of our very existence. The “Moth” story told most successfully compels the audience to hang on each word, and is not told by the actor or comedian. The Moth story works best when a the story teller is accepting their own place in the story: idiotic, heroic, broken, free, …and lives with that acknowledgement, and takes the audience with them. There’s a learning curve and a “twist”. The story teller, when it is told best, leaves you in the shared revelation. Epiphany is life’s magic.

There is a reason the Moth performance are sold out. Performers and audience alike return time after time.

The Moth is addictive because it bumps you into shared life. You are participating in a joyous occasion where being human is

raucously celebrated with a community that loves you for it.

If you would like to attend a Moth performance they occur bi-mothly at “Public Works” in San Francisco, and at “Freight and Salvage” in Berkeley.

Photo Credit: The Moth

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?

Photo Credit: Palo Alto Media Center

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.

Photo Credit: Twitter: @TheMoth

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!

Lynn Krug Reports on Her Second The Moth Storytelling Event

The Moth Story Slam in San Francisco: Storytelling Live