Six degrees

About a month ago, while paying a visit to my accountant, I noticed a bulletin board that had various posters and business cards pinned to it. On a whim, I decided to pin one of my storyteller business cards to the board. Maybe I'd get lucky.

Yesterday, I got an email from a fella asking about my book. I wrote him back giving him the price of it and wondered if he saw me in a show. Also, his family name seemed familiar, so asked him if he was related to gmarc.

It turns out that this guy is gmarc's brother and he works in the same building as my accountant. He saw my business card, went to my storyteller site, listened to the samples, and wants to buy a book.

Six degrees indeed!

Telling a Tale of Opportunity

A whole gaggle of storytelling opportunities have been cropping up lately. Some are out of the blue, some are seemingly out-of-the blue (but not really), and some are the result of much hard work, networking, and negotiations.

July
Dollard Fine Arts Camp: 2 one-hour shows

August
NDG Day in the Park (a couple of outdoor sessions)

September
Empress Theatre Fundraiser: a two-hour bilingual show (3 tellers + musicians)

October
Dorval Public Library: a one-hour bilingual show

All Summer
Easter Seals Camp in Perth, Ontario: twice a month I may be doing one-hour shows for the kids at the camp.

Starting in the Fall: twice a month
The Empress Theatre will be hosting a series of spoken word shows once a week with storytelling every second week. Having this permanent venue for storytelling will allow us to connect with other storytellers in other provinces and encourage an exchange of performance venues.

This last opportunity really excites me because I've realized that the only way I'll be able to be accepted in festivals outside of my immediate sphere of influence is to get as much incidental exposure as possible.

This may sound weird, but festivals only accept applications from storytellers they know. Therefore, to get known, I would have to go to the festivals as a patron of the arts and hope for a venue to showcase my stuff and impress somebody. This represents quite a bit of expense and some risk.

But if I could engineer a few gigs that would allow me to offer an exchange of performances ("We'll give you New York tellers a venue in Montreal if you can give us Montreal tellers a venue in New York.") then I'll be able to reach a wide audience with less risk.

Exciting stuff.