Whispers from the Myth Teller

So we had a fabulous show last night at the Empress. Many thanks go to Eric Gauthier who wowed the audience with his stories of moose antlers and french fries. Zimmerman regaled us with tales of the Devil, the Sky God, and Terror at the Shot Clinic.

I wanted to prepare a new story for this show, but my deadlines have been so crazy that I haven't had any mental time to prepare for it. So I went with the tested and true stories of mermaids and blue hippos.

This fundraiser was also supposed to kick-off a series of storytelling evenings at the Empress. We've tentatively set a day (Tuesday nights) and we need to pick an interval that doesn't conflict with other events. I'm going to apply to the CALQ for some funding so that I can get some tellers in from away (outside of Montreal).

Of course, we will also have local tellers, but I want everyone who performs to be paid. But this is also supposed to be a fundraiser for the Cultural Centre, so a performance budget would be really helpful.

The other happy news is that I was able to send the Second Draft of the biography to the printer, so I'm supposed to be getting it back today. I met with the leather guy last night and he's promised the leather cover by the end of today as well.

So that leaves me with the final deadline for my technical documentation client, which is the end of next week. I'm doubley motivated to make that deadline because next weekend is the last LARP game of the season. If I have to give up my last LARP for work, I will be *very* upset.

I just got the poster for the latest storytelling show we're having on September 21st to raise funds for the development of the Empress Cultural Centre.



If you have the night free, why don't you come down for a fine evening of tales, legends, laughter, and out-and-out lies. Dylan and I will be telling in English and Eric Gauthier will be telling tales in French. I might even tell a story in French myself.

After this show, we're supposed to have a monthly storytelling event at the Empress. Once I secure this space, I'll be plugging into a national storytelling resource that will bring storytellers in from across Canada (and will hopefully allow me to exchange a few gigs as well).

So I'm stranded in Edmonton for a night. Here's what happened.

We left our host family this morning at 8am and headed for the airport. We dropped off the rental car, got through security, boarded our plane, and waited.

And waited. And waited. And then.... we waited some more.

Then we all disembarked. Air Canada was very sorry to inform us that the computer system for their Jazz service had crashed (wrongword, wrongword, wrongword) across Canada, so the planes could not get their flightplans from the Control Tower. Therefore, all the Jazz flights had been cancelled for the day.

Great. So after waiting for 1.5 hours at gate 56, the AC lady told us she had a direct flight for us at either midnight or the next morning. Since AC would get us a room in a nearby hotel, Zimmerman and I opted for the next morning.

So after another couple of hours waiting for baggage and standing in line to get our hotel voucher tickets, we hopped in a shuttle bus and checked in at the hotel. After a late lunch, Zimmerman decided to take a bath and I went for walk (which has brought me to this Internet cafe where I'm typing this entry now).

If all goes well (ha!), I should be back in Montreal by 3pm tomorrow. Hang in there sarahcarotte... I'm coming home as soon as I can!

My morale is doing okay overall. I'm trying to take this as a travelling adventure, so I'm making the best of it.

We visited the West Edmonton Mall. It's big. It has trained seals. It has a pirate ship. It has a huge indoor rollar coaster. I bought a Guiness T-Shirt. That is all.

We also spent the afternoon on Whyte Avenue, seeing the sights and drinking the beer. We stopped in a pub called the Black Dog pub and the band (The Digs) were awesome.

Tonight, we'll be performing the show we're doing tomorrow afternoon (The Devil's Details) for our hosts as a trial run. We may head out for pints afterwards, but it depends on if the jet lag hits me again tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll be at Fort Edmonton park all day taking in the workshops, the other story shows, and doing our own show. Tomorrow night, there's a concert in the evening followed by pints in the town. And then on Monday, we'll be doing the You Don't Know Jack show (and hopefully, selling lots of books).

And then it's back to jolly old Quebec and to our old life. I could really get used to this telling and touring life.

It's 5:51am, I'm dressed and packed and ready to go. sarahcarotte is still chasing away the cobwebs of sleep and my buddy Eric, who has agreed to drive me to the airport, is still asleep.

The water is boiling for the morning tea, but I'll probably grab some breakfast at the airport. I'm debating whether I should take a couple of the herbal sleeping pills or if I should just suck it up. I'm gonna have to learn to suck it up anyways if I intend to be a storyteller of international reknown.

I've brought books, notepads, and my mp3 player. I heard from Scarlet that I might have up to nine students in my new semester of Level 1 at CMS, so I've decided I need to start taking some personal notes on the lessons I'm teaching (until now, I've been relying on Scarlet's notes). I'll be working on that on the plane.

I've also brought 15 copies of the You Don't Know Jack book and Zimmerman is bringing 20 copies. Wouldn't it be sweet if we sold them all?

I'm off to Alberta! There's no backing out now (not that I was seriously considering it). I'll be back on Tuesday afternoon, no doubting kissing the sweet ground that in Montreal and home.

See you all when I get back! Wish me luck!

Yesterday morning, I bought the tickets to Edmonton via Air Canada. I was surprised to see that AC had the cheapest tickets by $300; the final total (with insurance and taxes) came to $1360 for two tickets (for Zimmerman and myself). Hopefully, my grant application will be accepted and the provincial government will be willing to contribute to our trip's expenses.

I'm NOT a good flyer. I'll be popping a couple of valium pills right before getting on the plane. The last time I flew anywhere, it was an 8 hour flight to Dublin, Ireland. I nearly passed out when I saw the hull of the plane, hanging onto the guardrail for support.

I've been trying to avoid the news out of the UK lately. It's not helping with my composure. I've been distracting myself with configuring me new PC and trying to clean up the sty which is my apartment.

I'm just feeling generally overwhelmed.

I'm currently writing from a computer at the Merrywood Easter Seals Camp near Smith Falls, Ontario. In about 20 minutes, I'll be doing a storytelling show for an hour to the kids here.

I seriously misjudged the time it would take to get here. It turns out I could've just come today instead of coming last night. It was only a little over 3 hours to get here, but I had thought it would take 4+ hours. I spent the morning in Smiths Falls doing the tourist thing, and on the way back, I'll be stopping by the Hershey Chocolate Factory to do the tour (it's been recommended).

I've never been to an Easter Seals Camp before, but the kids are quite friendly (although everyone assumes I'm someone's father at first). The facilities are comfortable, the lake is vast, and they even have a pool. The past couple of days have been windy, rainy, and thundery though, so I brought my swim trunks for nothing.

Last night, there was an impressive lightning storm that thundered over the lake. I was able to catch some of the lightning strikes, but I felt that running from my cabin to the cafeteria for a better look might have been pushing my luck.

And I might have been right. This morning, I pushed open a two-door metal gate in front of the cabin where I slept and was treated to an electric current that coursed through me. I mentionned it to the maintenance guy who then tested the gate and experienced the same effect (the hands tingle and the body hums). He figured that the gate might have been struck by lightning last night, although he also believed that the gate was picking up the electricity that was still in the air (the lightning continued through the morning).

What? Oh yes, of course I'm going to grab the gate a few more times before I go. If this is my last post, then you'll know I did it once too many times.

Time to go! Wish me luck on this performance. I've dropped some pamphlets with the people here so that they can either bring me back or recommend me to other people.

This past weekend, I attended a small storytelling conference that attempted to bridge the gap between the two solitudes. Don't get the wrong idea: it's not that there's any kind of tension between the French and English storytelling communities. It's just that there are practically no venues where the two groups can meet (hence, this weekend's conference).

There were a few people I hadn't seen in a while, a few people I had seen but never had a chance to meet, and other people who were completely new. As in any business, it's always good to network.

One of the main issues that came up was that storytelling is a difficult sell to the mainstream audience. To deal with that problem, storytellers are left to create their own market.

For many of us, this is a skill that we do not possess. For those of us that do have this marketing/organizational skill, we spend all our time working the media, organizing events, applying for grants, etc., but we are then left with no time/energy to do what we love (actually tell the stories).

On Saturday night, I told my French version of The Blue Hippopotamus and it was very well received. There were 8 tellers in this concert: some told in their native tongue, some told in their other language, and some duos told the same story in both languages.

It was a great night, but I don't think bilingual shows are something that a mainstream audience can really enjoy. Having stories in both languages can mean that you are always losing part of your audience. While I think having multi-lingual shows are cool, they are not a vehicle to draw more people to storytelling.

As for getting more gigs, I'm afraid I just need to invest in more travel. If I want to get invited to Jonesborough Storytelling Festival, I need to visit the Jonesborough Storytelling Festival on my own dime and find a swap to tell in. Networking!

The conference was cool and it gave me lots more ideas about how to push my storytelling career further.

Link of the Day: Quebec Writers Federation Just joined!

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.

For those who are French-impaired, this is a poster for a concert I was invited to tell in on June 17th, 2006. I was specifically asked to tell in this concert because I'm and English teller telling a story in French.

(click the poster to see it full-size)



But just so you know, I'm planning on telling the story of the Blue Hippopotamus in French.

Yikes.... er, I mean, tabarnouche!