Chaos Attraction

Firsts Storytelling

2018-09-22, 10:43 a.m.

I went to the Folsom Renaissance Faire today and got myself a new royal blue fancy yet lightweight blouse. I've been looking for something like that for YEARS at these fairs and someone finally provided! I also got a pastel rainbow headwreath, so it was a good shopping day.

I mostly watched the jousting and the falconry show. The falconry people had a "Sit With A Living Dinosaur" area where you could sit with a bird, which was hilarious when sometimes the owl would get flappy. Everyone likes a bird show where the bird basically does what it wants to! And the Knights of Mayhem are fun, even if it's super hot out there while watching. Sadly this venue doesn't have much shade on 2 of the 3 viewing areas.

I do continue to be baffled as to why the storytelling guy literally tells the same story every single time, 3 times a day, at any event he performs at. The dude self-publishes his own books so clearly he can make up more than one, why doesn't he ever vary it up a bit? I don't have any reason to return to hear him again when he just talks about the same thing every time. It's his business and his choice, of course, but...


That night, the town I actually live in had its first storytelling event. It was held in the way back of a beer store (which is weird, but hey, I didn't actually get forced to buy any beer). There's a couple new small theater companies in the area that teamed up to put it on. They didn't get that many people--I didn't count but it was probably less than 20 or so--and they originally said they'd only allow 10 people to tell stories and they were under that number. I figured it might be like that on the first night so everyone could get in, so i liked that.

The theme of the night was "Firsts," so I did my trying to learn to drive story again. It went over well, and I somehow managed to come out with an excellent ending spontaneously that I hadn't done before. It's a good thing I have Dawn record these because I already forgot what I said other than the last two ending words. Afterwards, Loretta (another friend who attends the free events) said the same thing happened to her with driving except she never found anyone who could actually teach her without yelling. She's retired now and hasn't driven to this day, despite having lived in LA at one point.

And DAWN actually got up and told a story! I was impressed. You go, girl!

Ed was there (the guy who puts on the storytelling events in town, before this one anyway) and he said he was supposed to be at rehearsal on Tuesday but I figured out he got the time wrong because he was an hour early and left before it started! Anyway, he told me some more information about this theater company--they used to do 3 day storytelling events, but last year they lost their theater and didn't do any so now they are coming back to do it again. He also said that Gloria was familiar because he'd had her talk at a Tellebration before. Duh!

Other stories of the night:
* The emcee talked about how it took 8 years for her to conceive, had a rocky pregnancy, child was born with cerebral palsy, etc. She finds those competitive moms to be annoying but you can shoot them down with the brutal reality of mentioning her situation. This was a lot funnier than it sounds.
* Another lady talked about how everyone lied to her about what giving birth was like, the epidural gets you high, and then she ended on a touching moment--she won the night.
* Another guy talked about how he had had idiot neighbors/roommates, one of whom kept calling a prostitute to people's apartments. I was all "here?!?!"
* A guy (one of the ones running the show

I also met the people running the two theaters. I've seen them on stage before--one of them directed Gutenburg: The Musical! and the other used to perform with the Comedy Spot. I talked to both of them a bit, talked to the girl about improv. She's going to be teaching improv classes here once a month and I am SO DOWN.

So I had a really good time!


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