Our combination storytelling and improv show On October 25th at The Auld Shebeen, in Fairfax, Va, could have been a disaster. My biggest fear was that, after the improv troupe, Take the Fifth, worked magic from the words provided on the spot by the audience, that all of the storytellers would just sit there, minds whirring, but no stories popping out. Fortunately, just the opposite happened, and all the storytellers had too many stories to fit into one show! In fact, even our host, Shawn Westfall, improv instructor and storyteller extraordinaire that he is, jumped in with his own true, personal story. There was that much great material to work with.

All storytelling shows are somewhat interactive. There is always audience feedback in the way of laughs, gasps, stunned silences or the occasional “bless your heart” called out from the back of the room. But I can truly say, with no prevarication, that this show was a true collaboration between the audience and the performers.

Now, of course, we videotaped the show. Of course, you can watch videos of individual storytellers, and even of some of the improv performance, but it really isn’t the same as having been there in the audience. Not only did the audience provide the basis for which the storytellers and improv troupers worked their magic, but the stories themselves developed almost like a game of telephone, one building off the other, and changing as it went along. It was an organic experience, if that term is not too dated to use. And the audience, storytellers and improv troupe all shared in a truly live experience together.

Thank you to the fantastic audience for being there and working with all of us to create the show. Thank you to improv troupe Take the Fifth, with Peter Gorman, Nicole Paff and Mike Tibodeau, for making us laugh. Thanks to all the storytellers, who were willing to submit themselves to this experiment and came out of it looking as brilliant as we all knew they would. Storytellers included Jessica Robinson, Cara Foran, Derek Hills, Kathy Baird, Pierce McManus, Stephanie Garibaldi, Anna Marie Trester and our wonderful host, Shawn Westfall.

There were too many stories and improv sessions to list all individually, so here is a link to the playlist. Enjoy.

Our next show is November 29th at The Auld Shebeen in Fairfax. Get show details here. Don’t miss out on the leftovers!