Mary Grace Ketner. How do you build to your membership in your storytelling guild?

Press Play to listen to Applied Storytelling #007 – Building the Membership of Your Storytelling Guild or read the transcript below…

Mary Grace, that is great question. This is a good example of how we in the storytelling community – we think that our problems are unique to us. I am not saying that you think that. But I am saying that many people in storytelling community and many storytellers think that they have to reinvent the wheel, that storytelling clubs or organizations are complete unique in terms of arts centered organizations.

I think the most important part of my answer is to be clear what the purpose of your club or guild is… Some clubs or guilds are designed to support artists in creating their art form. Some clubs or art center organizations are designed to help spread in the public realm their art form. And some art organizations are designed to advocate for their art form. It depends on what your goals are. I am going to assume that you are a small group of people who love the art form and you are open to both professionals and non-professionals and are basically interested in growing in size.

The example to follow is what you will see Churches doing all the time. Churches are constantly looking for new members.
1st; they have regular hours. So you know that on Sunday from 10 to 12 just about anywhere in America at a Church there will be something going on. Secondly, you know that if you walk in the door between 10 to 12 or usually between 10 o’clock and 10:20, there will be a greeter at the door greeting you and ask you your name and give you your name tag, telling you about the Church, asking you why you were there, where you heard about it. You also know that Church will be listed in the local Yellow pages. You can easily locate it if you need to. It probably has a website. And in addition when you walk in the door, they ask you what your interests are and they try to help you to find or meet people who have similar interests. This is an important part of getting a new membership. Because it is not just about getting new people to walk in the door, it is also about getting the people who arrive at the door to stick to the organization. And this actually is the part most organizations are weak at. If they are not good at getting the people to come back, the second or third time what s the point?
You need to get an email address from everyone who walks in the door. You have someone in the group who is emailing everybody before a meeting and you have a written agenda that is in that email.

One of the things that I have seen in groups that is very destructive to people coming back is business is not capped. What I mean by that is that, say you have 2 hours of meeting time, you deal with the business first to get out of the way and there is no cap on the meeting like we are going to deal with business for exactly 30 minutes and what we do not touch on we are going to stop and then we will tell stories for an hour and a half. Otherwise what happens is you end up using an hour of business because a group will always use the time you give it. Business will always take as much time as you gave it. Because believe me everyone has got opinions. And if everyone knows that they only have half hour to discuss this particular topic, people will be much more efficient. If they know they have an hour, they will be much less efficient. Another reason groups sometimes drive members away is that the group is not clear and is in conflict because you have people in the group who are there to socialize and you have people in the group who are there to listen and you have people in the group who are there to tell.

If you are clear that your group is about telling and that is the primary purpose. So you are going to do the telling first and leave the last 20 minutes for business or announcements or whatever. Then that is you need to get right down to it. If that is the business of that group then make it the business of the group. If the business of the group is to get together and talk about the gigs you did, about storytelling and talk to each other about being friends that is awesome. But make that the business there, make that the time the focus is what you are doing. Okay we are going to spend 30 minutes just telling.

But back to your original question? What I hear you saying as part of your question is… How do I get new people to show up?
You can form a partnership. You have a storytelling group. They love to perform. Find another organization, arts organization, a theatre organization that needs to raise money. Offer to a fund raiser for them. Go into that fundraiser and do some good material by the way to actually have some process for selecting the best stories in the group. Go in, do that fundraiser for that organization and during that fund raiser, tell them about your regular meeting times, right. Regular every 2 weeks, every week, every month, whatever it is. Regular meeting times, spectacular performance, collect their email addresses from potential future members at that event. If you do that 3 or 4 times a year, you will have new people flowing to you. Just coming in the doors saying, “Hey I saw you perform, I want to learn to do what you are doing”. Partnerships are great way of getting audiences. Partnerships are a great way of growing memberships.

You can also just send out press releases. I am not saying send press releases to just news organizations – send them to everywhere on earth you can find – Parents’ Organizations and Senior Centers. Basically inviting individuals of these organizations to come to your meetings. Have a thematic meeting or group will get together on this state to talk about this theme. We think it will be a great interest to your group. It is work. And again that is the core problem that happens in the storytelling groups is that many people come there to get away, not to work some more. And you really do have to not complain about it, because is the nature of groups. Someone has to pull the weight. Someone has to be willing to do the work of sending out the material and inviting people to attend. Step up to the plate – be that person and make things happen.
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Chris: Chris Wolf. And my question would be – Once you have gotten started with storytelling, what is the best way to approach a story?

Press play to listen to Applied Storytelling Episode #005 on Integrating a Story into your Repertoire.

Hi Chris. That is a great question. The answer I give you has lot to do with what sort of storyteller you are; how you tell your stories? How you develop your stories in the past? So it is important to play to your strengths.

I have a friend of mine who when he tell stories, he is exact; he is perfect in everything he does. He does not ever create a story on the spot. And he literally writes all the stories down; every word is written down before he tells. And that is his style because he came at storytelling as a writer. He actually practices in front of a mirror. And he finds it very helpful; and he also understands that when he is telling that he has to get off the page. So he may have written the entire story down and he may know it word for word; but as he is telling he figures out the best turn of those words; the best way to shift the words ever so slightly so that they sound better rolling of the tongue. He is not just memorizing it. He is also allowing it some liberty in performance. But at the beginning he starts with the written word; he starts with the story that is perfectly laid out so that he can alter it. So he can alter it to suit in a situation he understands that what is written is not always what sounds the best. And so he cuts it just right.

Now, me myself when I am learning a story, many times I need an audience to tell to. I have a group here in town and we get together every couple of weeks and I will bring out stories, I will try material and they were very patient forgiving with me. Because I love to bring material out and try it and then bring it back and try it again. And this is the way I develop material. I can read a book; get that story and then what I will do is I will write down the bones of that story out of that book.

It is important, Chris, that when you are doing this then you are only taking a story that is beyond copyright; that is not a particular copyrighted story; you want to make sure you can find at least three different sources of your story; you want to make sure that you know that this story is in the common domain that it is a folk tale of some type or if it is a personal story that it has been ripped off from somebody else many times; it is not actually something that has been taken already and passed along. Great example that is the Twain stuff. If you look at some of Mark Twain’s material. It is obviously in the common domain and many people have taken this stuff and worked it in their own stories.

Getting back to your core value of your question – how do you integrate a story? Tell the story; tell the story; tell the story; over and over again. Develop places in your community you can go to on a regular basis and tell your story. And by doing that you will become even better at the material. You will become even better at what you are doing. And you will become even better at holding on to material; having it available. I find that it takes me about 25 tellings until a story has settled. Sometimes I think it is a really good story.

Let us go through one example here, recently I read this story in… I think it was the Purple Fairy book. And I really liked the story. But it was set in the Arabian Peninsula. And I really was not interested in telling that sort of scene, the Arabian Peninsula and so I took that story and I set it into a Jack tale. And I found the current standards here in the United States that fit in, you know… Jack. Who is the old man? Who are the two brothers who are always making trouble? Who could they be? Where is mom? Was Pa on the story at all? Were there any other characters any giants? So I created the story; I sort of outlined it point by point the original story and then I placed in the new characters. And then I just told it. I had a kid at a party who said to me, “Hey tell me a story!” And so I told her the story. It was great and then I went to a local audience and I told them the story. And it was good. Actually was not as good the second time. I tried to figure out, “What did I do the first time that was so good…” I looked again at those lists; I said, “Oh, I see”. So I went to another audience locally and it was amazing. And now I have told that story probably 15 times… I may have to approached 25 times before it settles into me. Each time I have told that story, it shifts ever so slightly; each time I tell it, it becomes more American. And it becomes more me. I began to own it. I began to grasp it. And to integrate it into my being. I can tell when this is really happening to a story; when I wake up in the morning and I am still half asleep and I start thinking about the story.
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My name is Laila Jensen and I am interested in the difference between Community Storytelling and Performance Storytelling?

Press play to Episode #001 of Applied Storytelling on the difference between Community Storytelling and Performance Storytelling.

Well, Laila, that is a great question. Community Storytelling is a form of oral narrative where the storyteller has already entered into relationship with the audience before the story begins. The problem here is that Storytelling, Community and Relationship are all words that people use various ways and have very different meanings inside different environments. For some people an online community where you have never met anyone before is a community and for others a relationship means that you have entered into Holy matrimony for over 20 years. So as you can see, there is a wide degree of ideas about what is Community Storytelling.  Performance Storytelling is much easier to define.

That is the time when you get on the stage or in front of an audience for the purposes of telling a story. It can be in a theatre environment. It can be in a street environment. It can be at a fair. It is the time when the story teller is basically entertaining a professional perspective, is attempting to retain the gig for the next time to look good and to get paid well.

But Community storytelling is very different. Community storytelling is the time when you are building that community, when you are adding sub community through the dream of the story. I personally love community storytelling. I love the idea of giving to the community in a mysterious yet somehow delicious symphony of tastes and sounds. So that when they leave they have taken more than was there. They have consumed more than they thought possible.  Not that the two forms are exclusive in any way.

Community Storytelling has an advantage over Performance Storytelling in that it takes place without any payment. It takes place in many communities across the country pretty much invisibly all the time. That of course is the uncle who will share about the war stories and that is the Mayor who tells the story at the ceremony or the preacher who preaches on Sundays. All these are examples of successful Community storytelling. Storytelling that is happening all around us even as many people decry the end of oral narrative as we know it.

Community storytelling is not going to disappear any time soon. It is indicative of the American experience. It is a part of our country. It is how we talk to each other. It is how politicians speak to us. And it is how preachers preach, how children tell their stories to their parents and how mothers and fathers tell their stories at night to their children. Now it is true that the skill level of Community storytelling has fallen inside United States. And the number of extremely skilled storytellers has dropped off over the past decades since the 30s and 40s. Because television drives away Community storytellers – TV drives away the spaces that allow Community storytelling to exist.  As devices like TV have moved into the worldwide web and worldwide web has consumed the television experience, the amount of time that remains for Community storytelling has fallen more and more. But it is still there.

And you my listener still have the experiences, the understandings the skills to practice it. So I would challenge you to not leave storytelling to the professionals to pick up the challenge to pick up the microphone and to practice Community storytelling. For health, for wellness and for the strength of your community. We know that communities that contains strong social fabrics are much healthier than communities that do not. We know that people live longer in those communities. And we know that that social fabric helps the community to survive physical, financial or cultural disasters or even political ones. We know that story telling Community storytelling is a way for strengthening those social fabrics, for helping people to understand one another to build emotional connections. And we know that the art and the science of listening is essential to both successful storytelling and successful enjoyment of stories.

So I would suggest to you that your ability to tell stories to other people and your ability to listen to stories is tied up very much in your long term success and the long term success of your community.

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As a teacher of storytelling, I know that there are a lot of people who are interested, but not really invested, in the study of the art that I love so much. When I discover the passion for storytelling inside a student that matches my own, I find that experience exhilarating and thrilling. My students have described the experience as akin to going over a waterfall or turning on a water fountain.

I like to call this discovery riding the tiger. Sometimes in the jungle of life, we feel lost and closed in by all the daily activities of life. We are lost in a sea of sound and shadow. We know that, somewhere in the underbrush, there are tigers ready to pounce on us and eat us. We are grasping for something to support us, to shelter us.  Suddenly, without any warning, our hand grasps hold of the tiger’s tail. (more…)

The old circus clown walked up to Max.  The clown’s red nose matched the color of his neck.  Beads of sweat dripped off his pale white wrinkled forehead and eyebrows.  Max knew he shouldn’t smile, but the clowns’ checkerboard pants had a rip in them.   Max tried to turn away.

“What the hell do you think you were doing?”  Max just stared. ”I am talking to you, mister.”  The clown’s gloved finger pushed into Max’s chest.  Max just kept thinking – I am going to be decked by a clown.

“What the hell were you doing out there?”

“I was cleaning up after the elephants.”

“Yes, you were.  Damn right you were.   You were cleaning up after the elephants.  You did a fine job with that too.  How much shit did you shovel anyway?”

“One shovel full.”

“One shovel full of shit and you still think your job was to shovel shit.  You were in the ring for a total of five minutes mister.  Five long intense minutes.  You didn’t take nothing from the show – I will give you that.  But did you add to it?  Did you demonstrate the gift?  Hmmm, no, I think not.”

Max looked confused.  “I thought my job was to pick up elephant shit.”

“Shit!  No, your job is to be in the circus.  Your job is to pay attention to the needs of your audience.  Picking your noise in front of 1200 people is not in your job description!”

Max frowned.  “I am not a performer.”

“Wisdom from the mouths of babes.  I give him diamonds and he gives me coal.” 

“Of course you are not a professional performer, but once you walk on the stage, you become important – you’re part of the show.  Part of the greatest show on earth.  Not like the show stops – not like the show ever really stops.   But at least you know you’re on stage.  At least you know this is your time to shine.”

“Cleaning up after the elephants?”

“Don’t look at me like that, son.  Look, kid, you got to understand that this audience – well, all audiences, give us a great gift as performers.  I mean besides the money.  They come here with their problems and their troubles and they put them all away for a while.  So that we can lift them up.  They don’t want to be reminded of the world back home.  They don’t want to be reminded that we on stage might be as imperfect as they are.  But then we do – well, I do – I bring back to them how human they are, how imperfect they are, and they laugh.  They laugh at themselves and at the world.”

The clown begun to slowly take off his white gloves.

“They laugh at us because they trust us.  They laugh at us because we become them – we are both better and worse than our audience.  We become their mother, their father, and their children, for God’s sake.  While the show is on, we become the world to them.  Somewhere in that audience… somewhere out there in the darkness of the seats is that one good listener who really cares…  Who is totally invested in that guy carrying the broom behind the elephants.  You have to be ready to hold them – you have to be ready to care for them.  Because without them there is no show.  Without them we are nothing.  They are the yeast that makes the bread rise.  They are the reason we all go out there day after day, night after night.”

The old man grasped Max’s chin and looked him in the eye.  Max noticed  how clear and blue those eyes were.

“The one thing we don’t want is some punk ass kid getting between us and the audience.  Promise me that, son.  Promise me you will stay awake in the ring.”

“No problem.”

“All right then – just don’t let me catch you goofing off like that again.”  The clown grabbed Max’s elbow.  “Let’s go see about getting a bite to eat.   No need for such a bright boy like you to wasting away in animal maintenance.   What’s your name anyway?”

This version of this story is copyrighted by Brother Wolf Storytelling. You are welcome to use it and the accompanying optional photo on your website or magazine with this text and link included. Brought to you by the International School of Storytelling – http://www.thestorytellingschool.com/

My old friend, Jay Lieskie, told me this story.

Sometimes in nonprofits you get a certain group of well meaning people who have time and money but little self discipline. They mean well, but their lack of consistency and unwillingness to be mentored by or apprenticed to an old hand can be damaging to the long-term goals of a nonprofit. Sometimes these well meaning souls would wander into the door of Jay’s nonprofit.

Jay would just smile at their outlandish plans and crazy ideas. Then he would look them up and down and say, “Are you sure you know what you are getting into? I have the the feeling you are not really committed to helping us out.”

The well meaning volunteer would explain again their outlandish impossible idea again clearly demonstrating their complete lack of experience or knowledge of the actual cause. “Well, sounds to me like you are just a little involved – but not really (more…)

A Myth on Seeing with New Eyes…

Once there was an old stone carver who had an apprentice. Every day the apprentice asked the teacher if he could pick up the tools of the trade and start to work with stone. “Not yet,” his teacher would say, “First you must learn to see what is – keep sweeping.”

Every day after the chores were completed, the old master would send the apprentice out to look at the world while the stone master worked on his statues.

At the end of the day, he would ask his apprentice what he had seen.

“I saw a hawk flying, I counted a spider’s legs and I saw an old woman on the road,” said the apprentice.

“Hmmm,” said the old teacher.

“Am I ready to work with the stone tools yet?”

“No – keep sweeping.”

Everyday the response was the same after the apprentice returned from his wanderings. After months of conversations like this, the apprentice grew impatient.

“Master, I have traveled the land and brought back news from all along the valley. I have told you of the hawks nesting on the mountains and the fish in the lake below. What more do you want?”

The old master carver just smiled at his apprentice. “If you do not see what is right in front of your face, I cannot allow you to use these tools. First you must show me that you see what is.”

The apprentice placed his head in his hands. “What is… what is… I have told you all that is happening in the valley, what more do you want? If I go for a walk, all I will see is a hawk flying, a spider’s web and an old woman on the road.”

The old man’s eyes twinkled as he spoke. “I want you to show me that you see the hunger of the hawk, the shadow of a spider’s web and the sweet smile of a life well lived – keep sweeping.”

Copyright 2010. This is an original story by Eric Wolf.  You may use this story on your website or magazine as long as this link is retained back to the International Storytelling School at http://www.thestorytellingschool.com