People often ask me, 'how did you get into storytelling?'.
I wish I could say it was a childhood passion that I kept at throughout my teenage years and dedicated my young adult life to. Some of that is true. I have always had a passion for true stories. For the stories that make up a person. I used to beg my parents and gran to 'please tell me stories about when you were young'. So the fascination was always there, but I didn't realise there was an artform or a platform for true-life storytelling.
About 15 years ago, I was living in Barcelona and something that is said to many people who would make great storytellers, was said to me; 'you're really funny; you'd make a great stand-up comedian', a friend told me as he nudged me in the direction of the Giggling Guiri, the premier English-language comedy club in Barcelona. I took their course, was absolutely wowed by the storytelling ability of Janey Godley, who performed at our final showcase event. She mixed incredible humour with a rawness from her own life, and that set still stands as one of my favourite ever. But still, I did not make the connection.
A burgeoning career in stand-up comedy beckoned as I embarked on a journey between London's open mic nights, performing for 5 or 10 minutes, testing out jokes, and hoping for that fabled laugh-every-twenty-seconds or so ratio. By all accounts I did okay. Landed a few paid gigs, absolutely smashed gigs in front of 250 people and performed at UK festivals offending and delighting in sometimes equal measures and occasionally being booed and run off stage by people who didn't 'get it'. I even made a lifelong friend and we performed a 4* rated Edinburgh Show together; 'Nothing to Lose'. I ran a few nights, pulled in some crowds and spent time working on material that tried to amplify certain parts of my personality, creating my comedic persona and still, all the time, searching for the next laugh.
Then, one day, my writing partner sent me a link to this video. I was moved, nearly brought to tears as this man shared the story of balancing his rising fame with his son's cancer treatments. It was sudden; I realised the power of holding a stage for 10 minutes, being completely vulnerable and honest and I was hooked.
I started Natural Born Storytellers almost on the strength of that story alone. The first night's theme was 'The Worst Moment of my Life' and I thought it would be a really deep and sometimes hilarious evening of true storytelling. It wasn't funny at all. In fact, it was pretty dark. Yet people gave a part of themselves and whilst there weren't many laughs, everyone was connected. The buzz after the show was different to anything I'd experienced on the comedy circuit. People stayed behind to talk to the storytellers saying 'I really connected with that' or 'The same thing happened to me!'.
This is when I realised the most important difference between stand-up and storytelling. A successful stand-up comedy performance is measured in laughs. A great story is measured in emotions. Comedians are simply waiting for the audience to laugh and this is their main validation of the success of their set. Which absolutely works in a comedy context. However, a storyteller is looking for attentiveness and any emotion throughout the spectrum. When I stand on stage and see people watching me, I know they are hooked, painting their own pictures from the story I am telling and connecting to it in their own ways. And when they laugh... and boy do they laugh, it comes from a different place; from empathy, embarrassment, shame, support or relief. The beauty is I never really know what the audience will laugh at. It's a more spontaneous laughter, like the one you get when you tell a story to your friends, and they reply with 'you're funny; you should be a comedian'.
I have spent many years unlearning the persona I tried to develop. On stage, I am me. I try be as true and honest to myself and the stories and tellers as I can. No searching for laughs. Simply honouring the stories that have been told and preparing the audience for the next teller.
So that is how I got into true storytelling. I absolutely love this artform and I get even more joy from creating a space for people to share a great story, than I do from telling one myself, as it was when I was young.