Audience names best storyteller in Truth Be Told events
05 Jun 2016
Local storytelling 'slams' connect community
By Kate Jonuska The competition was fierce. Eleven winners from previous rounds battled live on stage, projecting their voices and baring their souls to an audience of hundreds in hot pursuit of the coveted Truth Be Told All-Star Grand Slam prize.
“In essence, Truth Be Told is a party, a really casual and laid-back party,” says co-founder Rolle, a professional musician. Along with Walker, she performs numbers based on the theme, makes jokes and otherwise hilariously emcees. Initially, Rolle was reluctant to score the participants, but now both founders see friendly competition as one of a story slam’s biggest features. “When people are storytelling in a competitive atmosphere, they bring their best game,” says Walker, who believes scoring raises the stakes. “We call it the Olympiad of storytelling. The idea is to bring your best self to the stage.” “I think it pushes you to be concise and really make every syllable count,” says Grand Slam champion Norton. She says competition does not make the event less intimate. In fact, her winning story—based on the theme “Thwarted”—was a very personal and sensitive one about a miscarriage, a heavy tale from which she nonetheless extracted humor. Story themes that form bonds with the audience could be about brushes with the law or misadventures in love, family foibles or tragedies with friends. These are the stories we might tell at dinner parties or wakes, tales that might be as well-worn as an old shoe or secrets never before shared aloud. But it’s human experiences that are the secret to Truth Be Told’s appeal to audience members, storytellers and people who do both. “There’s definitely a craving for live connection around story in our world that, because of technology, we’ve lost a little bit,” says Walker, who loves these live, in-person events as an antidote to modern disconnection. “It’s a big leap and a big risk to craft a story to tell in a very public way on stage, but there’s such value in connecting a personal story to the universal level. It’s powerful.”If you go:
One of six slams scheduled this season, the next Truth Be Told story slam takes place June 19 at the Dairy Center for the Arts with the theme “Crush.” The other regular venue is Shine Restaurant & Gathering Place. For more information or to purchase tickets ($15/general admission, $25/VIP) visit www.storyslamboulder.com. June 24: The Moth at Swallow Hill Music in Denver. www.themoth.org.
Communities Are Families
The concept certainly connected for TBT fan Shelly Webb, who works as membership and volunteer coordinator for the Shambhala Center. The Buddhist organization has become a mainstay of the Boulder community and is dedicated to creating a more enlightened society. “I love going to the Truth Be Tolds. I love the friendly competitive aspect of it and all the ways people interpret the themes,” Webb says. “It’s great to see people willing to put themselves out there live and listen to a human experience in person.” In fact, she found it so great that Shambhala hosted a private TBT event for its diverse membership of about 600.
