New Video!

I don't know why I'm so slow putting these up. I'm planning to do a whole new DVD of all the brave baby stories and a few more funny-scaries this spring. In the meantime, here's "The Pancake," a slightly different take on the more familiar "Gingerbread Boy." This is on my DVD, The Bully Billy Goat.

Complaints about a story

I recently had a complaint about a story I told. This may be the third time of storytelling full time (15 years) that I've had a complaint like this.

A few days after the performance, which was open to the public and was primarily for preschoolers, the person who booked me told me there had been complaints. Plural. She herself had not come to any of the four performances, so she hadn't heard the story (do I sound a little peeved about that?). "Did you tell a story where an elephant gets cut up into pieces?" she asked.

Well, yes. I did. I told Unanana and the Elephant, a folktale from South Africa. The elephant swallows many people, including Unanana, who is there to rescue her baby. She throws hot peppers up into the elephant's trunk and he sneezes everybody out. Then he runs through the grass and trees until he runs into a tree and falls over dead. Unanana takes her machete and cuts the elephant up into big pieces. She gives the pieces of elephant meat to all the people (they were starving in his belly). They take them home, they roast them over hot fires, and you know what they eat for dinner that night. Elephant!

In the version I heard first, Unanana makes a fire in the elephant's belly and begins to cut him up and cook him until he falls over dead! Then Unanana cuts a door in his side and lets everyone out. What reaction would THAT have gotten? A friend whose husband grew up in S. Africa told me the version I now tell.

I was completely shocked at this complaint. I've been telling Unanana for 19 years. Two weeks ago, a preschool director specifically requested this story for her kids. It's not a gruesome ending, very matter-of-fact. Years ago, some kids told me they sat in the library parking lot with that story cranked way up on the car stereo, everybody joining in. It's a good story with a great heroine. It's not about cutting up animals.

I talked the situation over with other performers. One former librarian reminded me of what we did with complaints at the library: we always asked, "Have you read the book?" Ah. Later that day, I saw the woman who booked me and gave her a copy of my CD so she could listen to the story. I also asked how many complaints there had been. One e-mail, it turned out, with claims that others were upset. Sounds like hearsay to me. I've been promised a copy of the e-mail.

It's hard not to go on the defensive about this. It's also hard not to rant about extreme political correctness. I suspect the children listening had no problem with the story. I also suspect that any story I told would offend that particular adult listener.

In the end, I felt that I dealt with this as well as I could. I don't know if that CD will be listened to. I don't know if I'll get a copy of the e-mail. I continue to stand by my artistic choices.

Making a living as a storyteller, Appendix

This is just a little dessert to my white paper on making a living as a storyteller (what? you don't eat paper?!):

Frequency in Marketing

This gem came from Guerrilla Marketing several years ago. It made a huge impression on me and changed how I look at direct mail.

1. The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.

2. The second time, he does not notice it.

3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.

4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.

5. The fifth time, he reads it.

6. The sixth time, he turns his nose up at it.

7. The seventh time, he reads it and says, “Oh, brother!”

8. The eighth time, he says, “Here’s that confounded thing again!”

9. The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.

10. The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.

11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.

12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.

13. The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.

14. The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.

15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.

16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it someday.

17. The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.

18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.

19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money very carefully.

20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.

Thomas Smith, 1885, London

Making a living as a storyteller, Part 7

Here's a little bibliography from my white paper on making a living as a storyteller:

Useful books for the journey

Earn what you deserve by Jerrold Mundis. Beyond any other book, this one got me away from the “starving artist” mindset. Here’s a phrase to remember: “resentment blocks flow.”

How to be your own booking agent and save thousands of dollars by Jeri Goldstein. Incredibly helpful info on the arts world.

The storyteller’s guide by Bill Mooney and David Holt. This is a goldmine of information from storytellers who really make a living at this fabulous art.

Attracting perfect customers: The power of strategic synchronicity by Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez. I’ve had great results with some of the exercises in this book (warning: new-agey!).

Who says: essays on pivotal issues in storytelling by Carol Birch and Melissa Heckler. This comes under the category of learning about the artform.

Only one more little piece to follow.