Info

What you need to know about
The FLY (Factual Life Yarns) Story Slam*
at the B-Lounge.

 

*A story slam idea deliberately stolen directly from The Moth (a wonderful event/podcast which we have absolutely no connection with).

Held at the B-Lounge (formerly the Boomerang Lounge) 256 Shoreline Hwy, Mill Valley, CA 94941 (where the old carpet store used to be in Tam Junction)

We’ve had over a year of successful shows with various themes all of which have something (even peripherally) to do with the theme. They may be funny, poignant, serious, strange or just weird! 

Info for tickets:  $20 Tickets at the door or book ahead at Eventbrite

If you are interested in telling a story, remember there is no right kind of story, except that has to be engaging! If interested, text Gary Rudman at 415 713-7852 with your email, number and name and he will send a calendar link so you can talk!

Format for the night: 

• The FLY stories will be told live in front of an audience. With a small caveat, there are no notes and we want you to know your story ‘by heart’ but don’t want you to use rote memorization. Tell us!
• Each story will be 5-8 minutes long. 
• We will ask you to give us 5 words that you can use as reminders of parts of the stories that you want to be sure to cover. Think of it as a sort of cliff note nudge to help your story progress (no spoilers). We will project these five words on a screen.  In addition if you have a picture from the event/timeframe we’d be happy to project that image after the story is told!

Story telling thoughts:

When telling a story, think about what the through line is. What is the main theme of your story? What is the one idea that your story is about…think of it as one the elevator pitch for your story or your story in one sentence–that’s what you are trying to communicate.  It’s ok to have tangents as long as they serve your one true story. 

You must have a clear beginning, middle and end. And the end has to be tight–it has to tie the story together in a knot, it has to close the loop. Some thoughts on how to do this:

• What have you learned?
• How did this change you?
• Can you bring back/repeat something from earlier in the story?
• Is there something funny or poignant that you can say to tie it up?

And it is critical that your story follows one theme. You don’t want your story to be episodic–we did this and it ended, then we did this and it ended, etc. Think about the stories you hear your friends tell you or you hear at a party. We want you to be our guide for the story. We are climbing a mountain together so you can show us the view. There is what you were doing, then something that happens (usually something different/unexpected) and then how you reacted to it and then what happened.

Check out this helpful video from the MOTH which has what they call a story map:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjGwh4EfWY