Next Storytelling Performance: Samhain/All Saints Celebration in NDG

I've managed to double-book myself on this evening, but I'll be telling Halloweenish stories about ghosts, goblins, and maybe even the Devil on October 30th (Friday), 6.00-10.30 pm.

The Anglican Church of St. Columba
4020 Hingston Avenue
(corner Notre-Dame-de-Grace Ave)
Montreal, Quebec
(514) 486-1753
mrogers@montreal.anglican.ca

(Welsh Supper & Ceilidh)
$15.00 entrance includes supper, Celtic musical guests, seasonal storytelling, craft fair; cash bar will also be available.  Children are always welcomed free of charge. Please consider dressing up  for the party: you might come as your favourite character from Celtic tradition!

Guest Teller: The Boy Who Drew Cats (Roman Pylat)

 The second story post for October 2009 is by fellow Montreal teller Roman Pylat. I have always adored Roman's stories and the raw power of his voice. This story was recorded during a fundraiser I helped organize for the Montreal Children's Hospital back in 2005 called "Through a Child's Eyes".

This story is quite popular, and you can find many versions of it on the Internet. I have told it several times in the past year, but I have yet had a chance to record it. Hopefully, I will have several recordings of by the end of this month!

My heartfelt thanks to Roman for giving me permission share this story with you on this site. I hope you enjoy it!

The Boy Who Drew Cats (18 minutes)



Also, on Monday night, I had the enormous pleasure of enjoying an evening of stories from Allan Shain and Kim Kilpatrick called "Kissing That Frog: Disabling the Disability Myth". Such wonderful stories from two talented tellers from Ottawa. Loved it! But, if you don't mind the ego booster, when I went up to thank both tellers, Kim recognized my voice and remembered my "You Don't Know Jack" performance in the Ottawa festival from four years ago. I was floored and pleased to peaches.

There are English and French tellers performing all this week for the 10e Festival Interculturel du conte du Quebec, which the final English show being at Hurley's pub on the Sunday night. I'll be telling tales there, as will many others. I'll running all over the city, trying to take in as much of the English and French shows as I can.

If you can make it out to any of these shows, don't squander your opportunity! You will not regret it, mark my words.

Ghost Story for October: The Dead Don't Pay

I've been sitting on this recording for soooooo long! This recording was done when I visited Our Lady of Pompei elementary school way back in February of 2009.

Within every story, there are a few kernels of truth. In this story, I decided to use my old school chum Ted as the protaganist. I made this decision many years ago when I started learning this story, but I recently reconnected with Ted and was pleased to have the chance to share this story with him.

Update: I found the nice thing Ted said!

The fascinating thing about the story, for me, is the marvelous mix of fact, fiction, and perspective I find in it. The tale is so compelling that I could think it was true, or that my actual memories of that time in my life were somehow wrong, FSM knows they're foggy enough. I might even believe that "Ted" was the name I was Christened with--and it isn't, lest the Avid Fans (all five of them) wonder.

October is usually quite a busy month for me as a storyteller, and so far, I've got about 4 gigs starting to take shape. When I figure out the wheres and whens, I'll be posting them here and in my various other spots on the web. Stay tuned!

Before we begin, I want to give a shout-out to fellow storyteller Marie B. who just started her own storytelling podcast. I would love to say I inspired her to do this, but that would be lying, and I never lie. Never, never, ever.

The Dead Don't Pay (10 minutes)