True Tale: La Maudite

Last Sunday, I was telling tales at Hurley's Irish Pub in Montreal. Mike Burns usually tells tales on the last Sunday of each month, but he was away in February and he asked me to fill in for him, and I was more than happy to do so.

I was able to record the entire show and, with some minor editing, I ended up with some fine recordings. Today's story post is an original piece which takes the form of a personal story. I've been telling this story for years in my social circles, but now I present it to you.

This is a pre-amble (or pre-ramble) to the telling of my version of La Chasse Gallerie, which I posted a version back in December of 2012. For those of you who do not know French, "Maudite" means damned and "La Chasse Galerie" means "The Bewitched Canoe" or "The Flying Canoe".

WARNING: I do use a curse word in this story, but it only happens once and is used for effect.

Maudite (2:11) written and told by JD Hickey

The Volcano

About a month ago, I was invited to take part in Matt Goldberg's Confabulation, which is a storytelling event where the stories must be true. This month's Confabulation theme was Science.

As  soon as I saw the graphic for the Confabulation event, I had the story. I had never told it before, but I knew it was time for it to be told.

True stories are not usually my thing, but I'm lucky that my artistic community has events that challenge me to find, craft, and perform the true tales from my own life. This is my third appearance at Confabulation, but it's the first time it's been recorded.

Before I present the story, I want to give a shout-out to my cousin Andrew O. and David K. who witnessed this story and reminded me of some of the details from that day.