Thu 4/24 @ 7 – 8pm
By John Benson
Making a long story short or, well, a short story long is the idea behind a new Northeast Ohio series called Told.
In a nutshell, folks are silencing their cellphones and looking up from their iPads for an evening revolving around featured storytellers and audience members telling a good yarn. Told made its successful debut last month at Tremont’s Visible Voice Books.
Now Told returns for its second free affair at 7 p.m. Thu 4/24 at the Market Garden Brewery, with featured speakers including psychiatric nurse Thom Huggins and lawyer Sunny Nixon (known locally as a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ community) discussing the theme “What are the odds?”
Cool Cleveland talked to founder Dave Sabol, a high school math teacher by day who – not surprisingly – uses storytelling in class.
Cool Cleveland: First of all, where did you get the idea for Told?
Dave Sabol: I have always been a fan of the storytelling genre with shows like “The Moth,” “RISK!” or “This American Life.” I think it’s a really accessible medium that people love hearing other peoples’ stories, but people also like it because they think they can participate in it. They’re more or less correct on that. I realized there wasn’t much of a storytelling community in Cleveland already. And then with a little encouragement from Cleveland Leadership Center’s Bridge Builders program, I decided to go ahead and schedule the first event last month.
Considering it was brand-new and potentially somewhat confusing to people, how did the initial Told event go over?
The first event was received really well. It ended up having two featured speakers who were preplanned. And then we ended up getting six audience stories, which really depends on how long each audience story takes. A lot of them didn’t take very long, which was fine, but they were still very good. It was an hour total. One of the best parts was that you had people who were apprehensive to put their name in the hat. They either didn’t have a story ready or they didn’t really know if they wanted to do it, but after the show they said, “I totally thought of two or three stories that I could have used.”
Naturally audience members can just show up, put their name in a hat and hope they are picked to tell a story, but how do you select the featured speakers?
Right now, it’s people I know who I think would tell a great story. For future events, I’ve already started connecting with people that I’m meeting and they refer friends to me.
Are you vetting audience member stories?
I don’t. On the website I give vague parameters. There’s a theme for each event. And the story should relate somehow to the theme and they should be under six minutes. They should be a true story where you are the central character.
Who are you discovering would enjoy taking in a Told event?
Considering the first event, it actually had a decent amount of appeal of different age groups. It’s just people kind of sitting around listening to stories but I think there is really something that you relate to with each storyteller. One of the things I say is everybody has at least one or two good stories in them that are entertaining and they usually tell groups of friends. It’s really that experience but a little bit more communal.
Is it a stretch to suggest that Told is a response to the Twitter age where these days our stories are no more than 140 characters in length?
I think it is. I’m a huge fan of social media. I use a lot of it but there’s definitely a contrast of looking at a Twitter feed full of peoples’ very-short thoughts at once versus listening to one person tell a good story for five minutes.
Please tell us you have a Vaudevillian shepherd’s crook ready at all times to pull boring or long-winded folks offstage.
No, I have a sign if they hit the time mark. So far people have been pretty respectful.
So what we’re hearing is you’re not against buying a hook in the future?
[laughs] OK, I’ve priced hooks on Amazon.
Check out Told #2: What Are the Odds? Thu 4/24 at 7 – 8pm @ Market Garden Brewery. toldstories.com
[NOTE: Dave Sabol is the cousin of John Benson, who can attest the Told founder’s love of storytelling has salvaged many a Christmas evening filled with loud Slovak music and crying babies.]
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.
Cleveland, OH 44113