Yarn spinning, in real time
The Moth storytelling tour helps erase the line between writers and their readers.
from the May 18, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
No doubt Mr. Almond would place in the first category some of the Moth regulars who would perform with him in Boston: host and New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz; author Jonathan Ames; and Mike Daisey, an actor and NPR commentator.
Also on the roster was another less practiced local writer, the psychologist Lauren Slater ("Prozac Diary").
Almond was being a bit disingenuous in downplaying his abilities – he's known for his comfort riffing in front of an audience.
Still, he makes a good point. The idea of coaxing a creature more familiar with paper and solitude onto a stage before hundreds of people to relay a personal narrative – all without a single note – did seem like a stretch.
In fact, the first time it happened, it didn't work very well. "They were all awful," says Ms. Thau. So the Moth began coaching its storytellers. Thau says it's not unusual to spend 10 hours helping shape a 10-minute story. She insists that everyone know their first and last lines. That way they have something to fall back on – a sure way in and out.
Moth coaches tread a fine line between preparation and spontaneity with their storytellers. Overprepare and you lose the sense of a story unfolding in real time. Underprepare and the storyteller risks falling flat.
"Those Moth people have to do a very delicate thing," Almond said before the Boston show. Not the least of which, it turns out, is convincing writers like Almond and Slater that they really must prepare.
Almond said it finally dawned on him just a few weeks before he was set to step on stage that he'd be in trouble if he tried to wing it. So he began rehearsing in the car on the way to the supermarket.
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