Feeling compelled to volunteer

October Carapace was interesting because something happened that I don’t think happens very often. From my field notes:

Cris said he was “vamping” because there weren’t many names in the hat. He reminded the audience that “we make the show happen” and without more names there would be a short show.

I see the ability of audience members to become storytellers as a way for them to feel more “safe.” They can enjoy the privilege of uncensored speech by volunteering to tell a story. It is also necessary for audience members to be storytellers. As Cris mentioned, without volunteers, there is no show. Audience members may feel an obligation to volunteer in situations like this one. I found myself combing my brain for a last minute story in case I “needed” to volunteer. And some (more than usual, I believe) storytellers mentioned not being very prepared - something I attributed to feeling compelled to volunteer when they hadn’t planned on doing so.