Reactions and Competition
I took really good notes on audience reactions to Ray’s stories at the 2022 National Storytelling Festival. Go me! If he got a reaction, like people were grossed out, he might lean into it and make the description more gross. Other times, I could tell p eople didn’t get what was going on (because I am more familiar with Ray and his stories). Is that because of how Ray told it, or their assumptions coming in? Did they later have a moment when they realized they had misunderstood where the story was going? The moment when I was told “don’t talk to the judges” before the slam. I very briefly said “hi” to another storyteller I knew outside of the festival, who happened to be a judge at that slam. T he competition created an artificial distance between performers and some of their audience members . I put a lot of preparation into my appearance and comfort, wearing clothes that were both cute and ...
