The audience are the tellers and the tellers are the audience

Looking back at some earlier memos:

Not talking while the teller is performing is not something that Randy and Joyce enforce. Randy said

And that

for some reason

that just sort of grew

grew on it's own.

It is a community norm. He says the reason he thinks it has happened is

because many of the people in the audience

imagine themselves up there

whether they put their name in the hat or not

they imagine themselves up there.

What if that was me?

I'd want people to be quiet and pay attention

even if

they're not that interested in the story.

This is “do unto others” reasoning. Either way, the community has decided this is how they should behave, and they do. (July 25 memos)

Lance said that Carapace regulars told them early on that although they were attracted by The Moth brand, they were glad Carapace did not include competition.

The Moth slam that was all great and everything,

but the fact they're not out there feeling like they're being judged

for anything was a big thing for them to get up and tell stories.

Lance talked a lot about being intentional in getting rid of the competition earlier in the interview. It is just registering with me now what this means as far as other reality events being “safe spaces” for storytellers. Carapace takes the safety of the tellers further than other events. (August 18 memos)

Audience members are kind because they can imagine themselves on stage. They treat storytellers the way they want to be treated. Storytellers benefit from this “do unto others” attitude of the audience. But also, they may imagine that the audience members have empathy for them as storytellers because many of the audience members are also storytellers.