John David HickeyStoryteller and Bard

A Hindu saint who was visiting the river Ganges to take a bath and found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled, and asked.

‘Why do people in anger, shout at each other?’

The Disciples thought for a while, and one of them said, ‘Because we lose our calm, we shout.’

‘But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.’ asked the saint

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples.

Finally the saint explained, .

‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small…’

The saint continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper as they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’

He looked at his disciples and said.
‘So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.

Facebook has this feature called a Live Video which basically streams video out from your phone as you are recording it, then saves the video on your time line. It’s a pretty neat feature because anyone can tune into it and leave comments and likes and such.

Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video here, but if you’re on Facebook, you should be able to see the videos play.

Bedtime Stories v1 (the story actually begins at the 7:20 mark)

Bedtime Stories v2 (the story actually begins at the 3:00 mark)

I tell my first story that should trigger an ASMR experience. Let’s see what happens!

For those who don’t know, ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and it refers to a phenomenon which is experienced through a relaxing tingling in the scalp and the back of the neck and can extend into the rest of the body.

One of the ways to trigger this is to speak softly, hence the whispered story.

I don’t know what’s going on. Normally, summer is the quiet time for storytelling, but 2016 is turning out to be super busy! I’ve already got a dozen shows scheduled, so I’m going to post them here just to keep reminding myself that this isn’t a dream!

• DONE — April 27th: Blood and Bones (Montreal) — Facebook event
• DONE — May 4th (my birthday!): Voix de Ville (Montreal) — Facebook event
• DONE — May 7th, 4pm: PorchFest (Montreal) — Facebook event
• CANCELLED — June 18th, 6pm: Mythic Invasion of London with Professor Taelstrum (London, Ontario) — Facebook event
• July 8th, 9th: Botanical Gardens (Montreal)
• August 5th, 6th: Botanical Gardens (Montreal)
• August 12th: Botanical Gardens (Montreal)
• August 26th, 27th: Botanical Gardens (Montreal)
• September 23rd-25th: Grand Canadian Steampunk Exposition (Niagara, Ontario)

Join us for an evening of spoken word that flows the blood and stacks the bones. Featuring poet Natasha Clery and storyteller JD “Hobbes” Hickey and invited guests.

Blood and Bones
April 27th 2016 (Wednesday), 6pm – 9:00pm
Mariposa le Café
5434 Cote St-Luc rd.
Montreal, Quebec
Cover: $10
Facebook Event

Trigger Warning: there will be adult content. This show is not appropriate for children. Long term, the erotic content of this show may produce children.

A few years back, I had the unbelievable honor of sharing a stage at McGill’s Pollack Hall with Concerto Della Donna for a charity event (Northern Exposure). The last piece was called “Ost for vinden”, which was a Norwegian folktale put the music. I was the storyteller and Concerto Della Donna sang the songs. It was by far the most ambitious project I have ever undertaken (back then and ever since). Thanks be to Erika Wood for believing in me.

I had a personal copy of the recording, but due to rights and other legal stuff, I wasn’t allowed to share it with anyone. All I could do was play it for people in the car. Well now the author of that piece (Marie-Claire Saindon) has put the entire recording up on her SoundCloud page. If you’re going to listen to it, I highly recommend that you put headphones on and immerse yourself in it. It’s beautiful and has brought tears to many who have listened to it.

Rickman: Hey David.

Bowie: Alan? You too? What took you down?

Rickman: Cancer. You?

Bowie: Me too. Fuck Cancer.

Rickman: Fuck Cancer. With a spoon.

Lemmy: Fuck Cancer!

Rickman: Who’s that guy?

Lemmy: I thought this was the rock star section. They let just anyone in here?

Bowie: Apparently. I’m been searching for Crosby, but I haven’t had much luck.

Lemmy: David Crosby’s dead too?!?

Bowie: No, no… Bing Crosby. Before your time. Before my time, really, if truth be told.

Rickman: I can play the cello…

Lemmy: No you can’t. You’re an actor. You can act like you play the cello. I saw Truly, Madly, Deeply wise-ass.

Rickman: … Asshole.

Bowie: So what do we do now?

Lemmy: We could jam. Maybe actor-boy could learn how to play the spoons.

Angelil: Salut les boys.

Rickman: Who the fuck are you?

Angelil: Calisse… I’m Rene. If there’s one thing I knew how to do in the old life is spot talent early on, and I mean *early* on. Stick with me les gars and we will rock this place.

Original piece written by JD Hickey
January 2016

At the last Slamtastique Story Slam that I hosted, I told a story about why Patricia left. Patricia Flewwelling is a published author who works at TELUS, but also worked at Cafe Mariposa, which is where the Story Slam now takes place. And I’ll admit it right here: I’ve had a bit of an unrequited crush on her for a while. It’s no secret.

But new adventures have flung our beloved Patricia far and wide, but few know the real reason, so I decided to tell the masses the *real* reason why she left us. Now that I’ve heard the recording, I can tell I told it a bit too fast (the pace is off), but I’ll fix that with some practice in the future.

When Patricia met Death in the Market