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.
As some of you may know, I host my very own storytelling competition called Slamtastique (2nd Monday of each month at Shaika Cafe in Montreal). I’m currently in my third season and it’s going very well. As I do at most shows, I audio record the show and then post the stories I like to the website. However, I’ve been finding that these posts lack a certain amount of structure and production quality.
So I took the last show, picked out the stories from the top three winners, and build a small podcast around them. It’s been quite the learning experience, but I’m very happy with the results. Have a listen to it here, and if you want to learn more about the competition, visit the website!
On June 10th 2013, I’m hosting the 2013 edition of the Slamtastique Story Slam Finals. This our 2nd annual Story Slam competition and I’m really looking forward to it. There will be six story slammers competing for the glory and fudge! These six competitors are the winners from this past year (October – May), but only one can be crowned victor!
We’ve also got celebrity judges who will also be telling stories of their own, so that should mix things up nicely. Come check us out!
Slamtastique Finals 2013 June 10th, 2013, 6:30 pm – 7pm
Shaika Café
5526 Sherbrooke Street West/Quest
Montreal, Quebec Google Maps
I just got home after taking part in the first ever Madpoetix Slam and it was SICK! So much raw talent under one roof was unbelievable to witness, much less even take part in.
I made it through two rounds: 1st round got me a score of 29.5 / 30 points, and the 2nd round got me a score of 29.4 / 30 points. Simple math will tell you that I scored 58.9 points / 60, but unbelievable math will tell you that I placed 4th overall. That’s how CRAZY it was that night.
I’m humbled and amazed that my storytelling pieces, which had to be less that 3 minutes each, were so well received when surrounded by such talent poets and spoken word artists. I am humbled beyond belief.
I hope a good chunk of folks come out to the Story Slam tomorrow night. It’s going to rawk!
May and June of 2012 is going to be frightfully busy for me in terms of shows and new projects! I think at the end of the marathon, when somebody asks me for a story, I might hand them a book instead.
Judging tales at the Smut Slam on June 13th (Fringe)
And one more thing on June 5th (more about that later)!
Sorry to be so cryptic about that last one, but I’m going to my first rehearsal tomorrow, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen. All I can say right now is that it’s a new type of storytelling project for me and I’ll be on a stage that I have always dreamed of performing on (one of many places). More on that later.
Comments Off on May-June Madness is about to begin!
Back in the summer of 2011, I decided that I was going to refocus on my attention on developing my storytelling career. this decision has really produced some amazing results! The next couple of months are chock-full of events and awesomely cool stuff!
On December 30th, I drove out to Ottawa to catch Charly Chiarelli’s show at Once Upon a Slam. I had supper with a friend and then turned up early to sign-up for the Slam itself. Really, I only wanted to tell my story in the Slam so that Charley could see me tell a story: I was really there to see Charly’s show.
I decided to go with Love & Madness because it’s a 4-minute story (so no worries about time penalties for going over the 5-minute limit) that packs a punch and is always a crowd favorite. I was also sporting my new western vest and festive leather hat, so I decided to throw in a little extra flair at the end by placing the hat over my heart (when I spoke of Love) and back on my head with a gleam in my eye (when I spoke of Madness).
And to my surprise, it worked! I ended up getting the high score of the evening and winning the Slam! This is the third time I’ve won at Once Upon a Slam, which fills me with shock and awe. This means I get to compete again in the finals in June 2012, so who knows what might happen? There were some amazingly fantastic stories that night (including one about Beowulf which should’ve gotten a much, much better score. I may have swooned over the girl who told this story, just a little).
Winning that slam was the perfect end to 2011. Thanks be to Ruthanne for inviting the awesome Charly Chiarelli which made my trip to Ottawa completely worth it. 2012 has already gotten off to an awesome start, so stay tuned to this site for more storytelling related news!
Welcome to Dave's storyteller website. He redesigned it in October of 2011 and it now features its own blog, links and updates to his storyblog, his latest projects, and the types of shows he can put together as a storyteller.
If you have any questions or feedback on this site or the types of storytelling he does, please drop him a line!