#NotCancelled #Motivated - On-line Concert

My studio gets better and better. The equipment remains the same, but how it is set up, lighting arrangements, where the mic is set up the backgrounds, and I am still tinkering. Trying to make the space as perfect as I can!

I think this week will be the last of “Wednesday Stories,” at least for the time being. If you don’t know about it, it is the show I do for children where I tell folk and fairy tales and then make up a story on-the-spot, randomly pulling out paintings and drawings people have sent to me (digital copies- not originals) to create the story! I am getting a few more bookings, and they are virtual, digital shows, rather than in-person, although there are still a few of those. Pre-recorded shows actually take more effort; a one-hour show takes most of a day to create.

On Tuesday, the 28th July, I will be in an on-line concert. I am part of a cohort of storytellers who got together with the plan to meet once a year to work on projects, and stories. When COVID-19 hit we became a support group for each meeting regularly. We shared issues we had and discussed ways in getting work, creating it, and getting it out there, we shared what we were learning. We decided to hold a few summer concerts. The first one was a bit of a learning curve, and this second will be better organized and smoother. We now know what we are doing!

The storytellers are Paul Strickland who is a musician and storyteller, and tells these incredibly good tall tales; the multi-talented Norm Brecke will be sharing his craft. He tells both folk and fairy tales, and personal narrative. Shelia Arnold tells everything including historical tales and is a force to behold in the storytelling world. She has organized and helped so many others. And then there will be me telling folk and fairy tales. The concert will begin at 8 pm Eastern Daylight Time (USA & Canada) and will be on Zoom, and Facebook Live. When? Tuesday 28th July. To get tickets send me, or any of the storytellers, an email or shoot a line to TBDStorytellers@gmail.com and we will send the link closer to the day. It is a pay as you go scheme, so from $5.00 - $500.00! Or more! Pay through Paypal: TBDStorytellers@gmail.com

This will be a fun event!

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I am still getting requests to perform in-person, but outdoors and very socially distanced, but the majority of my work is now virtual. Contact your local library to see if I am performing. Due to the nature of on-line performances, I will not be advertising these library events, so other groups do not piggy back off it. It is not fair to the library who is paying for the event, and not fair to me, who might be losing out on income from a gig that has been piggy-backed. See calendar for those which are in-person. And come with masks, sanitizer and allow for space between you and others. I will try to keep up with date changes as those are also happening.

My latest release on Patreon is a conversation with storyteller Taffy Thomas and his wonderful wife Chrissy. Taffy was a fire juggler, and deep sea fisherman before becoming a storyteller. He is amazing. If you know storytellers, or are a storyteller, you might have heard of Ruth Sawyer. Well, when Taffy was a lad, she told him stories. He created and runs the Storyteller Garden in Grassmere, Lake District in England and is a super man. He loves his riddles. That episode of Conversations With Storytellers, will be available to the public on the 7th August.

The CD is slowly coming along. Still trying to set a date for the music! But I have all the artwork done, again by Rob Brookes.

I am sure there is more news, but I cannot think of it right now!

I will keep you posted of changes! Stay safe.

Peace,

Simon

This image is copyright Rob Brookes, 2020 ©. Cover art without lettering.

Google Meets and Zoom performances. It's a New World

Well, like a lot of people, my work dried up. Boom. Stopped. No income. This, I believe is the same for any performing artist, and entertainer. It even effects the music, theatre, tv and film industries as studios and the like shut up shop during the COVID-19 lock-down.

Compared to the average actor, as a storyteller I don't need a script or director to do work, I can make stuff up on the fly. I don't need a stage, editor, sound crew. I have experience of doing a lot of this myself as I travel about the country, when the world is less pandemic!

I have been fortunate. I have set up my own very make-shift and somewhat chilly studio in my garage. There's no fancy or expensive gear, just a bunch of jimmied together lights, my old laptop, and some sheets and the backdrops I use when I travel around schools, colleges and libraries.

It doesn't look too bad when I broadcast. It sounds pretty good too. The garage has served as a 'play space' for the kids since we moved into the house, so it's had carpet pieces on the floor since we moved in, old chairs, a dilapidated karaoke machine, and as you can see, my record collection, and very old turntable.

I have already done a number of school presentations, and this weekend - starting tonight - I have a couple of events I am broadcasting live. One of this weekend's performances is an event for a now-cancelled festival I was supposed to travel to in Woodruff, South Carolina earlier this month. To keep the festival alive and in people's minds, the storytellers and producers got together to present a one hourish show, each of us performing for ten minutes, each of us broadcasting from our homes. Tonight, Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, I am doing three more performances (from my garage in isolation) for the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, under their HopStop program.

So what's it like performing for an audience who is not there with you? Odd. Decidedly odd. I am feeling more nervous before an event than normal, but it is a different sort of nervousness. Before getting out in front of a live audience, one who is there to reach out and touch, if one was so inclined, there is an electric nervousness, one full of energy and vitality. The 'anxiety' before going live without a 'studio audience' feels, for me anyway, how I felt before sitting for an exam at high school! Not the same feeling at all.

If you make a rare mistake with a live, physical audience, you can play with it, because, as a storyteller, there is no real fourth wall. Or if there is you can easily break it. If you make a mistake when broadcasting live you don't see if the audience noticed or not, you can't see their reaction if they do notice it. You cannot respond, alter and correct. I mean, you can, but... You can't be as playful as you might have been.

Performing live as a storyteller, there is a flexibility to the performance, there is spontaneity, you feed from that audience. For me, there is a buzz, or natural high coming off the stage, or stepping away from 200 kids sitting on a gym floor. There's often an unscheduled Q & A afterwards, hand shaking, high-fives, the noise and excitement of people leaving, chatting to one another. You see people walking away smiling, laughing.

In my garage it is very different. It's a kind of sterile feeling. There's no one to engage with before the performance starts. When I look into the lens on my old laptop and say, "Hello! How is everyone today?" There's no 'visible/auditory' hello back. If you're doing a Facebook Live event you wonder if there is anyone watching. You know there is when there's a ping, or smiley face that wobbles up the screen, or someone posts a comment. On Google Meetings and Zoom you see a few faces on the side, but you wonder if they are able to engage and commit to the story you're telling, or if there are too many distractions in the house - is there a screaming baby, a FedEx delivery, someone that needs help with the at-home schooling. There's the concern for me that the internet might crash. And yet, I feel that I put more energy into a digital performance than a live one. I feel I have to overcome the portal I travel through into people's homes. Sometimes there's a pause between the stories where the audience on Zoom or Google Meetings can show their appreciation when the moderator or host opens the mics on the audience! For a moment there's a buzz, and then back to me in the garage and the sound of my own voice.

The performances I have thus far done, when it's over, have allowed for an on-line meet and greet, a Q & A and a quick chat with the host or moderator, then, click - leave the meeting. It's a good feeling that I come away with. There are smiles, positive comments, even - "we should do this again, it works really well." But then quickly and quietly I am in the garage turning off the equipment, rejoining the family upstairs. The high isn't there, but there is a sense of well-being and satisfaction. Not a self-congratulatory feeling, just a good feeling, a warm feeling.

Sometimes you get a glimpse into people's homes, and you might get a sense that some are struggling more than others during this time. I feel, I hope, in that brief moment of time I told the stories, those characters, those scenes, transported the listeners. The listeners who, like me, had to work a little harder to hear and see in their minds-eye those same scenes and characters, were taken out of their new normal and went somewhere with me to a place that offered hope, transformation and a bit of a giggle even for a brief moment, and they found some joy.

Upcoming appearances:

Thursday 30th April

9 pm Eastern (-5 BST) - HopStop for Big Kids: https://hop.dartmouth.edu/events/tales-simon-brooks

Friday 1st May

1 pm Eastern (-5 BST) - HopStop for Families: https://hop.dartmouth.edu/events/storytelling-simon-brooks

8 pm Eastern (-5 BST) - Stone Soup COVID Chowder: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/covid-chowder-tales-by-stone-soup-tickets-103176299088?aff=ebdssbeac

Saturday 2nd May

11 am Eastern (-5 BST) - HopStop for Families: https://hop.dartmouth.edu/events/storytelling-simon-brooks

Regular LiveStreaming:

Wednesday Stories - a family event where Simon tells a couple of folk and fairy tales and, using artwork sent in, a made up story using the artwork of children. Missed events can be found here. Every Wednesday at 3 pm Eastern: https://www.facebook.com/simonbrooksstoryteller/

Friday With Friends - (starts tomorrow at 10 am) a weekly show for the family but aimed at older kids and adults. Simon gets together with one of his storytelling or musical friends for a chat and story swap. Very casual, coffee (or cocktail) time event. Missed events will be found here. Every Friday at an 'undisclosed' time (watch for announcements - based on availability of guest!): https://www.facebook.com/simonbrooksstoryteller/

Pay-as-you-can via Paypal.

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Stories and Travel

Last night I got back from a short, sudden trip to England with my son, Aidan. What a great trip. We flew in and out of lesser used Manchester Airport in Northern England rather than London to visit new friends and my sister and her family in the North. We took all necessary precautions, and some extras, wiping down seats, arms, and seat backs on the plane with antiseptic wipes, not touching hand-rails, or if we caught each other doing that, immediately washing our hands with bleach and alcohol swabs. And we are self-isolating and monitoring ourselves now we are back.

As the Coronavirus (CORVID-19) spreads I am thinking about canceled gigs, lost revenue, people who need stories whether they are in schools, community centers (or centres as we write in the UK), or libraries, I am thinking of doing some sort of live FB gigs/presentations, or extend my podcast over the next few weeks, maybe months. If I were to do this, what, if you are a home-schooler or educator, would you like to see, or hear? What would possibly help you through isolation, self-family-quarantine? Subjects, topics, myths, legends? This would be something anyone can access at anytime, and would not be fee-based, but ‘donations’ could be made through my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/simonbrooks)

Write me back and let me know. If this is going to happen, I want to get on this sooner rather than later and would like to make it something that works for YOU.

Anyway, my last Friday my son and I got on a plane to Manchester, England. When we landed on Saturday morning we got in our hired car and I drove up to the Lake District. I went there once when I was a young child and remember the stunning hills, but I was close to being in awe at what we saw as we went to meet Taffy Thomas and his wife and partner Christine.

Taffy is the first Storytelling Laureate in the UK. From the story about how it happened one could say the position was created FOR Taffy. He has also been awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire, although jokingly when compared with the OBE - Order of the British Empire - it is said to mean My Blooming Efforts, instead of Other Bugger’s Efforts) along with many other great achievements and awards. I was interviewing Taffy for my Conversations with Storytellers podcast. I thought Aidan might sneak off and explore the town, but he stayed around and listened to this remarkable and generous man and his wife.

We got to do a little hiking in the Lake District, staying at Ambleside Youth Hostel. This was the beginning of the trip. But at the end of the trip (after all the family stuff) Aidan and I plugged into Google, castles near me. If we had been in Wales I would have picked a road and just driven, knowing I would find one within an hour, but we were in Hereford, where I went to Art School. We followed the directions to Kilpeck Castle. There’s not much left - just two walls, and next to it, we found an amazing church built on what is thought to be a pagan worshiping ground. The church was built in the 1100’s, close to nine hundred years ago. The door (at top) would inspire any quest, pilgrimage or high adventure. The sandstone decorations around the church are the originals, protected by the roof from acid rain. The craftsmanship and detail is amazing, and to think it was done by hand with mallet and chisel is, to me, mind blowing.

Aidan and I loved this place, with the castle with two walls, moat, fish pond and a church with eighty five corbels (those gargoyle type things) - six fewer than when it was built - carvings both inside and out, with it’s perfect and tiny size. In the 14th Century it used to be a walled town with a thriving market place, but now it is just these two buildings and a farm across the road, pretty much. it was a gem of a find. I wish we knew the stories of all those corbels, and what the missing six were of. We would have spent longer there if it were not the end of the day.

Oh, and after the second round-a-bout (rotary for my Mass. friends), the driving was as normal as it was when I left the UK twenty five years ago. And I stayed on the right side of the road - that being the left-hand side!

Have you found any new cool places you would want to share? Stories? Shoot me a line, and let me know your thoughts on what you would to see or hear on FB live or on my podcast as we step cautiously through this CORVID-19 nightmare.

Peace,

Simon

All images are by me or by Aidan. Copyright and all that, 2020.

Putting the band back together!

I am in the studio recording my new CD! When I use the word 'studio' it is storytelling jargon for glorified closet with a microphone! But it is my glorified closet and I love it. The stories are coming out well. They need editing, and I might re-record one or two of the tales. And thanks to the father and son who suggested the story, Lazy John; it has become one of my favourites and will be on the new release.

When recording my storytelling CDs I do not use a script. It is a live recording of me speaking directly into a mic. Admittedly, if I make a mistake, I am able to do-over, and correct those errors. Or if something comes out of my mouth I really don't like, I can record over it!  It is a very different vibe and energy performing in front of an audience, and performing in front of a microphone in a 'studio'. You have to generate your own vibe in a sound booth!

My first three CDs were recorded in the Upper Valley, where I used to live (Orford, NH) and work (Thetford, VT). I had some great friends up there who formed the backbone of a band of sorts for those CDs. We called ourselves the Latham Layabouts after the library where we worked on and practiced the music. Steve Glazer and Rick Barrows and I were joined by Maureen Burford on violin to put the music together for Second-hand Tales (2006). I was hoping we would all be available to make something wonderful happen again for the second CD, but Maureen was not able to join us. I asked another friend, Greg Gundlach, to join us as he played banjo and guitar. A new band was formed for the most originally titled More Second-hand Tales (2008)! When it came to the third CD, A Tangle of Tales (2011) after a gap of three years, I wanted fewer strings. Also a wonderful musician called Rachel Clark had given me a piece of music to use with my storytelling. When I heard it, I knew which story it would go with (The White Trout), so it made sense that Rachel would perform flute and whistle on the CD which featured her generous gift. Rob Brookes, my CD designer, artist and friend in the UK suggested the name A Tangle of Tales, and the departure from any more second-hand titles!

When it came to my third CD, Moonlit Stories it went from concept to release within five weeks. There was no time to get musicians together for this album, so it is all me. It was not only the first time I put a 'complete' piece of music together, but it was also the first album I recorded without any other support, or people. Other than Rob Brookes doing a super great album cover is super short time.  It was recorded, engineered and produced by myself and was a wonderful experience.

It's been a while since I released a storytelling CD and I have been meaning to release a new album for a while. It's been over four years since the last one. I do not count Gilgamesh in this mix as that is an original re-write, re-telling of an epic, and not a folk or fairy tale (which was also a completely solo project). The new album will be called (wait for it - fanfare)... A Kettle Full of Tales and I am trying to put the band back together. It is going to be hard, as I would really like to be able to release this new recording in April and people have busy schedules. We also live quite far apart from one another. But I have tentative affirmatives from Steve and Rick, and a friend - comic book artist and musician Marek Bennett. I cannot remember how Marek and I met, I think it was through a band he is in called the Cold River Ranters - a mad folk band with an eclectic group of talented people. Since my move down south to New London, New  Hampshire from Orford, Marek and I have become good friends. Marek will be joining the backbone of Steve, Rick and myself, if everything pans out, for A Kettle Full of Tales. Marek is a multi-instrumentalist and I am very much looking forward to working with him. This is a man who has made his own banjo and bass!

I have a tune which I hope will carry through the album in a similar vein as the first two CDs, and is something that the others can turn into something great! As I sometimes joke, I am a drummer, not a musician! I will have a limited number of CDs available, and will possibly be experimenting with flash drives, which will include notes and sketches, and the artwork, possibly of all my storytelling releases. I will be getting download cards, and it will be available on-line through CDBaby like all my other work. Keep your fingers crossed it all works out. It would be nice to start the decade with a new album.

Marek Bennett:  https://marekbennett.com/
and his own Patreon page where you can see him work on all sorts of amazing projects including the story of Colby Freeman, school teacher and soldier in the Civil War:  https://www.patreon.com/marekbennett/posts 

Rick Barrows and Steve Glazer are in a great band called Out On A Limb:  https://www.facebook.com/OutonaLimbBand/ 

Rachel Clark: https://www.sevenstarsarts.org/rachel-clark.html 

Cold River Ranters:  https://coldriverranters.com/ 

Patreons will get sneak peeks at artwork as it becomes available, along with other goodies - maybe bloopers!

New and coming up!

What's new and happening!

I have had a busy summer with work and a healing eye, and the fall seems as equally busy, for which I am very happy. I even got to play and perform with Karen Pillsworth and Odds Bodkin and one of my favourite places - CAMP!

I have been working on new stories since last fall and been polishing them over the summer in preparation for a couple of big gigs and a new CD. There are many stories I know which I don't want to record, as they seem better suited to a live performance and feel that something would be lost in recording them.

The new CD will be a family recording similar to my first two albums, Second-hand Tales and the originally titled More Second-hand Tales. So do I name this new one Even More Second-hand Tales? Used Tales? Passed on Stories? Number Five? (Or six counting Gilgamesh!) Jack John, if you have heard it, will be one of the stories on the album.

In September, next week, I am heading to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in Provo, Utah. In October I am returning to the National Storytelling Festival to perform again in Jonesborough, Tennessee. In January, I am off to the Florida Storytelling Festival (great timing for those of us who live in the NE) which is in Mount Dora, Florida. I wonder if I will see Dora or Diago?

So in between all this, I will be working on hte track listing, talking to Rob Brookes about the cover illustrations. You know Rob's work, as it is on all but one of my CDs (Gilgamesh) and on and in my book, Under the Oaken Bough, published by Parkhurst Brothers.

If there are stories you would love to see on the forthcoming album, let me know!

I hope your year has been wonderful so far, and your summer somewhat relaxing, and the rest of the year works out splendidly!

Don't be afraid to reach out!

(Told you your post was inspiring, Marek!)

Peace,

Simon