By Steve Daut © 2019

This is a workshop about techniques gleaned from my (admittedly schizophrenic) career in magic, stand-up comedy, improv, playwriting and, of course, storytelling. Perhaps you are new to storytelling and haven’t yet settled in your approach to storytelling, or perhaps you have been telling stories for years, and you know it’s always useful to look at storytelling from a new direction. Either way, this workshop is for you.

We start from the perspective that not every moment in a story has the same weight for the audience, so it’s useful to think about how to create focal points to emphasize critical moments. Another way to think about it is that there are two threads in each story – the physical facts and action of the story, and the real story underneath those facts. As storytellers, we think about how to use specific moments in the physical story to reveal the real story underneath.

A great example was told to me by a golfing friend of mine who had an accident some years ago. He and his wife were crossing a road that went through the middle of the golf course and they were hit by a car. They were both thrown out of the golf cart they were riding in, and the young woman who hit them immediately called the police. When the officer asked her why she was calling, she said, “There are a couple of old people laying on the road.” She told the physical story, but underneath that is a nuanced and universal story of guilt and responsibility. And by the way, they are both fine.

Although the words of a story can be used to direct attention, your actions onstage can control your audience. One magician was so adept at controlling audience attention that he would walk onto the stage with a live goose in plain sight and no one in the audience would see it until he made it “appear”.

Have you thought about your use of dialogue in stories? It can be useful to break dialogue into three levels in order to create tiny stories that fill moments with intrigue. For instance, consider how the story changes if instead of saying “Fee fi fo fum…”, the giant says, “Englishman for dinner tonight?”

When you suddenly change direction in a story, it can be jarring or riveting, or both. How do comedians use this technique to create funny routines?

Do you manipulate time in your stories? What is the most effective way to use time to good advantage in your narrative?

We’ll do some fun group and individual exercises in the classroom to see how those questions relate to directing audience attention. Everyone also gets a handout with “homework” suggestions to help you apply these ideas to your own stories.

Steve Daut has been telling stories in various forms ever since the dog ate his homework. He has been performing in various venues for over 35 years. Onstage credits include magic, sketch and stand-up comedy, improvisation, storytelling, and MC work. Writing credits include produced plays, various articles, an early book of short stories, a recent non-fiction book titled Buddha Science, and his new book of story adaptations entitled Telling Twain.

Interested in taking Steve’s Workshop?   Register today for STF 2019    nestorytelling.org