Wrecked | Life Out Loud Storytelling
Last weekend I went to Brisbane’s hottest storytelling group, Life Out Loud Storytelling, for a night of storytelling fun. The night’s theme was wrecked: stories about rust and ruin, which was quite frankly what had drawn me to the event in the first place. I’ve been to many storytelling cabaret-esque themed nights when the theme has been very airy fairy, so it was quite nourishing to the soul to have a theme that had some grit to it.
Enter storyteller one and event MC, Thomas who shared his experiences giving a talk to a p-6 audience about recycling and sustainability in which he became acquainted with his long term friend Terry the turtle. Then came Scott, the really nice real estate agent who enjoys slow and short walks to the fridge, who shared his experiences from his trip Fuji when he was sixteen, which, to quote Scott, absolutely wasn’t just fine. We learnt never to trust Bill the Barman and to double check that our local barman’s named wasn’t Bill, otherwise our insides might be tumbling out of our outsides the next morning.
Third up was wife and mother Lee, who opened up about her daughter’s journey with mental health and how she’d tried to end her life. Never have I ever seen such a display of courage and vulnerability on stage. A story of pain and trauma turned into a story of hope.
Next was proud house husband and keen snow boarder Owen who strayed too far from the ski tracks and almost ended up freezing to death on a mountain. Then came Kate, an extroverted nerd who shared with us her intense battle with her car’s Bluetooth speaker, a battle which I’ve definitely taken part in.
Once the storytellers were finished, the MC announced a brief intermission during which he will be collecting names from which he will draw two from to be wildcard storytellers for the night. I thought ‘why not, I don’t ever get chosen for these things’, so I put my name in the draw. Did I have a a story prepared? No. Did I think I’d be chosen? No. But I did. So up on the stage I went, microphone in hand, pink overalls on and trying to think of a story to share. In a split second, I decided to share the story of how I nearly died on stage during my last community theatre experience as a result of drinking a poisonous substance. I must admit, it did feel quite meta being on stage when I was reviewing the evenings proceedings. But alas, I had a fabulous time, as did Wildcard Adam before me, who shared a story about a friend’s passion for bowling and how that burning desire to knock all the pins out in one go lead to him shitting himself whilst wearing no underwear.
Then came Cam, who took us home with his story on assembling an ikea desk in the wee hours of the morning, which turned into the neighbours having a broken fence. You had to be there.
I was really impressed by the generosity of the storytellers and how they embraced their vulnerabilities on stage. I was equally impressed by the generosity of the audience and how much compassion and empathy hung in the air. True, some of the stories were pretty tragic, but in all of the stories there was hope.
To this I say thank you to Thomas and the team at Life Out Loud Storytelling for inviting me to such a beautiful celebration of hope and life.
Life Out Loud Storytelling night happen every second month (or so) at The Sideshow, West End. Check their website for the next event.
