The Narrators

Episode 88: So far, 2016 has been rough year for anglophiles. We've lost Lemmy and David Bowie and Alan Rickman already, and it's not even February. The outpouring of grief and nostalgia and admiration over the last few weeks has been overwhelming but still inspiring—it's clear that England still has an immense influence on American culture. When news of David Bowie's death hit social media, this...

Episode 87: Happy New Year! This week's story is told by Joe Holland, a San Diego-based writer. He deftly captures the complicated nature of family in this story based on the theme "Siblings." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the years, we've heard lots of holiday stories at The Narrators, even when they're out of season, because life just seems more significant during special events. Like birthdays and graduations and anniversaries, holidays elevate themselves to a different status among the crowd of 365. As a species, we're drawn to creating a spectacle. So many of us love obsessing over the logistics of special...

Please enjoy this story, shared at our San Diego show in December. Amy Lisewski, founder and director of Finest City Improv, told a pretty amazing tale about the true connections of family when we tackled the theme of "Siblings." Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Grammy-nominated musician Jake Sanders). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s story comes from AJ Pape. AJ's story was recorded live on 18 November 2015 at Buntport Theater in Denver, Colorado. The theme of the evening was "If You Can't Say Something Nice." Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Grammy-nominated musician Jake Sanders). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back with a story from Jenny Minniti-Shippey. Jenny shares a glimpse into life as a young writer in Galway, a fitting tale for our San Diego Beer Week-themed show "Bottled Up," recorded live at Tiger! Tiger! Tavern on 10 November 2015. Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Grammy-nominated musician Jake Sanders). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s story comes from Hannah Duggan. Hannah is a founding member of Buntport Theater Company, which owns the amazing home of our Denver show. Every time I see her, I regret that we didn't know each other sooner. Hannah's story was recorded live on 21 October 2015 at Buntport Theater in Denver, Colorado. The theme of the evening was "Creeps. Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Gr...

Robert steps up on his soap box with a mini rant about what makes a good story and presents this week's tale, which comes to you from Kendall Burdett, a writer, comedian, and native San Diegan who wears a suit well enough to convince officers of the law that he is an attorney. This story was recorded live on 10 November 2015 at Tiger! Tiger! Tavern in San Diego, California. The theme of the evenin...

Today's story comes from first-time storyteller Carolyn Matthews. Carolyn hails from the great state of New Jersey, she works for the Boulder International Film Festival and she is captain of the Denver Molly Browns, arguably the best ultimate frisbee team in this city and indisputably the best-named team in this town. This story was recorded live on September 16, 2015 at Buntport Theater in Denve...

Today's story is from Kimberly Dark, a storyteller, writer, and professor of Sociology. Kimberly's story was recorded live on 13 October 2015 at Tiger! Tiger! Tavern in San Diego, California. The theme of the evening was "Creeps." If you want to read more of Kimberly's work, check out this fantastic essay just published on Narratively—it's a great story about planning a vacation with her lesbian p...

Today's story comes to you from David Latham, who is the host of a storytelling show in San Diego called Long Story Short, an open mic where storytellers have 5 minutes to tell a story without notes based on a monthly theme. Long Story Short is one offering from a stellar literary organization in San Diego called So Say We All, which offers San Diegans a wide breadth of writing workshops, performa...

Today’s story comes from Rachel Pater. Rachel teaches writing to young adults at Futures Academy and the Community College of Aurora. She also insists that she’s a huge hit with moms. This story was recorded live on 15 July 2015 at Buntport Theater in Denver, Colorado. The theme of the evening was "Take a Hike." Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Grammy-nominated musician Jake San...

Today's podcast is dedicated to all of you out there in podcast land who have never attended a live show before. Our August event was so fantastic that we're playing it here for you in its entirety, raw and mostly uncut—this is as close to the real thing as you can get. You're going to hear stories from Erin Rollman, Dan St. Germain, Christie Buchele, Bob Meddles, Haley Driscoll, Timmi Lasley, Sam...

Today's featured storyteller, Wendy Smith, a.k.a. Wendyceratops, is a Professor of English at Mesa Community College in San Diego. See her students' ratemyprofessors.com reviews to get a sense of just how amazing she is: "Never boring." "Fair. For the most part." "Really chill." "Always has snacks." "A believer." "Passionate." "Open to different interpretations." And: "A must" Buuuut: She is “prov...

Today's story comes from Robert Rutherford. When Robert's not co-hosting The Narrators San Diego, he works as a museum educator and the digital content developer at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Robert's story was recorded live on 8 September 2015 at Tiger! Tiger! Tavern in San Diego, California. The theme of the evening was "Firsts." Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Gra...

This week's story comes from Erin Rollman. She is the co-host of The Narrators Denver, a founding member and co-owner of Buntport Theater, a long-time favorite storyteller, and an award-winning actor and playwright. Erin and her colleagues at Buntport graciously opened their doors to The Narrators in 2014 and she joined us as a co-host in 2015. Working with Erin feels like scoring a free dessert a...

Today's story comes from Anthony Crawford. He's co-host of Amuse Booze, a local cocktail and comedy showcase, and he’s the host of Talkin' Shop, which is like Denver comedy's answer to Inside the Actor's Studio. Anthony interviews some of the cities brightest comedic minds, asking questions about how the funny sausage gets made. Anthony's story was recorded live on 20 May 2015 at Buntport Theater...

Today’s story comes from Christie Buchele. She is the co-host of Empty Girlfriend podcast, which you should all be listening too, and she’s one of our all-time favorite storytellers in Denver. She’s that friend who always stood up for you on the playground, even when the bully was way bigger than both of you. Christie’s story was recorded live on June 17, 2015 at Buntport Theater in Denver, Colora...

This week's story comes from Aaron Urist. Aaron is a standup comedian from Denver Colorado, the co-host of Crush City, a monthly comedy showcase at The Savoy, and frequent performer on High Plains Comedy Festival. Being in his presence is like finding a $20 bill in your jacket on the first cold of autumn—again, and again, and again. Aaron's story was recorded live on May 20, 2015 at Buntport Theat...

Today’s story comes from Emma Weisfeld and was recorded live at Buntport Theater on 20 May 2015. The theme of the evening was “Nature vs. Nurture.” Special thanks to Erin Rollman for engineering help on this episode. Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Grammy-nominated musician Jake Sanders). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in April of 2015, The Narrators collaborated with Musica Sacra, a 35-piece chamber orchestra here in Denver. They gave us three pieces of music and asked our storytellers to write something inspired by the music. In exchange, we gave them three stories and they chose three pieces of music to accompany them. We wrote and edited and memorized and rehearsed and revised and then rehearsed some mo...

Today's story comes from Haley Driscoll. This story was originally recorded on 21 November 2013 at the Deer Pile in Denver, Colorado. The theme of the evening was "The Fall." Our theme music is by our friend Whalehawk (aka the Grammy-nominated musician Jake Sanders). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The theme of our live show in June 2013 was "Insults & Grievances." Folks packed into the Deer Pile—that tiny, gorgeous, sweltering box—listened to their peers tell tales of live beating them down. The story I remember the most vividly from that night came from Greg Salvesen, an economist who loves to run long distances. Back then, Greg recounted his greatest loss, and the damage that it did to hi...

For the regular monthly shows, we almost never edit our storytellers. If someone asks for help, we give them feedback, but we try hard to avoid meddling too much. Too much editing and everyone starts to sound the same. Too much coaching can twist a story into something that's too slick—the structure is perfect and audience is impressed but the story feels disconnected from the storyteller. We want...

Back in April 2013, The Narrators asked Denver Diatribe to take over for one night. The theme of the evening was "Colfax Avenue," a tribute to Denver's most infamous street. This week's story comes from Jared Maher, one of Denver Diatribe's co-hosts. Jared is a former investigative journalist and staff writer for Westword. In the past decade he has worked for a variety of media outlets, including...