A very um.. personal story brought Victoria Rocha to the SEDC stage in February 2013 and we have been enjoying her true life tales since then. As an SEDC volunteer and storyteller in her personal life, and disabilities rights advocate in her professional life, performing and storytelling has been a big part of her career and fun hobby. [READ MORE] 

Chancellor Gaffney is an auditor for a Big Four accounting firm by day and a wrestler and storyteller by night. He has performed in Sucker For Love and on the second Tuesday stage. Although he doesn't have a background in performance, he loves performing and may have the ultimate strategy to defeat any and all aspects of stage fright. READ MORE

Inga Brege is a graphic designer and published researcher living in DC once again. A newcomer to the SpeakeasyDC community, she's made a splash performing twice already in her first year with us. This December she will be performing her first solo show Off Script about growing up and finding her voice amongst the colorful characters in her eccentric family READ MORE

Keith Mellnick is a freelance photographer who splits his time between expat and DC living. In between trips abroad, Keith cut his performance chops at several SpeakeasyDC shows and has performed in our Top Shelf series two years in a row. This December he will be performing his first solo show I'm Not Crazy about his Peace Corps experience in Kazakhstan. READ MORE

Pierce McManus has been performing in a variety of venues and acts in DC since the 90's. However, it wasn't until a year and a half ago that he turned to storytelling – both as a creative outlet and as a way to make sense of his life after being misdiagnosed with lung cancer in the Fall of 2011. With a strong sense of humor and a knack for performing, Pierce turned to SpeakeasyDC to enhance his storytelling skills. He is our storyteller in focus. READ MORE

I told friends for the past 2 years “I want to do a one woman show.”  I had a vague idea about what I wanted the show to be about, but I wasn’t clear on how to approach it.  Do I come up with a theme first? Do I cobble together the stories I’ve already done and see if there is a natural story arc?  Can I use stories I’ve done before or will people get bored? I received all kinds of advice, but I have learned that for me there is only one way that works: I have to start writing.  I just have to do it and see what comes out and then seek lots of feedback. Read more

Guest post by Lisa King

Holidays are the worst right after you get divorced. Everything reminds you of traditions you don’t have or places you don’t go anymore. My ex wasn’t a big fan of turkey dinner, so for Thanksgiving, I would cook a prime rib roast at his parents’ who lived about 15 minutes away.  Family and friends would gather for a day of watching the Macy’s parade, football, and eating. Read more

Some of the contributors for Sucker for Love, The Book, were asked “If you were going to send a Valentine’s Day card to SpeakeasyDC, what would it say?” Read more

“How’d rehearsal go?” I asked my husband as he walked through the door.

“Well…”

I looked up. “Well, what?”

“Well…it went fine. Except that since you weren’t able to go they had someone else read your story.” Read more

I was talking to a fellow storyteller this weekend who said she was thinking of launching a new open mic in Washington DC.

Her reason: she felt like all of the open mics in DC are too high stakes.

Interesting. Read more

If you’ve ever attended a SpeakesyDC open mic, you know that feeling when the emcee says, “okay, coming to the stage is a first-time storyteller…” It’s a feeling of excitement, dread, concern and suspense.  Will they be awesome?  Is this person the new storyteller that everyone will be talking about on the way out of the show later that evening?  Or will the nerves of this first-timer get the better of them, make them a fidgety mess, and tell a boring story that brings the show to a halt? Read more

A quick recap of my life right now: There’s an open mic in August under the theme of Baked: Stories About Summer.  I have acid reflux pretty much around the clock at this point because I signed up for that open mic even though my “story” is in shambles. Read more

Her email came on Saturday.

Subject: Confirmation & Next Steps for Aug 14 Speakeasy

The email came from none other than Stephanie Garibaldi, SpeakeasyDC’s Director of Education.  And she minced no words in her opening lines of the email:

Dear Mike,

Congrats! Read more

There’s two questions I get when I tell people I do storytelling.  One question: “What is that?”  The other question: “How’d you get into that?” Read more

1)     Your listener responds with nothing more than monosyllabic noises during your story.

Most people can’t resist adding their own feedback, whether it be little phrases like, “oh no, she di-int!”  or a question like, “Wow, so what did you do??!”  If the responses you’re receiving are more like droning sounds of “uh,” and “mmm,” or “oh,” these are not good signs. Read more

I work on a reality television show.  And every time we pitch a story to the network, their first question, without fail, is always “what’s at stake?” What’s at stake if the character doesn’t succeed?

That’s what makes stories interesting. Read more

Guest post by Carol Scott

When I decided to tell a story to 130 of my closest coworkers at our annual all-staff retreat, I knew one of two options could happen. Read more

A few weeks back, Amy Saidman wrote a very poignant piece on the importance of truth in storytelling.

Funny enough, I had my own Mike Daisy moment not all that long ago. Read more

Guest post by John Tong

If you are experiencing a general sense of panic before your Speakeasy DC performance, then let me tell you it’s all going to be okay.  Earlier, I wrote about my bombing on the Speakeasy stage and I thought if I had a time machine what would I tell myself.  This is a collection of some advice I found using the internet.  I am not otherwise qualified to dispense advice regarding performances. Read more

Guest post by "Dumb Mom"

I am performing in a live show.

Go ahead and scream, I’ll wait.

I screamed when I found out too. Read more

I recently told a story during SpeakeasyDC’s Story Showdown and on opening night, not a single person showed up specifically to see me.  I mean, there were the Speakeasy regulars who show up to every event, who I have gotten to know well, and it was great to see them and all, but they didn’t come out to see me. Read more

Walking into Town the night of the Open Mic (now called Second Tuesdays), I already knew that I was performing first.  Stephanie Garibaldi, the show’s host, had called me the night before and asked how I would feel about it.

How would I feel?  I would feel terrible.  I would feel like you had no faith in my story and you were putting me up first in order to get my story out of the way.  That’s how I would feel. Read more

DO say “YES!” when Speakeasy’s Executive/Artistic Director, Amy Saidman, asks you to co-produce a Mother’s Day show based on your blog and forthcoming book. Read more

It’s never a good idea to plan a show on Friday the 13th.  But I did.

I’m the founder of the recently launched storytelling organization Better Said Than Done. The Friday the 13th show was going to be only our second time at Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA.  I love the venue.  It seats over 150 people, they serve great food and alcohol, and the sound system works.  Also, it’s really close to my house.  I wanted to make sure this was a great show – even better than our first one – because, of course, I want to be invited back! Read more

So where was I?  Oh right, I needed a performance piece stage-ready by April 10 and I had nothing.

So, Sunday, 3/25 was the SpeakeasyDC-required rehearsal for the April 10 open mic.  As of that Saturday (yes, less than 24 hours before rehearsal) I still didn’t have a story.  But I’m a deadline guy, so this was good for me.

Saturday I sat in front of my laptop and approached this story in a way I never have before.  I wrote down bullet points for each story beat. Read more

How have I never heard of SpeakeasyDC?  That’s what I’m thinking as I read this blog post about the call for auditions for Bad Mommy Moments: A Storytelling Playdate for Moms. Clearly I’ve been living under a rock.

The idea of having to audition petrifies me.  I haven’t auditioned for anything since I was in high school. Read more

Last week, I told you how I signed up for an open mic without a clear idea for my story. Well, I’ve turned it all around and now I have a completely polished, stage-ready piece well ahead of schedule. Read more

“I pretend to care about X, but I really don’t.”

“I pretend I don’t care about X, but I really do.”

It’s our monthly salon meeting, and as usual from 7:00-8:00 we’re discussing the art and craft of storytelling.  This month I’ve introduced an exercise where we use questions, like the ones above, to help generate new material.  Like many nights, there are about 6 of us—a cozy group. Read more

Guest post by John Tong

No one associated with SpeakeasyDC will brand you a failure for bombing.  Rather, they will encourage you to come back and try again, because they recognize that you are an amateur who has invested time crafting a story from your own life experiences.  They validate this process, whatever the outcome. Read more

This Christmas, while drinking myself into a stupor at my in-laws’ house, I got on the internets and signed up for the SpeakeasyDC (SEDC) Open Mic in April, Mad Science: Stories about experiments, chemistry, and explosive situations. It’s all rather foggy, but the impaired thought process leading to this brash decision went something like this:

Drunk Mike: “That story about that thing that happened this summer is freaking hilarious! Telling it to just one or two or twenty people at a time doesn’t do it justice.  You know who I need to tell it to? Three hundred people at Town.  They’ll thank me later.  Where’s my laptop?” Read more