JIM,
I am not an expert on storytelling,and your criticisms are probably correct[logically there must be all sorts of different styles with storytelling,as there are with singers and musicians]on the occassions I have seen Eddie The lepper[which are not that often],I found him very amusing,I can remember him holding the attention of the whole room for nigh on 20 minutes at Whitby Folk Festival[so he must do something for other people, apart from myself].
I agree it is a shame when one person or style is used exclusively,but that happens in the folksong world too,often as a result of networking,the folksong world is like everwhere else,it is affected by who you know,rather than how good an artist may be.
I am not saying that those people who get the plum jobs dont deserve it[they are often very competent],but the scene suffers because they get over exposed, because they are well connected.,and it would[IMO]be good for the folks cene ,for the plum jobs to be distributed more openhandedly.
What has Eddies appearance got to do with anything?.