One of the most engaging evenings I have ever spent was at a small theater in Seattle listening to a unique storyteller with the unusual name of Pleasant De Spain

He was something of a minstrel in his own right, but he did not sing, he told stories. For two and a half hours, my wife and I sat, enthralled, listening to him spin tale after tale, about cabbages and kings, mice and men, epic stories, jokes . . . .

As he told the stories, he sometimes walked from one side of the stage to the other and back again, sometimes to the very edge of the stage. He frequently made eye-contact with members of the audience, telling the story directly to them. The members of the audience, in turn, were open-mouth, wide-eyed, and sitting on the edge of their seats, hanging on every word.

He obviously had the stories down word for carefully chosen word, and he delivered them with the skill of a consummate actor.

With no books, scripts, or crib sheets!!

This would have broken the powerful rapport he had with his audience.

Enthralling! Engaging! Fascinating!

To me, in addition to a most unique and enjoyable evening, this was a lesson to me as a performer in how to present my songs, or whatever else I was doing, in a manner that would truly engage the audience.

Be you a singer, a poet, an actor, a story teller, or whatever, you simply cannot engage the audience in this manner with your nose in a book or on a sheet of paper.

Don Firth