Want to Be Remembered? Tell Stories.
Professional speakers spend 75% of their time telling stories. They do this for two reasons: audiences enjoy stories and audiences remember stories. Professional speakers say, “You don’t have to be funny, unless you want to be paid.” We can also say, “You don’t have to use stories, unless you want to be remembered.”
In March 1999, I was in the Borders Books and Music Store at the Block in Orange telling stories in a small area of the Children’s section that had been set aside for a youth storyteller and a small audience of children. A large bookshelf behind the audience area cut us off from much of the rest of the store.
I had been a member of the South Coast Storytellers Guild for several years, and this was one of several venues where our members told stories—mostly for free as a community service or, sometimes, for a small fee. I told stories there mostly to gain experience, and, through this and several other performances, I came to realize that I am not really a children’s teller. Listening to really good tellers from our Storytellers Guild had taught me that special stories and techniques are needed with each age group, and I was better with adults.
When my storytelling performance was over, I walked out from behind that large bookshelf into the main part of the store where I found Fred and Wilma Springer. They told me that they were looking at books for their grandchildren, but I suspect they were also listening to my stories. Wilma related that Betty Bell Feldman had been talking about starting a storytelling Toastmasters club and asked if I would be interested in being a club co-sponsor.
I had been a Toastmaster for ten years, and I knew that there was a storytelling Toastmasters club in Pasadena. But it was a long, hard drive for me to get there on a weekday evening, so I had not attended. However, it seemed likely to me that there were other Toastmasters around Orange who would be interested in a storytelling club. So, Betty and I started a new club–with a lot of help from Wilma and Fred Springer and Jack Nichols, as well as several other great Toastmasters who gave time and effort to get the club off the ground.
A Great Name Helped Get Us Off to the Right Start
Gerald Fleischmann, our Vice President of Education, got us off to a good start
by suggesting the great name “Orange Upon a Time.” For the last
six years, we have been helping our members to become better storytellers.
We follow all the rules and methods of regular Toastmasters clubs, but we
try to use stories as part of our speeches and Table Topics. We also evaluate
speakers on the stories they used in the speech or might have used to make
the speech more memorable.
Toastmasters are invited to join our club as either their second or primary
club; everyone is welcome from beginners to experts. Our first objective is
to have fun, and we always do, but we are careful to fulfill all Toastmasters
requirements and enable our members to follow the Toastmasters program to the
fullest extent.
Orange Upon a Time is an Area C-1 club, and we meet on the second, fourth,
and fifth Thursdays of the month. (We like to say, “If there is not a
fifth Thursday in a month, then we will not meet” to alleviate any doubt
in very careful persons.) We meet at 7 p.m. in the Borders Book and Music Store
in the Block of Orange at 20 The City Drive. Check our website at www.orgsites.com/ca/club192,
or contact our President, Roger Freely, at Rfreely1116@aol.com for more information.
Please visit us!