Story Shuffle 3.0: Terror

The third Story Shuffle was held on Saturday, Oct. 2 in the quiet, leafy Cedar Park neighborhood of West Philadelphia.

Alex Irwin played host, sharing his secret family super-recipe for turkey sausage squash chili and hot apple cider. Champagne was popped and Yards beer was poured. Ample hummus was devoured.

For the October month, the theme was TERROR.

Listen to pieces here, or choose them from the list below:

1. Eric Smith scares his campers
2. Shawn Annable gets expelled from high school
3. Chris Wink on being bullied by an elementary school legend
4. Alex Irwin talks about the terrors of Irish horseback riding
5. Rachel Playe on jailtime, its joys and terrors
6. Shannon McDonald on fearing bathrooms and closets
7. Steve gets flash-mobbed, sucker-punched and lives to tell about it
8. Sasha terrorizes her little sister and gets terrorized in return
9. Sean Blanda’s first walk south from Temple University
10. Dan Papa is politely robbed while wearing nothing but a towel

You can see all the participant photos here. Listen to the pieces from the second Story Shuffle here and the first here.

In addition to the RSS feed, you can follow Story Shuffle on Twitter and Facebook.

Story Shuffle Version 2.0: Authority

The second Story Shuffle was held on Friday, July 30 in Fishtown.

The theme was AUTHORITY.

Listen to pieces here, or choose them from the list below:

1. Dana Vachon on art school professors and 16 hours of driving (no audio)
2. Andrew Thompson on when not to confront authority
3. Jess Victor talks about teaching and being top dog at Hot Topic
4. Brian James Kirk recalls a brush in with a teenager and a Tennessee ranger
5. Christopher Wink remembers fighting for 4th grade recess justice
6. Sean Blanda tells how his luck with police changed
7. Shannon McDonald on Catholic school authority

You can see all the participant photos here. Listen to the pieces from the first Story Shuffle here.

In addition to our RSS feed, you can follow Story Shuffle on Twitter and Facebook.

Lessons learned:

• Story Shuffle is different than other storytelling events because there’s no judging or competition. We’re just telling stories, people.
• We’re still feeling out the idea of a time limit, minimum or maximum.
• The audio was stronger this time, with the recorder nearer and being more cognizant of that need.
• No need to push yet on everyone inviting someone new each event.
• We’ll try to move locations to spread the event that way.

Inaugural Story Shuffle: Beginnings

At the end of last month, on Saturday, May 29, we held the first Story Shuffle.

The theme was beginnings.

Listen to pieces here.

Lessons learned:

• Have everyone pick a card. Its numerical value will dictate order — nothing funkier — and track order that way.
• Give an earlier arrival time and push the shuffle back later
• Get that audio recorder nearer, with less unrelated feedback — cell phones distant, fans pointed elsewhere — but encourage the laughs, audience response and natural noise.