We all have that one friend that’s a master story teller. They’re the kind of friend that you can rely on to end awkward silences with “So this one time…”and before you know it, twenty minutes have passed.

 

Here’s what you should do: Take that friend, throw them in your car, and drive them to Astoria Bookshop. But make sure it’s on a story telling night. It’ll be awesome.

 

Once a month, David Lawson puts together the Astoria Bookshop Storytelling Show – a place for story tellers to get on stage and perform for five minutes – and by stage, David says, he means between the history bookshelves. It began after David had been performing an excerpt from a 1 man show – VCR Love, around Valentine’s Day. He asked owners Lexie Beach  and Connie Rourke what they thought of a monthly performance – and they were all for it!

 

There’s no theme for the event, no specific style or structure – it’s just a space to share stories with an audience, in whatever way you feel best.

 

David tells us there’s performers from all over – some of whom have performed to huge crowds of more than 500 at places like The Pit, or Caroline’s. There’s comedians, there’s people with serious stories to tell.

 

If you’re interested in performing, the next event is November 11th! You can find all the details here. 

“Sometimes we’ll have someone talking about who they woke up to after a drunken night,” David tells us, “Or sometimes it will be an extremely vulnerable story, and the room will fall quiet. You never know what you’ll see or hear.”

 

The show is done open mic style, with sign ups around 6:45, and the show starting at 7:00 pm. You can check out David performing at the Storytelling kick-off event below: