Is there an echo in here?

You’ll let me know if I start repeating myself, won’t ya? Just noticed that twice in this blog I’ve told the story of the Town Meeting moderator who says “Can you hear me in the back?” My fear is that I’ll do something like that during a performance. Tell a story, then tell it again 10 minutes later. Probably did that already, but the audiences are too polite to let me know.

Come to think of it, my audiences aren’t that polite. They heckle. They interrupt. They add their two cents worth. Just the way I like it! I told a fellow storyteller (did I already tell you this?) that I encourage audience members to tell stories, too. If one of my stories reminds them of something, go ahead, tell it. He said he’d never do such a thing, too dangerous.  “What if the audience member tells a better story than you?” It happens. What the hey? A good story’s a good story no matter who tells it. Besides, I’ll remember that good story and tell it at the next event. So it’s all good.

In the vein of silly questions which we discussed a couple blogs back (as I recall), here’s one: “Where am I?”

A couple of stories come to mind, one the “Bert and I” classic about the fellas who through a series of mishaps end up drifting over Northern New England in a hot air balloon. At last the balloon lauwers (that’s Maine for “lowers”) close enough to the ground for the sad sacks to yell to a farmer in his field: “Where are we?”

The farmer replies: “You’re in a hot air balloon, you damn fools.”

Note that you can now buy “Bert and I” CDs from Islandport Press. Great stories, big laughs. My friend Leigh asked had I ever seen Marshall Dodge of “Bert and I” fame in person. Unfortunately, I had not. She said he was phenomenal. He’d tell these side-splitting stories and never crack a smile. Stone-faced he was. Except this one time. Leigh said a man in the audience got laughing so hard he fell off his chair. She thought she saw Marshall Dodge’s lips twitch, just a little, in what might have been the ghost of a grin.

This story was told to me true by the woman to whom it happened: She went walking in the big woods and got turned around.  Walked for hours. Found a stream bed, followed that to a dirt road, and finally came upon a house. She knocked on the door and asked the man who answered, “Where am I?”

He said: “Where do you want to be?”

You’ll let me know if I start repeating myself, won’t ya?

Comments

[Brendan Cahoon]

I've seen you mention Bert and I several times here, but I was wondering if you are also familiar with Robert Skoglund, aka the humble farmer? He's a Maine humorist very much along the lines of Bert and I. He used to have a radio show on MPBN until he was kicked off by short sighted management types. He still creates a show every week for an internet audience, and puts out a weekly "Whine and Snivel" newsletter. I figure you probably know him, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

[rebecca Rule]

Hi Brendan:
I heard him a couple of times on the radio traveling in Maine. He's some funny! I also heard about the brouhaha with the radio. Someone told me once how they sought him out in his home town and he spent the afternoon, very graciously, showing them around and telling them stories. Sounds like a great guy. I'd love to connect to his internet newsletter.
Thanks for the reminder.
Becky