Telling Stories

Story-telling usually involves a story-teller and his/her audience. The original intention is to entertain the audience, but most of the time I notice the story teller is more entertained than the audience. Go figure!

The same story when told by different people will have a different effect on the audience. Some people can turn a bunch of dull and boring facts into the most exciting adventure for their audience. There are also those who can make people fall asleep without even breaking a sweat. I’ve managed to identify a few different styles of story-telling.

Some story-tellers get through their stories calm and composed. They succeed in keeping their audience interested and excited. And with a decent punch line or two, it’s an entertaining experience for both parties.

Other story-tellers give a very dull and uninteresting recount of their own experiences. They do it with very little or even no enthusiasm whatsoever. They lose the attention of their audience after the first 2 lines. But of course in all politeness, their audience still smiles and nods in agreement at every pause.

Then there are those who use a whole lot of words to say nothing at all, constantly beating about the bush.

There’s also the type who get over-enthusiastic when they tell their stories. I’ve seen some barely being able to catch a breath. They tell it with so much excitement in their gut I wonder if they might suffer asphyxia in the middle of the story. They start giggling and laughing halfway through, sometimes they can’t even bring themselves to finish the story. Their audience isn’t able to catch everything that’s said and thus have to piece the puzzle together themselves. Even though the audience is left clueless, sometimes they can’t help but laugh in amusement at the story-tellers antics.

I’m not exactly sure how I am when I tell stories but I know I sometimes stretch the truth a bit (I never stray too far from facts, I’m sure you know), so don’t believe everything I tell you. I just hope people are genuinely entertained regardless of whether it’s what I say or how I say it. What I don’t like is charity laughs – the AP boys seem to do it with such sarcasm – BASTARDS!