About
Each event has a theme, and we invite a lineup of storytellers to share personal tales with an interactive audience who, between stories, play games that fit the theme. The point of Chaos Thaoghaire is to tell stories about stuff that already happened, and to be a happening where new stories are made.
A lot of people want to know if it’s an open mic, which it’s not. Some people are worried they’ll be expected to tell a story on the spot, which you won’t. We arrange our storyteller lineup in advance, but we’re always eager to have new and talkier talent join us.
We think it’s great that there are events around the city that act as living, breathing archives for old stories, for folktales and traditional yarns, but that’s not what we are. We want you. We want your stories. We want to you to share your funny, moving, personal, tragicomic life with us and with each other. We’re chronic oversharers: we spend half our time saying too much about ourselves, and the other half trying to dig our way out of whatever mess we just made by saying too much. Have we already said too much?
The only rules we have given our storytellers are what you’re about to read in this list:
* The stories must be yours.
* They must be rooted in reality, even if you’ve changed the details to protect people who may no longer want to be associated with you.
* You gotta tell them without notes. You don’t need a crib sheet for your own life. Tell it from your gut and it will be better than anything you could ever write.
* We record this stuff. Sometimes we make exceptions, but we want you in our archive, so we ask that you tell a story you don’t mind being recorded and posted on our site.
* Keep it short. People need to get to the bar. The bathroom. The smoking area. Use Kurt Vonnegut’s advice and start as close to the end as possible. We try and often fail to do this. But we are trying. Trust us. Or don’t trust us.
Between rounds of storytelling, we’ll have increasingly competitive games, played in teams of three to six. We like being both repository and factory for old and new stories, wounds, scars and grudges. There is rarely blistering, although tears of both victory and of defeat can irritate sensitive skin, so you might want to bring some salve or that cream that the doctor told you to keep in the fridge.
If this still doesn’t make sense, click on the man below. If you have pressing queries, you can contact us here. Failing that, you’ll just have to turn up and see for yourself.
What we really need to stress is that there’s glory goin’. Do you want it?
If you are still confused, poke this man where his eyes should be.
