Storytelling
The structure is simple: each storyteller speaks for five to ten minutes, give or take. Mostly give. Sometimes take.
Each event is themed. You’ll see when you come that the theme is something to orbit, not a prescription. We drag it along behind us or chase it on the horizon, but we’re really just looking at the scenery. Because we believe that there’s more than one way to tell stories, we welcome all kinds of creative contributions. We’ve had stories done with slides. We’ve had sung stories. And we’re open to animation, music, film, and anything other medium for conveying narrative. We’ll even help you workshop it (if you want).
What sort of stories are we talking about?
Personal ones, we mean. It’s not for your latest work of short fiction, it’s for first-person accounts of what happened in our little corners of history. Storytellers tell us a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, sometimes even in that order. While we want to stress the non-fiction element of the storytelling, we encourage embellishment, truth-stretching, and shoehorning of playful narrative forms onto our generally non-linear world.
This isn’t a stand-up comedy event. This isn’t a confessional. This isn’t AA. But most of the stories will have some humour, and a lot of them – we hope – will be a little bit moving and maybe a little upsetting because, hey, that’s how the world works. Tragedy is funny and humour is a little sad clown, trying to peel itself off the velvet painting that is your broken heart. Aw. Poor pet. Now get up there and use your pain to amuse us!
You can hear some of our past stories in the Media section of this site.
I’m a brilliant storyteller and I want to tell a story. What should I do?
Oh goody! Well, the first thing you should do is send us an email at chaosdublin@gmail.com. Or start by coming along to see what you think. Have a look around the site, read the blog, listen to some of the stories other people have told. Then email us or call us up and tell us you want in.
So am I going to be put on the spot?
Of course not. All of our storytellers are chosen in advance by our curator and/or by us. Stop freaking out.
The only time you might be compelled to perform in front of the Chaos Thaoghaire crowd is if you are caught cheating and your penance demands it, but it will rarely mean telling a story. Ok, now you can totally freak.
What if I mess up?
You’re bound to mess up. But remember, if you’re one of our storytellers, you’re speaking to an audience about to be humbled by bold-faced cheating, impossible questions, and probably being called every curse word from ‘doofus’ to ‘c*cks*cker’ by their own loved ones. You’re in a room full of people who are here who are about to be so messed up it’s not even (not) funny. 
The key is to tell the stories live, and not using an autocue or a pile of notes or someone doing a kind of mnemonic semaphore across the room. You don’t need to memorise verbatim, just plan them.
