By Melissa Traynor
The Moth podcast is truly a hidden gem. It reinvigorates the art of storytelling, complete with witty remark and captivating orators and successfully provides social commentary in some of the most amusing and hilarious tales.
What exists primarily as a live story-telling tour around New York, Chicago and LA has now expanded to include a larger tour with more stops, a Moth Radio Hour and a free weekly podcast to be found at iTunes. The speakers relate their tragedies and moments of uncanny, comedic revelations without notes to a live audience while the show is recording. Often the funny stories are uplifting, or so embarrassing that listeners would feel better about themselves for not having experienced the teller’s ordeal.
Each podcast or single story is taken from a particular show where storytellers, often writers or comedians, tell a tale that fits in with a specific theme of the event. For example, some of the recent Moth podcasts features “crack-ups” stories about comedy and catastrophe in real life situations. The podcast posted on Oct. 19 relives the story told by comedian Jessi Klein, who also works at Comedy Central. She began her 15-minute story about her experience attending her younger sister’s fanatical dream wedding at Disney World when Klein was turning 28.
“I decide that if I’m single and I’m going to spending my birthday weekend at Disney World, then I am definitely f***king one of the characters while I’m there,” she said, followed by an eruption of laughter. “And I kind of put my hopes on Tigger.”
Without giving away the ending, it is not Tigger she spends the night with, but rather another furry creature from the “C-list” Disney World characters.
The storytelling assembles an impressive range of human experiences, and despite how tragic or uncomfortable, they always manage to provide ingenious literary technique and allure. It also proves that every-day people can have extraordinary situations. No, there isn’t some way to check up and find out whether the storytellers are lying. But even if they are, it doesn’t matter.
Recommended Moth story podcasts: “Out of Print” by Kevin Wilson; “Rookie Reporter” by Lewis Lapham
