Viewing the world as a storyteller is ten times better than viewing it as a tourist. In my last post I discussed and showed how living statues in Barcelona Spain are storyteller, but this post examines how they prepare and what happens when one crazy storyteller, namely me, enters the story
The man was setting up his post on the street. When I do this, I meet everyone and spend the first half hour knowing the potential audience. I remember when my friend and storyteller colleague True Thomas showed me how to hawk an audience for storytelling at busy places like fairs and renaissance fairs. I do this now and then, but this man had to hawk in silence. The story was about what is he doing? Will I like it? With silence he moved into his character, in this case John Lennon. As he was preparing my wife was answering my questions and offering her own insight. The future living statue was building his audience with movement and silence. This can teach other storytellers about the power of preparing and the importance of making your audience curious.
See here how this lone man becomes a form of metallic John Lennon. (I have shared the images as I watched.)
As I was snapping some photos of another living statue, a vivid cowboy in his stillness noticed my camera and slightly suggested with his eyes and a slight finger nod that a small coin was invited for the respect of the photo. I gladly attended to this and then was invited to be in the scene. As much as a storyteller works to enter the imagination of his or her listeners, this living storyteller used me to create the scene. (I do believe storytellers should play with breaking that 4th wall. I do and have found resounding results.)
As a result, I even more value the living sound that comes from stillness. Thanks Barcelona storytellers, your narrative resonance rings with me as I tell with sound and stillness.
Be sure to share your comments about living statues. Have you ever seen one? Tell us. We are listening.
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