Storytelling at CFTA (watch full show here)

Storytelling and standup comedy are related, but very different beasts. Every standup comic needs the roots of a story to get to the laughs, and that story’s structure can be fluid. Bobcat Goldthwait once said that “Jokes are just little lies,” and you instantly know what he means. A joke is funny when it’s entirely impossible but would be hilarious if true. And it’s also fair to say that all-out reality can be even funnier when you can look at a situation and think this couldn’t be real, especially when it is.

Confused yet? You’re not alone. To make things more interesting, storytelling works on the same principles of standup comedy, just without the jokes. That doesn’t mean that a story can’t be funny, it just means that the narrative structure – a solid beginning, middle and end – comes before the setups. And a story doesn’t have to be funny, it just has to have a structure that keeps your attention in the same way a good comedian paces his material.

I don’t do standup, mostly. That said, I’ve done standup a few times (and took part in CFTA's Comedy Workshop which I highly recommend) to see if I could get away with it, and I have. But ‘gotten away with it’ and ‘I killed it!’ are miles apart. I wasn’t booed off the stage, got most of the laughs I was hoping for, and nobody told me to perhaps keep my day job on the way out of the theatre. All that said, standup doesn’t feel natural to me; I’ve always felt like I’m an actor playing a standup on stage.

Storytelling does feel natural to me for a number of reasons – I used to be an actor, so I understand the importance of structure and presentation. I was also heavily influenced by performers who owned the stage entirely with their voice and manner, people like Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, the previously mentioned Bobcat Goldthwait, and even actors like Hal Holbrook who’d play Mark Twain onstage in a single costume and portray him from childhood to old age. Twain’s stories bored me, but Holbrook’s rendition is peerless.

When I first showed up at the CFTA for an open mic event, I explained that I performed monologues rather than standup routines, I’d understand if that wasn’t the space was looking for. Both Jake and Dex told me the open mic was just that – go onstage, stay within your time limit, and the rest was up to you. I’ve appreciated that level of trust and I’ve kept it in mind when setting up the roster for storytelling events. I want people who have a story to tell – dramatic, funny, surreal – because they’re convinced it’s worth telling.

I’ve found a great talent pool in Hamilton (Jason Thompson, Faye Pollett and Gabby Watts as prime examples) and a few visitors from Toronto who were on point (Kathryn Rose and Andy Blau in particular). The CFTA has also allowed me to tweak the video recordings into black and white, a practice I picked up as a film student decades ago. The deep shadows and crisp detail of the b&w allows the viewer to focus on the performer, rather than the surroundings.

I’ve been happy to host three storytelling events thus far, in addition to showing up for the occasional open mic to try out some of my own material. I always explain to people that my stories about things I can’t forget, good or bad. The other performers bring their own motivations and it all comes out from behind the microphone. Nothing is ever alike; every event carries its own weight and impact. That’s what makes it worth your time.

Michael John Derbecker is a writer and occasional performer. He has a background in film and theatre and has been active in the Toronto and Hamilton storytelling communities for over a decade.