{"id":473,"date":"2024-03-21T01:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T01:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=473"},"modified":"2024-02-18T16:48:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T16:48:41","slug":"how-i-got-to-be-a-professional-story-teller-a-story-in-an-envelope-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=473","title":{"rendered":"How I Got to be a Professional Story Teller  (A Story in an Envelope)  [1976]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>That was me!<\/i><\/p>\n<p>In my 20s as a night law school student out East working days at a legal services office, my best friend was a guy named Bob.&nbsp; One night Bob invited Lisa Garlandson to come down from NYC and play guitar on open-mic night at the Sea Breeze Tavern.&nbsp; I went along and when the guy at the door asked me to pay the $5 cover charge, I said \u201cHey, I\u2019m performing too \u2013 I tell stories.\u201d&nbsp; Didn\u2019t work.&nbsp; Had to pay the $5.&nbsp; After a couple other musicians performed, it was Lisa\u2019s turn.&nbsp; As she was setting up, I jumped on stage, grabbed the mic, told the whorehouse story and brought the house down.&nbsp; The bouncer gave me my five bucks back and asked if I would come tell stories again next week.<\/p>\n<p>Along about the third week the word started getting around and one of the lawyers at the Courthouse came up to me and told me if I really wanted to be a lawyer in this town I\u2019d better quit telling \u201cthose kind of stories.\u201d&nbsp; Since \u201cthose kind of stories\u201d were the only ones I knew, I quit telling stories (for awhile).<\/p>\n<p>Ten years later, after being elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, one of my constituents heard&nbsp;the Florida Rescue Story as part of a campaign speech about domestic violence.&nbsp; (As you know I think all my stories have some moral value.)&nbsp; Turns out this constituent managed the Jungle Theatre and asked if I\u2019d tell stories there.&nbsp; I was so proud of being a professional story teller I never cashed my first check from the Jungle Theatre and instead framed it.&nbsp; Still have it on my wall.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_474\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/first-check-rt-side-up.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-474\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-474 \" alt=\"Click &quot;Like&quot; for more!\" src=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/first-check-rt-side-up-300x217.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/first-check-rt-side-up-300x217.jpg 300w, http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/first-check-rt-side-up-1024x741.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/first-check-rt-side-up-414x300.jpg 414w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-474\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click &#8220;Like&#8221; for more!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Part of my routine included a four foot long scroll of paper rolled up with a small weight at the bottom so it would unfurl when I held it out, revealing a long handwritten list of stories.&nbsp; I\u2019d say to the audience \u201cThese are the stories I can\u2019t tell.\u201d&nbsp; To this day I keep it a closely guarded secret&nbsp;(like a chef keeps secret recipes) as to which stories I tell, which stories I will take to my grave, and which stories are for select company because you had to be there.<\/p>\n<p>Well, one night I\u2019m telling the Florida Rescue Story \u2013 which includes making-out with some girl on the beach whose name I\u2019d long forgotten \u2013 and this lady\u2019s voice in the audience pipes up with \u201cThat was me!\u201d&nbsp; After the show she comes up and introduces herself saying she really was the girl at the bonfire outside Skip\u2019s Bar on Madeira Beach.&nbsp; But by this time I was a married man so I\u2019ll never know for sure whether it was her or not.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"1\" width=\"100%\">\n<\/div>\n<p>No virus found in this message.<br \/>\nChecked by AVG &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avg.com\/\">www.avg.com<\/a><br \/>\nVersion: 2013.0.3462 \/ Virus Database: 3658\/6910 &#8211; Release Date: 12\/11\/13<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; That was me! In my 20s as a night law school student out East working days at a legal services office, my best friend was a guy named Bob.&nbsp; One night Bob invited Lisa Garlandson to come down &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=473\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1741,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}