Remembering A Florida Storytelling Festival

By Walt Belcher

It was the spring of 2018 when I discovered this thing called “storytelling” and soon I joined the Florida Storytelling Association. While cleaning up my computer recently, I found this Facebook post that I made years ago:

Just got back from an amazing weekend in Mount Dora at the Florida Storytelling Festival. And I’m inspired to share a few thoughts about it, so this is a long post.

I heard stories that made me laugh harder and longer than any comedian ever did. And I have seen Dangerfield and Seinfeld in person.

I heard stories that inspired and touched me more than any sermon has ever done. And I shared a communal experience that demonstrated the art and power of the spoken word.

There were five nationally known professional tellers and dozens more regional tellers as well as tellers from throughout the state of Florida.

It was one of the best and most rewarding festivals I’ve ever attended. It was more personal and intimate than the National Storytelling Festival that I first attended last year in Jonesborough, Tenn.

Under a big tent set up outside the historic Lakeside Inn, teller Diane Macklin, from Maryland, dazzled us with her boundless energy, turning folk tales and personal experiences into entertaining and moving stories.

Jeff Doyle, from Michigan, gave laugh-filled performances of his original stories that ranged from his teenage quest to find some Playboy magazines to his Baby Boomer anxiety dealing with confounding technology to a wild vacation trip with his grandparents.

Pete Abdalla, now Florida based, delighted us with his deadpan delivery of humorous accounts of his time in the Navy and his love for a classic Chevy as well as some splendid folk tales.

British born Simon Brooks, who now lives in New Hampshire, used a lot of physical humor to show us how to turn myths, legends, folk and fairy tales into stories for all ages.

And Morgen “Mo” Reynolds, from Montana, gave us stories that made us laugh, shed an emotional tear, swell with national pride and even get involved in one totally ad-libbed story.

It’s hard to explain what this kind of storytelling is to people who have not experienced it.

This ancient form of sharing human experiences is so rewarding in a world where we are drowning in technology and losing face-to-face communication.

Two years ago, I didn’t know there was such a thing as professional storytelling even though I had heard stories all my life from entertainers like Garrison Keillor, Jerry Clower, Lewis Grizzard, Andy Griffith and others. I didn’t think of them as storytellers.

Two years ago, I didn’t know that Florida has an annual state festival or that there are more than a dozen storytelling guilds in the state and hundreds more in the nation. I was lucky enough to be in the Florida Showcase of tellers this year.

I didn’t know that I could tell a story even though I had written newspaper articles all my adult life.

Now that I have discovered it, I want to share.