Tales taking flight

When researching scholastic options after graduation, most
students are unaware that pick-pocketing is a possible path of
academic study. In fact, it’s complete with a whole
underground school offering teachings in the trade.

Rather than conducting labs and penciling in scantrons behind a
desk, the tests take place in stores’ backrooms and are
centered around carefully robbing a mannequin of its jewelry,
handbag and wallet without setting off an assortment of bells
intricately positioned as an alarm.

Such was the life of Sherman “O.T.” Powell, an
ex-New York pickpocket who has provided one of many amazing stories
told through New York’s acclaimed The Moth storytelling
event. The national tour makes its premiere in Los Angeles on Oct.
12 at Royce Hall.

“I think the most extraordinary thing about The Moth is
the range,” said Lea Thau, the executive and creative
director of the project. “We’ll have a famous Pulitzer
Prize-winning author, and then we’ll have someone we met in a
homeless shelter or some astronaut who walked on the moon, or maybe
a hairdresser.”

This year’s series, “Out on a Limb: Stories from the
Edge,” is no exception, offering an endless variety of
personal stories and perspectives with a lineup that’s sure
to capture the audience’s interest.

Hosted by comic and political humorist Andy Borowitz (“The
Republican Playbook”), the series also features comedian
Margaret Cho (“I’m the One that I Want”), hip-hop
musician Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, author Jonathan Ames
(“Wake Up, Sir!”), “Sex and the City”
writer and executive producer Cindy Chupack, and retired NYPD
Lieutenant Steve Osborne.

The idea for the tour and its name can be traced back to 1997,
when writer and founder George Dawes Green began sharing stories
with his friends on a porch in Georgia.

“There was a hole in the screen on his friend’s
porch, and the moths would flutter in and get trapped all night, so
they called themselves “˜The Moth,'” Thau
said.

After being transplanted from Georgia to fast-paced New York,
Green missed the closeness that storytelling offered and resumed
the activity in the city, inviting more and more friends to his
home.

Soon, its success spread to such lengths that larger venues were
soon required to accommodate participants.

Despite its ever-growing popularity, The Moth remains faithful
to its roots as a more personal storytelling experience by
specifically tailoring the pieces and the venue’s setup to
ensure that the speakers can reach out to each audience member.

“We want to preserve the intimacy involved in
storytelling,” Thau said, “so it puts a lot of pressure
on the storytellers to really get over the edge of the stage and
tell powerful stories that are going to connect to the person all
the way in the back row.”

Each show revolves around selected themes such as deception or
American myths.

Though the stories are practiced, the telling is entirely
unscripted, which ensures a more personal and realistic approach to
the art. It also guarantees surprises for audience members and
storytellers alike.

For host Andy Borowitz, the surprises and excitement of each
performance come with the territory of improvisation.

“There’s a certain element of unpredictability about
it. And some of that means that you really don’t know what
you’re going to see,” Borowitz said.
“There’s a spontaneity that you don’t see in a
lot of other spoken-word events.”

With such varying personalities as storytellers, the stories run
the gamut as far as subject matter is concerned.

One of Jonathan Ames’ personal favorites involves a rare
and strange call invented with his friends during his youth.

“My friends and I would make this sound on the playground
when we were being attacked by more normal children, and I’ve
been doing it now for over 30 years,” Ames said. “The
whole language around it created this kind of “˜Three
Musketeers’ friendship with these two other boys.”

Similarly, Borowitz’s stories usually revolve around
lighter material, but the series rounds out with shows featuring
both the hilarious and the heart-wrenching.

“It’s an interesting kind of roller coaster ride to
go on in one of these evenings when you’re being set up with
some very funny things and then you hear a story that’s very
tragic,” Borowitz said. “There are very few evenings in
entertainment that have that element.”

At The Moth, however, audience members aren’t expected to
remain passive listeners. The series gives people a chance to
perfect and practice their own abilities in storytelling.

“Besides putting on these events, which do entertain
people and give them a lovely theatrical experience, The Moth does
charity work and takes storytelling classes out into the
community,” Ames said.

Furthermore, audience members can now directly participate and
assume the role of a storyteller themselves. The Moth’s newer
program, storySLAM, made its L.A. premiere on Oct. 10 at Tangier.
With this series, the audience takes center stage, as
attendees’ names are placed into a drawing and those selected
are offered the opportunity to share their own stories. A winner is
selected each evening to go on to The Moth’s GrandSLAM.

Thau especially encourages UCLA students to take part in this
developing series.

“There are so many NYU students and Columbia students who
come to the SLAMs, and they really are some of our greatest
storytellers, so we obviously would like to draw on the amazing
talent of UCLA to come tell their stories,” Thau said.

Most importantly, The Moth is one of the few places in Los
Angeles where entertainment can return to its most basic but
communal form.

“Los Angeles, much like New York, is a big city, and so we
all live busy city lives with our BlackBerrys and cell
phones,” Thau said. “We don’t always have the
time to spend with one another that we would like to have. Hearing
people from The Moth tell true stories from their lives is an
opportunity to feel a sense of connection with your fellow human
beings.”