I'm pleased to say it wasn't the idea that sent me off to the land of nod, just tiredness.
I woke the next morning with my idea still hovering around in my head. Which is unusual for me, as my family will testify, I'm always..erm...well anyway, "Why don't I start a business and become a storyteller and puppeteer?" Brilliant idea I thought,I love literature,children, acting, puppets and a lot more besides that would be useful, so what better combination than all that and storytelling?
Now, how do I tell my wife about another one of my hair-brained ideas?
Over the weeks I explored the idea further gleaning as much information from the internet, ( the wonders of technology. I'm from the era when people that thought that digital watches were a neat idea.) the more I read the stronger the storyteller idea grew. The weeks very quickly became months.
Not to get to morbid about it, time will always win and if we put things off until tomorrow it will be to late.
So at the beginning of 2010 I gathered up my courage and told her.
This all makes Lynn sound like an ogre, she's definitely not, but to tell her I want to work part time and eventually leave that job to do storytelling and have us ( and two children) live on her wages while I build up a business as a storyteller, is not an easy conversation to start over a cup of tea and a digestive, or any other biscuit come to that..
"You'd make a brilliant storyteller and puppeteer, you love children so much. I'll support you in that."
Well, that was easy.
To start with, the obvious plan of action I'd thought of was to get myself known in the schools, museums, libraries etc and slowly build up my business and then I could go from my current full time sales assistant job to part time and eventually leave.
My wife's a teacher and I was given the opportunity to practice in her school and also decide if this was going to be such a good career move. I spent a day Lynn's class and a day in Marion's class.This was a really, really useful exercise.( I shall write a separate post about those two days in more detail. The planning, CRB certificate, making puppets, rehearsing, the nerves!!) After those two days I decided that storytelling was what I wanted to do.
But then an illness had other ideas.
Jump back 18 months. I was having very bad allergic reactions to something or so I thought. After tests I was told that the skin problems were rare symptom of Hyperthyroidism, an over active thyroid.. It's like having your foot full on the accelerator while your cars parked. It certainly knocks you for six, or the way your body goes into overdrive I'll change that to 600!
Back to September 2010 and I'm off work for the next six months.
During this time I read and I read everything I can on being a storyteller. I wrote down every idea I had and ended up with bits of paper everywhere.
I keep a pen and notebook by the bed, because that brilliant idea that comes to me during the night has to be written down or it's gone by breakfast time.
Into March 2011 and I become unemployed, but not downhearted, I make enquiries at our local library to find out how shows like Punch and Judy, Magicians etc. get to perform there.
This enquiry gave me my first paid performance. Hurrah!
I found some stories I obviously liked and practised a couple of weeks in advance, told stories to the cats,the dog, the fish ,the trees along the railway walk, the sheep in the field, anything, so I would be ready on that imminent Monday.
I went into Lynn's class on the Friday afternoon before and had a practice. What a wonderful experience that was. There was a particular point in one of stories I was telling to the children, that if I never did storytelling again, was worth all the effort just for that brief moment. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Time seemed to pause for a moment, the children were all transfixed as we stood together in the dry, dusty mountains of Africa, watching a woman stand in front of a lion.It was like those moments in your life where every detail is remembered and that you'll never forget..
Monday arrived and the poster the library had put up said "Suitable for over fives." Out of the twenty or so children there, nearly all of them were under five; and in my confidence depleting state, the parents seem to cling to the outer edges of the room, watching and waiting for me to make that inevitably and final error, so like wolves they bide their time then pounce. "Pull yourself together!"
I thought the hour was going to be terrible disaster. Never mind waiting for a hole to open up and swallow me, I wasn't going to wait, I'll start digging it now!
How stupid could I be? I didn't think this would happen, I hadn't prepared for children that young!
"It'll be ok.." No it wouldn't.
Even though I use the library myself, I wasn't aware that members of the public used a toilet in the library, the door of which was next to where I was sitting.( I thought it just led into a short corridor and then a meeting room.)
Carry on as planned and adlib I thought. I'm the only one that knows there's something just a little bit wrong.
So I did. I told my stories, three quarters of which were not for this age group.
"What am I doing here?"
Half way through the hour and one of the stories a mother wolf opened a twenty packet bag of crisps and proceeded to feed her cubs.
Children started to wander off. Where was that big hole to swallow me up?
Surprisingly at the end, some of the children were still sitting in front of me. I'd survived.But I mustn't turn my back on them yet.
They put their coats on and everyone took a sheet of paper with a cut-out clown puppet I'd printed for them to colour in. "Yes, of course you can have one... you want one as well?..and your sister?.." "why should I give you my clowns, you lot didn't earn it..go away!.." the last part wouldn't go away and kept flashing through my mind.
I'm sure Einstein would have been impressed that I managed to squeeze what seemed like sixty hours into just one hour. Depressed, mentally and physically drained and muttering under my breath, "I'm not doing storytelling, ever again! Stupid bloody idea!" I retreated; quivering, into a corner looking for a padded cell where I'm sure I'd feel safe.
I kept smiling as I packed my stuff away but that's how I felt.
Then,while talking a few minutes later to the library staff, ( lovely ladies) I discover that the Magicians and the Punch and Judy men earlier in the year, had no children watching them or sitting in front of them after ten minutes. " We don't know what you were saying to those children but they were spellbound."
I started to think about what I had actually achieved. I had managed to organise over the weeks, an hour of storytelling by myself. I sat in front of at least twenty pic nicking children, all with their parents and told them wondrous tales while incontinent book borrowers passed to and fro. And at the end of that hour I still had half a dozen children sitting in front of me, totally entranced and hanging on every word I said.
From my personal experiences with children as a father, uncle etc over the many years ( I'm 53 and have two brothers and three sisters and numerous cousins.) I know how difficult it is to keep most young children's attention going for more than twenty minutes, but to realise that I kept a small group of children with me for an hour with storytelling was quite magical.
When I started my idea I didn't really want to work( or feel confident.)with children younger than 7 or 8 years, but now after that hour, I love the idea. I have so many things I want to try with them. That hour taught me a great deal, and I would certainly do it again. Obviously it would be a bit different now. But if I hadn't jumped in with both feet I would never have known my weaknesses and therefore, my strengths.
