The Moth StorySLAM

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It’s difficult to say exactly what makes a winning story, beyond some inscrutable combination of construction, the storyteller’s personality, and other circumstances, such as when during the evening a storyteller is picked to share her story. Of two recent StorySLAM winners, one humorously recounted a series of jobs she held that lacked integrity, including one under a “crazy drunk” boss who loudly accosted Michael Dell, of Dell Inc., at a formal gala. Another month’s winner told comically how he spectacularly botched a swimming race and nearly drowned. Not all the stories are funny, though, nor need be. Part of the evening’s fun and surprise arises from the variety of its offerings.

The theme of the May 15 StorySLAM is “decadence.”   

[Originally published in May, 2012.]