 The spoken word as art is alive and well in the greater Portland area. The Telling Room sponsors their slant series of storytelling where people interpret their life stories in front of an audience. We caught the recent slant at space and talked with some of the audience. Storytelling is really powerful. Yeah I used to do some storytelling stuff at like a friend's house in San Francisco and then I came here and this reminds me of that and it's always just so funny. It's always just so great. People have really great stories. Some of what touches your life similarities in your upbringing or the humor is good too. Humor is always good in life. Can't live without that so. Well I listened to a lot of podcasts and so the Moth is one of my favorites and this is very much like the Moth. It's a good community event. There's lots of friends here and I guess it's extra special to hear stories that are main based. There's always a point in a good story where I feel something. Not every story succeeds in that but certainly one of the stories tonight has touched me and yeah I'll keep that for a while. Throughout the course of the night a nice little narrative structure like a narrative arc you know kind of comes together and so it's nice to see how everyone like plays off each other and then just to see how the whole night unfolds. It's really wonderful to hear people's perspective and more than anything I think I appreciate that folks are so willing to be vulnerable in front of an audience of strangers and it's really fantastic to hear their stories. These stories are especially good because they're people with histories that are a little bit more interesting than mine and they're they're just they they do a good job of laying it out and kind of keeping the suspense and just I don't know they're very very good and I think they get they get kind of vetted and coached by the telling room and they I think they these guys are really good and I and I think it's neat that they're not all professional writers and so I think that adds something to it too. I love storytelling and my brother told us the most recent stories so I came to support him and have those same memories that he had. I remember the story just the way he told it but of course I didn't experience it the way he did so that's growing up around the kitchen table with everybody telling stories.