This YouTube video is one of my favorite artifacts. It's a video of the first time I ever told a story on stage at a storytelling slam. Are you a fan of podcasts like The Moth or Risk? This is from a show in Philadelphia run by an organization called First Person Arts. They've been doing the same kinds of slams that The Moth does all over the country for basically as long.
Not only was this my first time at one of these slams, but my name got drawn from the hat on the very first round.
When I did this show, public speaking was nothing new. I had always been comfortable speaking front of people, but this was my induction to a new experience. I wasn't scared, but I was wired up. It was intense. I showed up completely alone. I had no idea what to expect, but as soon as I got in front of the room I could feel the audience lock into me. If you watch the video, you'll see I kind of crushed it. Nothing feels as good as this. Nothing.
Someday, maybe I'll write about doing standup comedy. That really did scare me.
I have watched this video a hundred times. I have done a lot more shows since this one. I make a lot of mistakes in this performance that I would never make today, and yet this one remains one of my all time favorite performances. Honestly, it's still one of my very best, not just because it was my first, but because the very rawness gave me an authenticity with the audience I can't recapture.
If that's not enough to entice you to hit play, then how about this: the whole story is entirely about my relationship to the word "clitoris."