Ex Fabula ALL STARS

Join Ex Fabula on Thursday, May 16th for the ALL STARS Season 4 finale. Your crowd favorites from this year’s story slams will take to the historic stage at Turner Hall to share extended stories on the theme “Lost in Translation.” Our raconteurs for the evening include Carl Fuerst, Becca Segal, Jennifer Evenson, Rich Christensen, Molly Snyder, Linda Cieslik, Dave Hendrickson.

Remember to check out our facebook page for a chance to win tickets to the show! Post your UltraShort story (a couple of sentences) on the theme Lost in Translation. Winners will be announced before the show! Or, you can RSVP to our event page to enter a random drawing for another pair. The promotions will end at midnight on May 15^th.

The show begins at 7:30, but come early for the best seats in the house. The Turner Hall Ballroom is located at 1034 N. 4th Street in downtown Milwaukee. Tickets are $12 and available through the Pabst Box Office. All proceeds from the show go right back into funding our 5^th season in the fall of 2013!

For the latest Ex Fabula happenings, follow us on twitter @ExFabula 

Ex Fabula: Story. Stage. You.

“Forbidden Fruit” Recap

By Ex Fabula Blogger: Nathan Royster

 

Ex Fabula returned to the beautiful Times Cinema in Washington Heights West to bite into a night of Forbidden Fruit stories. Our fearless MC for the night, Megan McGee (aka MC McMegan, aka MC Gee), kicked off the night with an announcement about someone’s missing wallet and welcomed some fresh faces and voices to the Ex Fabula stage.

Our first storyteller of the night was Erica Davis. One Sunday morning, instead of going to church like the rest of us, Erica went to Alterra at the Lake to read a book with hope her baby would fall asleep. Two ladies came up and asked her a question: “Do you speak English?” When she answered, the pair persistently sought naming advice for their “crusty one-eyed poodle.” Erica offered up “One-Eyed Willy” to which the dog retorted by defecating inches from her quiche. One-Eyed Willy’s owners then have an intelligent conversation about the virtues of his business as an indication of his strong constitution. Erica wishes she would have just answered their initial inquiry of ability to speak English with, “No, I don’t.”

Andrew Steeves and Mark were BFFs since birth. They played video games together, went to the pool together, hung out with Helen together. And Mark was crazy for Helen. “It was like Mark was Harry,” Andrew explained, “and Helen was Hermione—if Hermione slept with a bunch of dudes.” When Andrew’s father hosted a little soirée, Andrew performed his filial obligations by serving drinks. Helen helped too, and at the end of the night they found themselves drunk-faced and kissing on the couch. He told Mark, and though Mark seemed cool with it at the time, things were never the same between them.

Dave Hendrickson’s story began when his grade-school teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said newspaper reporter. He meant Superman. Smart as he was, he knew to come out and say, “duh, I want to be Superman” would get him stuffed in a trashcan during recess. He knew he wasn’t as fast as a speeding bullet, or as strong as a locomotive, but there remained the small chance he could fly. He started jumping into his couch at home, taking bigger leaps, until he decided he was ready to fly over everyone during recess. He came to his senses and knew he could only be himself.

Mark Wein made it clear that when he grew up in Wisconsin Rapids during the 80s: parachute pants, Duran Duran, and Esprit shirts were the sheeeeet. Not only that, but Sunkist had just come to the market and he wanted a taste of that sodium bi-carbonated, high fructose, nectar of the Orange-Flavored Gods. His mom simply said “No.” Still, the next time at they were at the store he weighed his options of stealing a Sunkist. The most he had going on was playing outfield in baseball. But seeing how he hated the outfielder position, he jacked the soda. But when he cracked it open in the car in the store parking lot, his mom caught him. He didn’t play in the game that week.

Jeff Kannel lived in a two-street wide town called Elmo, Wisconsin. He and his friends went up into the hills to build a fort and eat apples from the trees that grew there. When they came down the hill the only cop in town was parked on the street waiting to get on their case for eating Mrs. Scon’s apples. Jeff ends his story with some sage wisdom: “Don’t talk to cops if you don’t have to.”

Redheaded Stuart Rudolph, convinced his brother he could grow his allowance risk free if he’d hand it over and let Stuart plant it in the yard. His dad found out and the money tree didn’t pan out. A while later, he got a new bike and discovered the freedom to go anywhere in the neighborhood. He stopped at the gas station for provisions on his long journey around the block. When caught shoplifting some gum, the gas station attendant threatened to call the cops unless he gives over his address and phone number. Later that night, Stuart’s mom got a phone call. “That’s weird,” she said after hanging up, “your friend’s mom just called me and told me her son got caught stealing gum, but the clerk who called her said he was a redhead”. Stuart lost interest in chewing gum for years.

Ever roleplayed? Jennifer Evenson and her boyfriend wanted to so they, after sweeping catholic guilt away for a short sabbatical, they set up roles. And they set up rules. Most importantly, they set up a safeword: rutabaga. After some “I don’t want to hurt you” indecisive gentleness from her boyfriend, he got into it and flipped her over on the bed. She bounced and hit him in the process. Somewhere, she heard a crack. When the attack didn’t continue, Jennifer looked behind her to see her boyfriend holding his bleeding nose. “Are you okay, honey?” she asked. And he responded, “I don’t want to play this anymore. Rutabaga, rutabaga.”

Mark Steidl’s friend has a bachelor party in Mammoth Cave to go on a spelunking tour for three hours. When Mark checks out the site it says that the “Wild Cave tour” they’re going on says all people on the tour have to be smaller than 42”–Mark’s chest is 49”. Scott tells him that they have to say that for liability reasons. They get to the cave and after a long time of squeezing under, and over, and through rocks, the bachelor party is guided to an area called the “fallopian tubes.” Of course, this is where Mark gets stuck. He pushes and pulls and exhales, but all 49” of chest (all muscle) won’t fit. The guide backs him out and they walk around the rock and join back with the group.

Martini expert, Linda Cieslik, tells how she can’t deal with sharp dressed women showing up at patio bistros and ordering beer. One night she spies a fancy hatted girl with a vibrant colored “girly drink” and tells her and her friends, “Real women drink gin. You must think of your reputation.” Her finer points of martini drinking are as follows:

• 1st Martini is for taste
• 2nd Martini is a window dressing
• 3rd Martinis should never happen unless there is a competent wait staff around to supply the drinker with plenty of bread.

Congratulations to Dave Hendrickson and Jennifer Evenson for their crown-winning stories. If you missed this show, fear not as there is one more show left in the season. It’s our All Star season finale, where the winners from all our Story Slams share new stories. Ex Fabula All Stars takes place Thursday May 16th at beautiful, sunny Turner Hall.  The theme is Lost in Translation and you won’t want to miss it because Bill Murray* will be there! Thanks again to all our sponsors who make it possible for us to not only eat ramen, but to eat the expensive ramen with the two freeze-dried kernels of corn in it. Ex Fabula could not be what it is without the support of WMSE 91.7, WUWM 89.7, and YELP.com.

 

*Bill Murray will not be there

Ex Fabula Story Slam: “Forbidden Fruit”

Join Ex Fabula on Wednesday, April 17^th for another round of true and personal stories at one of Milwaukee’s treasured landmarks. We’re heading back to the Times Cinema in Washington Heights for 9 stories on the theme “Forbidden Fruit.” Sinners and apple thieves are particularly encouraged to attend. But everyone should bring their best game, because the top two audience favorites will secure a spot on the Turner Hall Stage for Ex Fabula’s All Stars show this May.

Remember to check out our facebook page for a chance to win tickets to the show! Post your UltraShort story (a couple of sentences) on the theme Forbidden Fruit. The best story wins two free tickets! Or, you can RSVP to our event page to enter a random drawing for another pair. The promotions will end at midnight on April 15^th.

The show begins at 7:30, with doors opening an hour before. Come early for the best seats in the house and the best parking. The Times has a full bar and concessions, so take the bus if you plan on drinking much! The Times Cinema is conveniently located off the 31 and 33 bus routes from downtown. Admission is $5 (cash only please). All proceeds from go right back to funding more programs that connect you with live storytelling here in Milwaukee.

Stay in touch on twitter @ ExFabula

 

The MKE Auer and Brandon Kelly’s Story of Rhymesayers.

By Ex Fabula Guest Blogger: Joey Grihalva 

I first fell in love with hip hop culture back in high school. At the time my primary source of new and classic music came to me on Tuesday nights over the 91.7 WMSE radio waves. Booming out of my bedroom speakers one night in the early 2000s was a bittersweet episode of the “Late Night Hype Show,” the legendary and now defunct program. A member of the crew was moving to Minneapolis. And you couldn’t blame him, considering their hip-hop scene is bigger and some might say, “more established.” But they’ve definitely benefited from Milwaukee-bred talent.

Rhymesayers Entertainment is the most respected and recognizable Minneapolis outfit, complete with their own record store (Fifth Element) and impressive lineup of internationally touring artists. I was introduced to Rhymesayers in 2002 at the Turner Hall Ballroom in downtown Milwaukee. It was the first coast-to-coast tour for their flagship artist, Atmosphere, but it was one of the opening acts, Brother Ali, who stole the show.

For over a decade the rapper Brother Ali was backed by a DJ named Brendan Kelly, also known as BK-One. Kelly is a Milwaukee High School of the Arts graduate, a Rhymesayers affiliate and an original member of “The Beat Box Show,” a long-running hip-hop program on the University of Minnesota’s Radio K. I sat down with Kelly for the second episode of The Milwaukee Auer podcast and he shared the following story about the 2002 Rhymesayers Tour.

“Everybody on Rhymesayers, for the first ten years, took every penny they made from shows, from merchandise, from everything, and invested it back into Rhymesayers. And I’ll never forget that tour in 2002 because it was the first complete national tour that Atmosphere had ever done, or that anyone on Rhymesayers had ever done. It was a big deal to us. Everything’s relative you know, but at that time it was huge. It was sixty-two shows and almost all of them were sold out. People were just losing their minds for Atmosphere. And then Blueprint, Mr. Dibbs, Murs, as well as Ali and me were on that tour. So it was a really good lineup and just a huge experience for everyone involved.

On top of being the DJ, I was also the merch guy on that tour. And I made a ton of money; I made five percent on all sales. It was the first time that any of these cities had access to a lot of the music, the t-shirts, the sweatshirts, because the Internet wasn’t in place the way that it is now. So I made a lot of money off the strength of that, plus I was selling my own mix CD for four or five bucks. People were just showing up like, ‘Here’s fifty bucks, what do you recommend?’

I came off that tour with crates of new records and a big wad of money and was like, ‘This is the life!’ A week later I went to Fifth Element. It was before the offices were built upstairs, so people would congregate downstairs in the basement. And Ali and I went down there and saw Slug [of Atmosphere] looking super dejected. I was like, ‘What’s up?’ And he says, ‘Man, I just had to sell half of my record collection to pay rent.’

I had never even thought about it. I was just like, ‘We’re rich!’ But he had gotten off the tour and just dumped everything back into Rhymesayers because that was the commitment to this vision they had. And that’s what see when you look at Rhymesayers today.”

To hear the rest of Brandon’s story, visit www.mkepod.com and scroll down to his episode or subscribe to the show in the iTunes Store.

New episodes of The Milwaukee Auer podcast drop every second and fourth Sunday of the month. Contact the show at mkepod@gmail.com

“Green” Recap

By Ex Fabula Blogger: Nathan Royster

Photos by Artemio Photography

In a show that could only be dubbed “standing room only”, Club Garibaldi hosted a packed house of cozied in Ex Fabula fans and raconteurs spilling their “Green” tales. Interpretations abound, we had stories of envy, nature, marijuana, and greenhorn-ism. And for the first time ever, we crowned two winners in one event. Congratulations to our benevolent storytelling overlords, Kate Tellers and Becca Segal!

As always, thanks to WUWM 89.7, YELP, and WMSE 91.7 for supporting us with their hugs and kisses and all the nice things they say about us when they’re talking to strangers at the bus stop and the Greenline still hasn’t shown up even though it’s been like half an hour. But seriously, big thanks, we couldn’t have done it without them.

With a Crown winning story, Kate Tellers told of moving to—of all places—Brookline, Massachusetts, to become an actress. Instead, she works as a temp at a tax agency with a superhero-esque name, Taxman. Taxman is across the street from a park where the mentally unwell urinate, a sign her new job will not be the best place during tax season. She works herself to exhaustion for almost no money, dealing with threats of litigation from angry customers, not eating for whole days, and having a co-worker throw a brick through the office window.

Joey Grihalva (gree-holl-vuh) has always been a Brett Favre fan. So much so, that he stood on stage wearing the famed QB’s jersey. At the height of Favre’s success and popularity, 11-year-old Joey goes to a Milwaukee Wave game for chance to catch a pass from the legend himself. At halftime, he’s usurped by his cute younger brother, fresh out of appendix surgery. His brother catches the pass in front of 19,000 people and is then featured on the front page of the Journal sentinel. Meanwhile, Joey is left in his little brother’s big shadow.

Mark Steidl was a six grader clad in a green and white jersey playing basketball. He hadn’t made a shot the whole season on court, but every night he practiced on the basket in the driveway. There was a black stallion painted on the backboard of his home hoop where he shot hundreds of free throws a night. So it came down to him shooting the last free throw in the championship game, and he finished his story with pantomiming a ball flushing into the net.

Grant and Conn Hagen told a duo story of how they went on a Fear and Loathing adventure across the Southwest United States, fueled by acid and pot incense and traveling in a 64’ VW Bug. Grant was being leaving to Nam’ soon so he funded the farewell trip. They saw UFOs in Illinois, picked up a cat burglar hitchhiker in Texas, and halfway through the trip they realized they needed to get back to Wisconsin for Grant’s birthday party before he was shipped out. After a car break-down, a cold ride in the back of a pickup, and a last minute plane, Grant arrives home late on his to find his party canceled.

Jim Winship, born and raised in the South, said he knew he didn’t belong in the state because his family’s house had too many bookshelves for a Tennessee resident. A Tennessee March and Wisconsin March offer drastically different activities. Picnics without parkas in Milwaukee are unlikely this time of year. But while it’s not the same, he’s been here 31 Marches and knows home is where you’re comfortable.

Tim Bultman’s nickname was “Boom” because the right hand he was born with only has a thumb and pinky resembling a boomerang. He told stories of how he used to think he could grow the rest of it with water like a plant, the art of high-fiving a two-fingered hand, and how he’d make money letting people push him around in a wheelchair.

For Mathew Konkel, Camp Anokijig in Plymouth, Wisconsin was his first time for many of life’s most important experiences: his first jumbled kiss, first time drunk, and first time chewing snuff. He was so excited to graduate to manhood that he shows his archery instructor he’s chewing. His instructor is humored by him then giving Mathew enough tobacco to get him so buzzed he sweats. He later sums his story up with “Trials and tribulations of tobacco chewing at Camp Anokijig”

Anna Russo had that teacher. You know, the one that wants to be your friend. The one who probably believes in healing crystals, and doesn’t let her child eat french fries (oh, the horror!). Her class treated their Bio teacher like a Mystery Science Theater movie, and all around detested her. The crowning moment was dissecting formaldehyde frogs with the teacher spraying cinnamon and pine air freshener to cover the scent, something Anna will always call “Dead Frog Christmas.”

The second Crown of the night went to Becca Segal. While abroad teaching English, a lie about her skiing skills gets her pushed down a real French mountain. She says the lift up was amazing in its beauty and almost enough to make her forget she was going down the Alps. She sticks to the blue trail (novice) but then she switches onto the intersecting red trail (not so novice) because, “like in a Bugs Bunny Cartoon, the sign was covered with snow.”

Now it’s your turn. What was your favorite part of the show?

Ex Fabula Appoints New Executive Director

Ex Fabula announced the appointment of Megan McGee as the organization’s first executive director last week. Megan, a co-founder of Ex Fabula has taken the reins of the organization at a time of meaningful expansion.

“We have accomplished a lot in our four short years,” says Megan, “but as Executive Director, I hope to work closely with the Board and with all our wonderful volunteers to further our mission while creating a path to hiring a staff that will help ensure our long term success.”

Ex Fabula—whose unique name comes from the Latin phrase from stories—was founded in 2009 by a group of Milwaukeeans committed to strengthening community bonds by connecting individuals through universal experiences. Since its incorporation the following year, Ex Fabula has been maintained completely by volunteer support.

Last year’s Terminal Milwaukee project shared Milwaukee’s neighborhood history with over one thousand attendees. In Sheboygan, the group developed a series of storytelling workshops to teach the art of storytelling as part their residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

The position of Executive Director, which remains unpaid at this time, will allow McGee to oversee the expansion of programming here in Milwaukee. “We’ve had to make difficult decisions about where to direct our limited resources,” says Megan, “and I am very excited to leverage what we’ve learned in order to connect more Milwaukeeans through the power of sharing true, personal stories.”

Our fourth season of Story Slams will culminate with the yearly showcase at Turner Hall Ballroom Thursday, May 15.

Ex Fabula’s March Madness

Update: Club Garibaldi is a 21+ venue, and so will be the show! Also, due to the high capacity of Ex Fabula events, Club Garibaldi will not be serving dinner. If you were planning on grubbin’ before the show, head over to YELP! to find the best in Bay View.

 

Have you ever been green with envy? Did growing a green thumb change your world? Were you once green with inexperience and made a valuable mistake? Have you ever made a difficult sacrifice for those greenbacks? Or do you just have strong feelings on spinach?

Join Ex Fabula on Tuesday, March 12th for another round of true and personal stories at Club Garibaldi in beautiful Bay View. If it wasn’t already painfully obvious, the theme for the evening is “Green.”

The show starts at 7:30 and tickets are $5 (cash only). Come early and drop your name in the hat for your chance to share your own story on stage.

Ex Fabula is no stranger to Bay View and we’re excited about our first collaboration with Club Garibaldi. Located at 2501 S. Superior Street, Club Garibaldi is one of the city’s prime spots to catch new and unique music from the local scene and around the world. Past performers include Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Mark Olson (of the Jayhawks), The Meat Puppets and Megafaun. And on March 12, you!

For details and a full story slam schedule, visit our blog @ exfabula.com.

Ex Fabula: Story. Stage. You.