What is the Rogue?

(via The Fresno Bee)

Multimedia feature on Fresno's Rogue Festival, posted on YouTube, with footage from the first weekend, including a bit of my show (I saw the video camera outside the theatre... didn't know he came inside).

"...the kind of theatre that Mark Twain would have told stories in."

This two-story octagonal chapel was built in the of 1880s for the Lucy Cobb Institute to host not only religious services, but cultural events, lectures, drama productions, and graduations. It later was absorbed into the University of Georgia. Abandoned after WW2, it fill into disrepair until local donors and preservationists restored it in 1997.

The Seney-Stovall Chapel in Athens has a Victorian interior, with a raked stage and 240 seats.

Storyteller Bobby Norfolk, when he stood upon that stage at the Stitching Stars Storytelling Festival in Athens, marveled "This is the kind of theatre that Mark Twain would have told stories in."

Saturday, Donna Washington and Kevin Kling and I will get to see if we can feel the magic that Bobby felt.

I've got two sets, one at 2 pm, for 40 minutes, and one at 7 pm for 45 minutes. And I'll pretty much be fretting over my set list between now at 1:59 pm Saturday.

Lenny Bruce played here.

So did Mort Sahl. The Kingston Trio. Richard Pryor. The Smothers Brothers.

Guess who just got invited to tell stories for their Friday night Variety show?