It may be a little known fact outside this most conservative corridor of Old Route 66 but there is a thriving community of aspiring story tellers, budding comedians and stand-up comic artists in my beloved home town. The Comedy Parlor in Tulsa’s Blue Dome district played host to OK, So Tulsa Storyslam Saturday evening for a three-time-a-year event of Adults reading their Awkward Teenage Diaries. Yours truly was actually a participant in this particular evolution. Myself and six other diary readers graced the stage at the aforementioned venue and read our awkward teenage diaries.
Saturday evening’s readers included some stage veterans, among them Shaun Perkins from Locust Grove, OK who has been involved with the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry.
Shaun PerkinsAnother seasoned reader was Thomas King who originally hails from rural Alabama. His reading of things he wrote as a 12 and 13-year-old rocked the house.
Thomas KingAnother veteran reader was Destiny Green from Henryetta, OK. The other readers were Laura Dossett, Kara Bellavia and Jana McElhattan. The two semi-pro story tellers hosting the event were Ryan Howell and Renee Fuhrman who managed the order of readers and exhibited their impromptu comic abilities with some written input from the audience via note cards.
Yours truly had a bit of a different take on the story focus. Reading from old journals and diaries is something that is right up my alley given that with rare exception I have kept a daily record of my life ever since the tenth grade when I was fifteen years old. The only time I did not keep a journal record of my life during that time was when I in Navy boot camp. Having enlisted in the Navy at age 18 and having spent my 19th birthday in recruit training, I made a point to recognize all present who enlisted in the armed forces when they were age seventeen, eighteen or nineteen. The regimentation of recruit training was just not conducive to keeping a daily personal record so I had written about only eight days in February and March of 1978. I had to edit that down to telling about only four of them to make it fit the time limit. I did have a wonderful friend record my reading. Be advised, this material is for adults only and it has not been edited for foul language.
My Reading of my Awkward Teenage Diary
I would like to thank all who made this evening of local talent on display a roaring success. It is indeed organizations like OK-So Tulsa Storyslam and establishments like the Comedy Parlor that lend to making this otherwise very conservative locale habitable.
Great Job!