Pittsburgh storyteller to perform April 27 at Mannington, Fairview public libraries

Apr. 22—FAIRMONT — While many teens have threatened to run away and join the circus, Mike Perry waited until after he finished high school.

"I started out right out of high school as a clown — I worked with Ringling Brothers for two years in the 70s," Perry said. "And, you know, there's kind of an adage that I never ran away to join the real world, I was always kind of attracted to and lured by entertainment and in the last 10 years, that's been storytelling."

Perry, who lives in Pittsburgh, will bring his storyteller expertise to the Mannington and Fairview Public libraries on National Tell A Story Day, which is April 27. A member of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild, Perry will perform in Mannington at 10 a.m. and in Fairview at noon that day.

Storytelling comes in many forms in a similar manner in which there are multiple styles of music. Perry said, like music, storytelling must have a rhythm and, most importantly, connect with the audience.

"Storytelling involves telling a story live without notes, not reading. So it has the real benefit of connecting with an audience on a personal level. I personally define it as a conversation with the audience," Perry said.

Perry said the storyteller must always be aware of how the audience is receiving the message. He said actively listening can tell him if he needs to make adjustments in real time.

"While I'm telling if they don't get it, they don't follow it and I have to, you know, on the fly, address that, correct that, steer that, obviously you steer it with the same story but it might take a different shape, or feel if you have a younger audience than if you have teenagers or adults," Perry said.

Perry was invited to speak in Marion County by Megan Lake, programming librarian at the Mannington Public Library after the two were introduced at a recent meeting of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild.

"He comes in and he tells circus-based stories and it also involves a lot of audience participation, so he's going to have kids kind of acting with him and things like that," Lake said. "So we're hoping to do it out in our outdoor classroom gazebo area, so we can have a lot of people there and the gazebo will be his stage."

Lake said that while storytellers are not always authors, storytelling and libraries are kindred in that the bottom line, "it's about stories, which make people have hope, transport them to unknown lands or dream of brighter futures."

"Storytelling is an art in and of itself because we can read someone else's work but sometimes the storytellers are making up their own stories and, just like a book is an author's product, to the storytellers, their stories are their product," Lake said.

Lake said that sometimes, storytellers find inspiration from the books written by renown storyteller Ruth Ann Musick, author of "The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales" and "Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales," especially in Appalachia.

"At one point, not everybody could read, so storytelling was a way for people to pass down their traditions and things like that. So, storytelling is huge in Appalachia, of course, because of our folklore that we have, such as Mothman and we have the Flatwoods Monster and things like that," Lake said. "So, these stories, this folklore, needs to be passed down to generations to come because Mothman is just cool."

While Perry did not want to give away any specifics about his upcoming local storytelling event, he pointed out the basics of storytelling itself.

Perry often leans on the teachings of revered storyteller Elizabeth Ellis, of Dallas, who likes to start off by getting her audience laughing with a joke. Then, she moves on to the 'aha' or 'oh moment' before moving on to the resolution, the part where the audience can leave feeling good.

"That's kind of a little theme that a lot of storytellers use when presenting to an audience," Perry said. "So you cover all the bases — start on laughing and leave them with amen. Close the door. They've been to church."

Meanwhile, Lake just wants the people of Marion County to have fun and interact with Perry during his presentation.

"We want everyone to enjoy the love of reading, of course, but at the same time, we want everybody to have an even richer experience here and the storytelling I think is just a very rich experience because it's interactive," Lake said.

"It's not always about just reading a book that you can get off the shelf because that oral story could live and die with that person. So we want everyone to be interested in books and the storytelling and we want people to be excited about stories."

Reach Eric Cravey at 304-367-2523.