Bram Stoker Festival & Storytelling: El Día de los Muertos

So! Later on Sunday night, I returned to the Bram Stoker Festival, where I listened to the fourth podcast in Fangs. Coming with a warning that they would be discussing real-life vampires, it was really interesting. And I finished off with a short comedy film, The Early House, which I was keen on seeing. Still available on YouTube, it's a charming piece, set in Dublin, where a pub attracts a sinister clientele.. and I'm delighted to see that, while some attractions have expired, some are still available. Including both of the above. Recommended..

Well, I spent too much time trying to catch up with as much as possible (not knowing what was going to remain available), and got too tired to blog that night. Yesterday evening, wooo.. the Crick Crack Club celebrated the Day of the Dead with a livestreamed show featuring just about everybody! I booked my ticket weeks ago.. it was listed as Tuesday on the site, which was a misprint. I think it was broadcast from Bristol. They just sent me my Zoom link on Saturday.

My mother watched it with me - well, endured it from the side while doing puzzles. After all, it was that or spend the evening alone. To be fair, she kept the irritated sighing to a minimum. And gee, surprise, they were a little late starting.. in the end, there were (at the max) 170 of us on the call, which is a record for me. Ben Haggarty's wife, Kate Norgate, who was hosting the call, invited us to post where we were watching from, and wow, it was cool to see what an international audience we were! We'd also been asked to make shrines, and it was interesting to see what some had produced. The Haggartys had three accounts, so they could have three cameras - one on him, one for her, and one for their shrine!

Ben acted as MC, as usual (that's him, above) - he also opened the second half, with a story of Fionn Mac Cumhaill. And what a smorgasbord we had - spoiled for choice, with Jan Blake giving the first story, followed by Dan Morden, who told more stories than anyone else, the irrepressible Clare Murphy, TUUP (going under the name of Godfrey Duncan for the call, and he'd brought his drum), and Sarah-Liisa Wilkinson, all in the first half. The second half saw everyone except Jan offer something - towards the end, we also had Tim Ralphs, who played an hilarious song to the tune of his ukelele.

With more storytellers participating than I could think of that didn't, what a wealth of styles and content! All had a deathly theme - some were absolutely hilarious, although my mother didn't appreciate some of the more morbid references. :-) I had a ball - but it left me really nostalgic for seeing these story weavers in the flesh. Delighted that their event was so successful - and I do hope they run more. It mightn't be the same for them, to perform without an audience, but wow, I got so much from it.

Had to be up early for Tesco, so didn't get my blog done last night. Back to film for Saturday - the Raindance Festival ends that day, and I still have a ton of films to watch from it..