

Don’t Be Cruel to Your Puppy…Lemme Give YOU a Twisted Tale
Clayton Storyteller
September 22 at 5:30pm
Runtime TBA
Cost TBA
Philly Improv Theater – Second Stage, upstairsMap
Clayton Storyteller (Brunswick, GA) has 3 different programs (A, B & C) of verse tales–ghost stories, sci-fantasy, western, period pieces, urban horror, noir, relationship tales, light & dark nonsense pieces & more. All end though w/ his signature tale, A Safe Sex Story (PG), also avail as an illustrated chapbook w/PPD.
A — Westerns and ghost stories
B — Sci-fi, plus a theme to be revealed in the telling
C — Darker, grittier, and more violent – plus, strange romances
A — Sept 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23
B — Sept 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21
C — Sept 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22
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Clayton Williamson (Clayton Storyteller) is a bent fuzzy old guy–born Tampa 1956 and lived in nearby Bradenton , metro Atlanta and Brunswick, GA, with a summer backpacking in Europe, 2 six-mo. stints as a guinea pig at USDA Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, ND, and an abortive 15-mo. try to be a Vegas entertainer along the way. Studying English at GA State University, he switched majors in his senior year and got a BA in Anthropology in 1979–never worked in either field yet both disciplines inform his storytelling writing.
He took his anthropology degree and went to work for a bank, took his father’s advice and went to Toastmasters to improve his communication skills. There he leand not toward business manuals but more creative ones–including storytelling and interpretive reading–and was state finalist in the Humorous Speech Contest in ’87 and ’88. He eventually decided to stop trying to climb the corporate ladder–a decision with which the corporate ladder wholly concurred. He got his DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) certificate and continues to give encouragement to others in the organization. (“If HE can do it, I can too!”) He joined the Southern Order of Storytellers and was drawn not to Uncle Remus stories and Jack tales but writing and telling his own tales in verse–hopefully more sophisticated and better written than his dark high school poetry. He took Jeff Justice’s comedy workshops, basic and advanced (though he remains Clayton Storyteller, not Clayton Comedian).
Though not a traditional storyteller nor a stellar self-promoter, he got some, if not a lot of, gigs–Hapeville City Festival, Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, the Peach Cobblers teen parent group among them. During his 2nd stint as a nutrition study guinea pig in ND, he told a satirical Xmas mini-program for businesses and dark stories for a Halloween frat party thrown for their sweetheart sorority–the latter inspiring his signature tale, A Safe Sex Story (though he saw nothing like the events described). Only 22 years later, it’s now out as an illustrated chapbook (w/PPD inside)!
He worked temp during this time and moved to Brunswick. During one job he took a long unintentional step off a loading dock. Luckily the job was at a hospital–the break was fixed and mended but led to other med problems and a dozen years of mainly sitting about doing Important TV Watching. But he’s feeling much better now and getting active again. He recently found out about fringes, which seem a good fit for him–sort of an Island for Misfit Storytellers. He’s looking forward to meeting fringe audiences and other performers, and at Philly Improv 2nd Stage telling his dark, light and slight-risque tales–PG but not always PC–ghost stories, westerns and other period pieces, romances/relationship stories, sci-fi, dark and light nonsense pieces, and unclassifiables.
$10 / 40 minutes