Golden Apples with Silver Leaves

The storyteller’s worst nightmare: What do you do when you forget something?
(And of course, it happens occasionally to us all.)

This was the first time I’d told the tale and at 5.05 minutes I forgot an essential part of the plot.
At 5.46 I realised and spent the next two and a half minutes repairing the omission.
Now that you know, look at those times and you will probably notice something. But the listeners in the audience didn’t know and so – I suspect – didn’t notice a thing.
As tellers, we try not to forget. But when we do, it is not the end of the telling!

I read this tale while at the wonderful Ljungby storytelling festival in Sweden in the German translation of a book by local storyteller and author Per Gustavsson’s, Der verzauberte Pisspott. Since then I have had the privilege of translating the book into English: The Magic Pisspot: Swedish Folk Tales. More recordings are The Magic Pisspot and The Mill that ground out Silver Coins.

This recording was made two weeks later at the Brüder Grimm Märchenfestspiele in Hanau – one of my favourite gigs of the year.

Disclaimer

The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres.

Their intention is just to show the range of my storytelling and give a flavour of a live performance.

Permission is granted for use in non-commercial educational contexts.

The videos are © Richard Martin.

Professionally recorded CDs and DVDs are available here.