Your 5 minutes of fame - My Secret NY

For a long time, the longest queue in NY was not in front of Dominique Ansel’s bakery for the cronuts in the morning, nor in front of Output on a Saturday night, but in front of the different places hosting The Moth show.

The Moth is a storytelling contest. A contest devoted to the art and craft of narration. The principle ? Each Moth is built around a word that will be the evening’s theme. When the doors open, storyteller hopefuls put their names in a hat. 10 names are pulled at random and one by one, storytellers take the stage for their 5-minutes of fame. Real people telling true stories. Live and without notes. 5 minutes and not one more to dazzle and touch your audience.
The pleasure (a tad perverse, let’s confess) would not be complete if the narrative was not sanctioned by the public’s vote. The ten featured stories are scored by three designated groups judging the performance. The best storyteller will take part in Moth GrandSlam where all the winners meet. This great event takes nearly two hours with a host warming the crowd in between each “raconteur”, serving as the glue, if you will, between each story.

The Moth is storytelling in its purest form, stripped down to its bones, and it is terribly addictive (you have been warned!). Whether hilarious or poignant, you will take infinite pleasure listening to these stories. There is a special kind of intimacy which can create a real emotional tsunami.

The concept’s popularity explains the hours of waiting in line before each performance. The Moth has indeed become an industry in the United States with over 500 performances a year in more than twenty cities and already 10,000 stories told since its inception in 1997. The show is broadcast on radio on NPR and one million podcasts are downloaded every month. But we have good news for you: no more (long) lines as the organizers just changed their ticket policy – they are now all available for sale online a week before the show. If you want to enlist and try to get your 5-minutes of fame or just enjoy the show, book now (upcoming program & themes below)!

The Moth Storytelling

August 27th: Hang-ups
Venue: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe (126 Crosby Street, Soho)
September 7th: Betrayal
Venue: The Bell House (149 7th St, Brooklyn)
September 15th: Firsts
Venue: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe (126 Crosby Street, Soho)
September 18th: Bizarre
Venue: The Morgan Museum, Gilbert Hall (225 Madison Avenue, Midtown East)
September 22nd: Nerds & Geeks
Venue: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe (126 Crosby Street, Soho)
September 28th: Rescue
Venue: The Bitter End (147 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village)