2007 Grand Slam winner Juliet Wayne opened up the 2008 Grand Slam as a guest storyteller, ostensibly to break the ice for the storytellers who followed. But I think you’ll agree that she set the bar pretty high right out of the gate! And read below for the unbelievable coda:

As it turns out, by totally random coincidence, the family Juliet babysat for happened to be in the audience for the GrandSlam. They hadn’t seen each other since the moment that serves as the climax to Juliet’s story! They came up on stage looking for Juliet after the event, and not with retribution on their minds. Hugs all around, and an even better conclusion to an already excellent story. Thanks Juliet!

If you were at the Salon du Festival on November 13th, you might have seen our embarrassing technical snafu that led to Dave Kessler’s film being clipped at the edges.  As it happens, that’s the second year in a row we’ve managed to foul up something of Dave’s, so we’re especially sorry!  You can read Chris Paquette’s account here at Artblog and then check out the original in right-sized brilliance on your own computer screen at Dave’s site Studioscopic.

Take a gander at some of the other cool short pieces Dave’s producing about artists and the arts scene here in Philly.  Many of the faces will seem familiar.

Okay, we haven’t picked the 2009 themes yet, but we might as well announce that the 2009 StorySlam season will open just a hair early with a special slam on Saturday January 24th at the Kimmel Center for FREE.  The regularly scheduled slams resume on the following Tuesday the 27th back at L’Etage, and every 4th Tuesday of the month thereafter.  Here’s some more info on the event on the 24th:

Saturday, January 24
6:30pm | Commonwealth Plaza Stage | Free in the Plaza
First Person Arts Story Slam

First Person StorySlams are real-life-storytelling competitions. Each slam has a theme which elicits stories from the life experiences of Philly’s storytellers. Who are these local tale spinners? Everyone with a story and a little sense of competition is encouraged to participate. Join us for a free First Person Arts Story Slam in the Commonwealth Plaza prior to the ticketed evening with Ira Glass event in Verizon Hall.

Free in the Plaza events are part of the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Program made possible by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.

Ted Passon won Best Content at the 2008 Grand Slam.  Here’s his “Strange Coincidence” story from the final regular-season Slam at L’Etage:

The Story Slams resume in 2009 at L’Etage on January 27th at the Kimmel Center before Ira Glass on January 24th and THEN on January 27th at L’Etage.  The 2009 themes will be announced soon.

A special thanks to the thousands of you who flocked to the 2008 First Person Festival!  It’s a lot of work putting on a festival of this size, but you made it all worthwhile with your enthusiasm for memoir and documentary art in all the myriad ways it appeared at the Festival.  Stay tuned here and to our main website for video highlights from the festival and for new information as we get ready to launch our 2009 season of monthly activities!  If you haven’t already done so, please sign up for our mailing list here.

The 2008 First Person Festival is coming to a close tonight from 6-9pm.  Join us for a soul-food buffet, documentary about Solomon Burke called Everybody Needs Somebody and a live performance from The Barbara Walker Story!

Beautiful brunch this morning at Fork Restaurant with Kim Sunee!  Thanks to Ellen Yin for hosting…

We’re back at the Painted Bride this afternoon.  A Family Gathering–a film produced by Lise Yasui and Ann Tegnell–is showing on the main stage presently, and we’ll have Lise Funderburg and Daniel Mendelsohn for Relative History from 4-5:30pm.  And from 6-9pm you’ll want to be here for the Festival finale, Soul Supper!

What a stunning display of storytelling prowess last night at the Grand Slam.  We’ll have video up as soon as we can, but first, thanks to our host Madi Distefano and especially to the gracious Juliet Wayne, the 2007 reigning champing.  And of course our incredible crew of storytellers for 2008: 

Kendra Gaeta, Ingrid Wiese, Sandy Beaches, Kevin Lee, Katonya Mosley, George Dougherty, Angel Hogan, Ted Passon, Donald Carter, Ryan T. Barlow and Tre Rials

The judges had to make some tough calls, but when all was said and done, here were the results: 

Best Content: Ted Passon

Best Presentation: Katonya Mosley

Best Storyteller in Philadelphia: Ryan T. Barlow

You just missed a delightful mini-concert by Katie Davidson (check out the myspace page for her band Dear Nora) and now the documentary Girls Rock is underway.  If you get here in time, you might be able to catch the program-closing performance by Philly band Oak Oak Okay.

After Girls Rock, we’ll be screening Doubletime from 6:30-8:30 and maybe tapping this brand new keg of Philly Brewing Company’s Kenzinger.

4:53 pm

There are apparently well-founded reports of severe weather headed our way, but we don’t care, we’re hunkered down in the Painted Bride.  Come on out and snuggle with us for Doubletime at 6:30pm.

We’ve had some confusion about how the wait list works for tonight.   Here’s the deal if you don’t have a ticket already for the Grand Slam.  We’ve started a waiting list here at the Painted Bride.  When all advance ticket-holders have been seated around 8:45pm, we’ll begin selling tickets ($15) for seating on the floor of the stage–just like some of you are used to at L’Etage!  In order to get on the waiting list, you must come to the Painted Bride in person, but you can put your name (+1) on the list when  you get here.  You must come in person.  That makes it fair for everybody.  I will post an update to this post if it looks like we have too many names for the space allotted.  See you tonight!  Check out the Heroes of Grand Slam for a preview of tonight and to get you in the swing of things.