“I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.”—Lena Waithe
YOU SHOULD BE A GRIOT
When comedian Dave Chappelle received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in late 2019, he joined a select group of African-American comedians to win comedy’s highest honor. In a touching moment during his acceptance speech, he reminisced about his mother encouraging him to be a storyteller during his childhood:
“We had a real oral tradition in our house. I knew the word ‘griot’ when I was a little boy. A griot was a person in Africa who was charged with keeping the stories of the village. Everyone would tell the griot their stories and they would remember them all so they could tell future generations. When they got old, they’d tell them to someone else. And they say in Africa, when a griot dies it’s like a library was burned down. My mother used to tell me, before I ever thought about doing comedy, she said, ‘You should be a griot.’”
In West African communities, the griot holds a revered position as a master storyteller. Their responsibility is to safeguard their people’s cultural traditions and oral history. Their creativity is essential to the ongoing vitality and preservation of their culture. They pass down stories, songs, and proverbs from one generation to the next. Griots weave enchanting narratives using repetition, rhyme, and metaphor to captivate their audience. Their storytelling performances are a feast for the senses, often incorporating dance, humor, and other artistic expressions. Griots demonstrate the profound influence of stories on society.
As Dave Chappelle pointed out, storytelling is a creative act with a larger purpose. It’s one of the most effective ways to transfer knowledge. Stories of all kinds allow us to experience the world more fully. It is an art form that enables us to remember our collective past and is the most effective way to validate and share our experiences and ideas.
PEOPLE LOVE TO RELATE
Talking to Tony Robbins, the comedian-turned-media-mogul Kevin Hart also talked about telling stories through the medium of comedy. At first, he thought stand-up comedy was strictly about being funny. However, over time, his perspective shifted as he observed his audiences’ reactions. “People love to relate,” he says. “People love to see what’s real. You love to identify. If I sat up here and I talked about things you guys couldn’t identify with, or couldn’t walk away and go, ‘Wow,’ I’m alienating myself from my crowd. The best way to open up and make myself a part of my crowd is to be real. Because we all love real. My life, my mistakes, my ups, my downs, my marriage, my divorce, my kids, that’s what we all share. We just share it differently. We all travel. If you don’t travel, you want to travel. If you want to travel, where do you want to go? There are so many things that I can break down that act as connective tissue between me and everybody. I can relate to everybody in this room and I don’t have to change who I am.”
The power of storytelling is the key to conveying your message and connecting with your audience. The beauty of storytelling lies in its ability to engage someone’s emotions, imagination, and memory in a way that facts and figures cannot. By sharing a compelling story, you can break down walls and connect people from various backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.
A well-crafted story can help us see the world through someone else’s eyes. We get so emotionally invested in stories that they can shift our entire way of thinking. They can inspire life-changing epiphanies. They motivate us to take action. When we hear a tale of triumph over adversity, we are inspired to believe we can accomplish the same challenges. Stories can help you share a vision for the future and give your audience the courage to take the necessary steps to make it a reality.
ANATOMY OF A STORY
So what is the essence of a great story? Dan Harmon, the creator of the massively popular Adult Swim series Rick and Morty, breaks the anatomy of storytelling down into eight essential parts:
You: A relatable character who pulls the audience in, in circumstances where they feel comfortable.