Barefaced Stories

Barefaced Stories has quickly become a popular weekly storytelling event at The Bird. It’s essentially rich and interesting characters re-telling comedic versions of stories from their lives, with each week consisting of a different theme, the theme for this week: obsession.

A huge painted bear’s head adorned the stage as the first bracket of orators took turns entertaining the crowd. A common sub-theme for the first half was love, obsessive love. This ranged from awkwardly attempting to dump a pubescent stalker to accidentally stalking a minor celebrity to failed encounters with sleazy Dutchmen.

In the second half the stories really picked up as the speakers moved away from the topic of love and laughter swelled more fully throughout the room. The final two stories were particular highlights for the crowd. The first was told by a thick-accented Englishman recalling his youth as he attempted to balance trying to save up for a chrome-plated air pistol while attempting to avoid the inevitable expenses of cheap cider, women and music festivals.

What makes Barefaced Stories so great is that there’s a genuine connection between the storyteller and the crowd and that creates an almost community spirit as everyone feeds off the experience.