Yashinsky Blog - Chap-2 Frankie & the Firebird

• Yashinsky tells the story of how he was drawn to storytelling and found his muse, and provides his observation of many events that led to his improving his teller art.
• As a student at UC-Berkeley, Yashinsky had majored in creative arts. He was drawn to the literary story world by his fervent consumption of the Canterbury Tales, DeCameroon, 1000 and One Nights, and Homer's Greek mythology.
• After graduation in Spring of 1972, Yashinsky left his birth country for Canada and after several job attempts he got a job as a camp counselor in Canada. The camp was for young boys from the poorest neighborhoods in Toronto, and they were a fairly unruly group. Particularly, one named Frankie.
• BIG EVENT: Yashinsky was mesmerized while sitting around a campfire with is group of eight 'bad boys' and listening to a more experienced camp counselor tell stories. He witnessed their quiet listening and connected to the change in their behavior. He discovered that oral stories are received by children, and decided to give it a try.
• THE JOURNEY BEGINS: Yashinsky began by reading stories aloud to his group of eight and living in the 398.2 section of his library. He found a story, worked hard to memorize it, and then decided it would be his first oral presentation.
• FIRST CRISIS: His first performance begins in the 8 kid cabin. During his recitation, Frankie, the most difficult of the eight campers, fakes a fart. Frankie continues his frivolity farts and Yashinsky gets so disconnected from the story he sweated so hard to perfect, that he becames an angry teller and throws Frankie out of the cabin.
• CROSSING THE FIRST THRESHOLD: There are many other short stories about Frankie and other camp kids, but the bottomline is that Yashinsky's story muse sent Frankie to initiate a new teller with the deepest secret of the teller's art: "The listener is the hero of the story." Over the years Yashinsky has learned that should suddenly he hear a fart the best approach is to laugh with the audience and just continue to tell.

MY PERSONAL OBSERVATION: Yashinsky's discussion of how he was drawn to telling and subsequently crafted his first Frankie flop was very comforting. Only over the past two months have I been to 398.2. I have been very concerned with how I will be viewed as a teller. The good knowledge shared by Yashinsky is that: (1.) focus on the listeners, not your ego; and, (2.) It will take time, but the muse be there for me.