StoryFellers

Episode #17 – Premiering "Venetian Blind" w/ Jaydie Halperin

WE ARE BACK! This long awaited episode has got it all: sadism, dowries, and nuns! The StoryFellers (writing it out, it feels like a band, like The Lumineers) had a lot of fun writing this, and putting together the details from the last episode, and it was an absolute blast getting to do this with THE Jaydie Halperin! Also the deepest apologies from Shlok Sharma for not putting this out sooner, he is awful at editing things on time. This will be better in the future! Plus, doesn't the wait make the episode that much more worth it? No? Fair enough! Without any further adieu, "Venetian Blind!"

Episode #16 – The Makings of a Dowry Heist w/ Jaydie Halperin

A fun episode! Jaydie comes onto talk with the StoryFellers and brings a breadth and depth of knowledge that Joe and Shlok desperately need. She talks about dowries, the effect and pressure they had on most marriages in fourteenth century Italy, and seeds the idea of a heist that features the concept. The idea for the story featured in the next episode was borne out of Jaydie's focus in her graduate studies, and there's a wonderful focusing function that happens because of it. A lot of what we do here at StoryFellers is engage with and work on storytelling without any real expectation of seriousness, but it is nice to work with a topic that is innately weighty, and see what we can do with it. In a quest to find as many balances as possible, there is something to be said about doing it with the concept of the podcast: apply the lens of silliness to seriousness, and maybe it'll lead to something new. You'll have to see in our next episode when we premiere the story that we come up with. It's a ton of fun.

Episode #15 – Serial Killer Dynasty

The title does give it away, but thankfully there's more to us than just the premise. Listen in for a funny premise, controversial characters, and middling English accents. I just want to note here that Joe chose Jack the Ripper without telling me (Shlok is writing this) obviously – that's how improv works – but I chose Jeffrey Dahmer without him saying anything. Call it the universe, call it cosmic togetherness, call it the divine, but something's in the air and it ain't summertime (it's been quite rainy these past few days). Much love, much love!

Episode #14 – The Worst We Can Do

A lot of this episode is Shlok and Joe talking about music, which then results in a retrospective on their writing. It's a good place to do that every now and then. Shlok also, gingerly and then all at once enthusiastically, pitches Joe his idea for a musical about the military industrial complex set to the music of a man with an acoustic guitar (a la Jack Johnson); this might be a good pivot, considering Shlok's going to send a lot of demos about this project to Joe. Maybe the musical could be called "Jingo Hell"? Joe brainstorms a setting for the StoryFellers' most recent improvisation, which will take place in the next episode. It's a real treat.

Episode #13 – We Think You Should Stay

We (yeah, yeah, I mean Shlok and Joe, I mean Joe and Shlok, but who are we kidding here, it's just you and me in this little description box) talk a bit about the standup/influencer character we want to explore, and the need for stronger character dynamics in general. We also talk a lot about I Think You Should Leave, and dream up a new podcast called "We Think You Should Stay." Then both of us took it a little seriously and we got graphics, music, and episode ideas tied together. Thirteen episodes in and we're already thinking of a spinoff. This is how empires are built.