Our Season Two opener for Worth Repeating is less than two weeks away. (Buy Tickets Here!) In order to get people primed for a fantastic season of stories, our storyboard looked back at season one to bring you some of our favorites. Greg Jefferson (storyboard, storyteller: Lies Damn Lies & Statistics) tells you about his top three.
Jeanette Reynolds
Most of us have taken on jobs that were too big for us once or twice. Or we've challenged nemeses who were a bit smarter or stronger than us. And we did it without a second thought. What I love about Jeanette Reynolds' Worth Repeating performance is that she captures this workaday hubris in a simple, hilarious story about getting in over her head - in the Pacific. A Peace Corps Volunteer in Fiji, she decided to clear her head during a break by kayaking around a neighboring island. Two Problems: turns out some islands are bigger than they look, and kayaking in the ocean is very different from kayaking in a lake or river.
In 2005, I took a job selling vacuum cleaners door to door.
Looking at Todd Wright, a writing instructor at UTSA, it’s hard to imagine him as a vacuum-cleaner salesman. But that’s how it is. Even George Washington probably waited tables as a young adult. Selling vacuum cleaners wasn’t a side hustle for Todd. It was the hustle, and in 2005 he was learning how to pull it off. Then he knocked on the front door of a woman who had just enough money to get by. His slick, cynical sales pitch collided with her decency and vulnerability. He came out of the experience a poorer salesman but a better person. Todd’s story is simple, funny, and poignant, packed with tenderness and the quiet pleadings of a guilty conscience. Click below for the story.
Luis Muñoz, an independent TV producer, knows how to combine work and pleasure. Specifically, he’s skilled at lining up assignments at Mexican resorts. Luis has a great eye for the comic detail, and he flaunts it in this story about the drug lord he thought he’d befriended over margaritas and cigars at a luxury hotel’s pool. Turns out the guy did have a lot of power and prestige, just not the kind Luis imagined. Do yourself a favor and listen to the story.