Telling Stories at a Moth StorySLAM

The Moth started in New York in 1997 as a storytelling night and grew into a radio hour and podcast, but its open-mic StorySLAMs are still held in bars and clubs around the city several times a month. Each night has a theme. Anyone can put their name in a hat, ten names are drawn, and each storyteller gets five minutes, no notes, to tell a true story from their own life, scored by audience judges.

Buy tickets from The Moth's site as soon as a New York date goes on sale; they go fast, and the doors-to-start window is when you enter your name if you want to tell. Arrive early for a seat. Even if you never plan to speak, it is one of the most human nights out in the city: strangers, a microphone and stories that are funny and devastating, sometimes within the same five minutes. Monthly winners go on to GrandSLAM championships.