nabil laoudji

poetry, prose, design thinking & entrepreneurship

  • HOME
  • RESOURCES
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Poetry
    • Prose
  • ABOUT
  • December 11, 2019

My First Outing

May 16, 2010 by Nabil Leave a Comment

Today I had my first outing for my summer storytelling project, with silver-tongued Sloanie and friend Miro Kazakoff at my side.

I learned a lot, interviewed four strangers, and most importantly had a great time. I also shared with Miro my thoughts on the project, as captured in the below video. Thank you Miro for being an awesome teammate on my first day (and for teaching me so much about interviewing people). Onward ho-

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: adventure, boston, first, learning

7 Lessons from a Storytelling Workshop

May 11, 2010 by Nabil 7 Comments

This evening I attended a super helpful workshop in Boston, hosted by seasoned storytellers Norah Dooley and Karen Chace. In our workshop I, along with eight others, practiced storytelling technique and then performed, on stage and with a mic. Brilliant.

A few key lessons that I learned:
– Shed my ego: To be a great storyteller I should realize that it’s not about me; I’m merely a conduit for the story itself. Once I realize this, and my ego subsides, I will connect with my story more deeply and so will my audience.
– Don’t memorize: I need to see the imagery in my story in order for the audience to see it. This is easier to do when I’m making up the story as I go along, as opposed to reciting a memorized transcript.
– Project confidence: If I appear nervous on stage, the audience will feel an urge to take care of me and will lose focus on the story itself.
– Slow it down: There is a lag between when I speak a word and when it is processed by my audience. Allow my audience to process one image before moving on to the next one.
– Kill my darlings: Superfluous narrative needs to go. No matter how beautiful it is, if it’s not the meat of the story, my words will lose my audience. We practiced this until 30 seconds felt longer than 60 seconds.
– Recover gracefully (clever): If I accidentally omit a part of the story that is critical to understanding the ending, rather than saying, “I forgot to tell you something,” instead say: “but what you don’t know…” or, “what I haven’t told you yet…”
– Take a moment: At the beginning and end of my performance, take a moment to connect with my audience. Starting too soon or leaving the stage too quickly will undermine the power of my story and might also slight my audience.

Among us was also a 10 year old girl. I was amazed at the ease with which she spun stories, and it reminded me that storytelling is less about learning a new craft and more about rediscovering an old one.

Filed Under: Stream Tagged With: boston, learnings, lessons, massmouth, practice, story tips, storyslam, storytelling

Welcome

Nabil Laoudji Twitter LinkedIn Instagram More Info

Recent Tweets

  • And we're a go. #Q2B19 kicks off in San Jose. What questions do you have about #QuantumComputing? https://t.co/H70wuDK80d about 12 hours ago
  • Arrived in San Jose. Excited to jump in tomorrow for three days of wall-to-wall #QuantumComputing at #Q2B19. Here… https://t.co/EXQ4QmSVOg about 1 day ago
  • [New Post] Quantum Computing promises breakthroughs in many important areas. I'm most excited for how it may help u… https://t.co/bhlwOsTa7i about 1 week ago
@laoudji

Recent Snaps

Load More...

Recent Comments

  • Don on How meditation helped me get a handle on compulsive thoughts
  • Shehab on Amazon & Wikileaks: Sorting Out the Controversy
  • Mike on On Purpose
  • Katherine Molina on On Purpose
  • Anne on On Purpose

Archives

Tags

arab spring awakening boston buffalo business career comedy community democracy design thinking ethnography family film improv india interview landscape launch learnings lessons los angeles massmouth MBA meditation mental health mindfulness MIT music NYC occupy oprah passion performance ethnography public speaking revolution risk rust belt sales standup storytelling story tips tunis tunisia ucb values

Thanks

Thanks for visiting!

Copyright © 2019 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in