Last night I went along to Tenx9Adelaide at The Jade having been invited by friends. I wasn’t aware of this concept and what a brilliant one it is – nine people have ten minutes to share a true story based on a theme. Yesterday’s was ‘A brush with…’

Copyright@Tenx9Adelaide

Stories ranged from a brush with death and politics through to the media and fame:

  • a young boy inadvertently helped coppers retrieve stolen goods from a river and appeared on the news;
  • an anthropologist travelled to a remote Inca community and en route got bitten by a poisonous spider;
  • a detailed description of a robber was shared and only at the end did we learn it was Ronnie Biggs (the description, not the storyteller!);
  • another anthropologist told of how his bike was stolen in Boston and its subsequent retrieval;
  • a woman shared how she nearly lost her life in a flat fire after one of her housemates left a candle burning;
  • another told of her geological trip to Nepal where the shipment of apples was more important than backpacks;
  • a former priest relayed his perilous hike in Japan after agreeing to minister a wedding there; and
  • a comedian shared the time he accepted the gig of warming up the QandA crowd before Julia Gillard came on.

You’ll note that’s only eight; one storyteller pulled out, which resulted in an open mic session where two audience members took the stage to share their two minutes stories – one, having lost both her underwear and swimwear, was invited to climb a coconut tree on a tour (but had to decline being knickerless in a dress), while another told of his amazement at being asked a rather inappropriate question by the media during a press conference about a new hospital.

It was engaging stuff; their stories drew laughs and intakes of breath from the crowd. Some read from notes, others without, but all were perfectly timed (else a horn is sounded!).

The next event is on Thursday 19 July with the theme of ‘Because of her…’ and I’d recommend a visit, to either listen or to share. Do you have a story to tell?