TONIGHT: Storytelling Champs Compete in The Moth GrandSLAM

photo credit Denise Ofelia Mangen/themoth.org

Maybe you listen to the Moth’s podcast on your commute. Maybe you’ve caught The Moth Radio Hour on WXPN. Maybe you’ve even read the best-selling collection The Moth: 50 True Stories. But tonight’s live event at Union Transfer is what the nonprofit is all about: people telling their stories live, in front of an audience.

Tonight’s theme is “When Worlds Collide.” Performers have five minutes each to tell stories about “dog people versus cat people, fire versus ice, politic versus truth, Krispy Kreme versus tofu.”

The GrandSLAM performers have all previously won Philadelphia StorySLAM competitions. Competitors include former Marine Jesse Berdinka, actor Lauren Logiudice, and writer Otis Gray. Philadelphia playwright R. Eric Thomas will host, and composer Ilan Isakov will accompany the show.

This is Philadelphia’s second annual GrandSLAM. The competition is sponsored by WXPN and Reader’s Digest (in which tonight’s winner may be published.)

The Moth’s GrandSLAM is tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 23, doors at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25.