Performing Stories

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what literature works as written versus spoken or performed. In many ways the written word is harder. A good story teller can use all the cues bred into us for thousands of years as social animals to cover weak writing with the slightest flick in inflection. It's amazing to see. I'm rather jealous of comedians who seem have that story-telling ability built into their craft. Find a comedian with a talent for literature and you have a truly dangerous man on your hands¹.
Rarer is the writer who can make those perfect phrases, sentences, paragraphs march about the room bullying strangers to care about them.

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¹See above video for an example.