Regular event for revealing true tales gets audiences laughing, cringing


Sometimes the key to telling a great story in a live setting is to abandon all regard for one’s sense of shame, or how recently the audience has eaten.

Rich Scott-Ashe, who organizes the Axis storytellers event in Seoul, exemplified this lesson at the Berlin Caf & Lounge near Itaewon, launching into the tale of how his father, both a doctor and handyman, attempted to cure him of his bedwetting at age 11.

Occasionally mortified, frequently doubling over with laughter but never bored, the packed crowd absorbed the story of how Scott-Ashe’s father sought to solve the problem by attaching a wire to a machine that would administer a shock to his son’s crotch in the event of wetness.

“We were using desperate measures by this point,” Scott-Ashe said, “because I was almost a teenager.”

The theme for February’s edition of Axis was “Fiasco,” in which storytellers had to describe a plan that went terribly, terribly awry.

In Scott-Ashe’s case, shock from the contraption was effective at first, until he apparently grew used to it, and continued wetting the bed undisturbed until he was woken one morning by the “smell of burning flesh.”

To the (possibly feigned) disappointment of the crowd, Scott-Ashe said that the scar resulting from the zapping was covered by puberty. In the aftermath, his father’s plan, and the machine itself, was altered to one involving an “air raid siren” should his bladder problem continue.

“I rarely do it anymore,” the storyteller, now married and a father of two, said of his nocturnal enuresis.

With that it was then Sid Kim’s time to deliver the final performance of the night.

“How am I going to follow pee/genital torture?” Kim wondered aloud at the beginning of his routine.

But he held his own, telling a story about a college party where his nose was broken after a fight with a surfer gang (seriously). The solution for fixing his face prior to the start of college classes involved a geriatric doctor putting “liquid cocaine” on a q-tip, shoving it into Kim’s nasal cavity, then realigning the damaged facial feature with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

The shock value of these two storytellers was not an unusual event for the evening: Ken Drenen told a story of driving his grandmother to the family Christmas party, spilling her prized fruit salad in the back seat by driving too fast and then having to be quiet after she reassembled it, picked out a few hairs and served it to the family anyway.

Adhana McCarthy recalled being 15, inspired by Soundgarden’s “The Day I Tried to Live” to run away from her home in Long Beach, California, only to end up broke in Sacramento, vomiting in a restaurant bathroom because her period had just begun.

It’s not pretty at times, but the audiences for Axis continue to grow. This was its third meeting, and it was standing-room only at Berlin.

At the end of the evening names of audience members were drawn from a hat for the chance to win prizes including restaurant vouchers, free martial arts or Pilates classes, as well as white wine and cigars.

Members also donated to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ effort to help with the famine in Somalia, raising more than 461,000 won by the end of the evening.

Once the theme is announced, storytellers may submit a 200-word summary of their story to axisstories@gmail.com for approval. If approved, they have about 10 minutes on the night of the event before a bell is rung, encouraging them to hurry it along.

And lest the crotch electrocution or liquid cocaine give the wrong impression, the stories must be true.

Scott-Ashe said that he was inspired by storytelling podcasts such as “The Moth” and “Risk!” to start Axis.

“It’s a great opportunity to get a glimpse into the big and small events that make up people’s lives, and the expat community in Korea is colorful enough to ensure that there will be lots of great stories,” he said.

Membership of Axis is free and the next event is planned for May 13. To learn more, search “AXIS (Seoul)” on Facebook.

By Rob York (rjamesyork@heraldcorp.com)

This article originally said the next event would be in April. It has been changed to reflect the confirmed date. - Ed.