"idols" with Bill Littlefield and Karen Given at Club Passims

Special guest Bill Littlefield and host Karen Given rocked the full house at the Club Passim story slam on November 21, 2011.  With the theme “idols,” this WBUR duo that respectively host and produce NPR’s “Only a Game” shared tales of their own idols and encouraged audience members to do the same.  Karen said that she was excited, because on this night she was finally able to be Bill’s boss.  Their funny banter set the stage for a night of amusing entertainment and a close competition among the story tellers.

The idols Bill spoke about ran the gamut of authors, musicians and athletes.  The night of his college graduation senior class dinner, Kurt Vonnegut wowed his classmates with an address that included the advice – don’t kill anybody and don’t work for anyone who kills people.  To this day, Bill has successfully heeded his idol’s advice. 

Bill’s career has afforded him the opportunity to meet many more idols, including figure skater Katarina Witt.  Karen said that the day he was set to interview Katarina, she noted that he was dressed more nicely than usual.  As Bill introduced himself, Katarina responded with, “Ah Bill Littlefield, that’s such a cute name.”  Bill then explained that Karen had her own moment of star-struck awe during another interview, when they were working with up and coming tennis great and major hottie, Geoff Grant.  As Jeff was about to begin the interview, he announced that he needed to change his shirt and did it right in front of Karen, giving her a nice piece of eye candy.

One time while returning from New York, Bill luckily shared a limo and airplane ride with Norman Mailer.  Upon first seeing him, Bill wanted to conjure an intelligent discussion with this idol, and as he started speaking, Norman said that he wished he wasn’t so hung-over so they could have a good discussion.  As Norman started feeling better, they shared some great conversations, and when it was time to leave Logan, Bill pretended like he needed a cab to Norman’s neighborhood, just to continue the fun, even though his car was waiting for him in the airport parking lot.

Karen Given

When Bill is on vacation, Karen fills in for him.  During one of these occasions, after hosting a show, Karen received a letter that said a woman shouldn’t do a sports show and claimed that her voice was worse than Stephen Hawking’s computer.  Shortly after this incident, Ted Koppel came to town, and Karen was able to ask him what he does when he is criticized.  Ted shared that when he first started “Nightline” and was reporting on the hostages in Iran, he simultaneously received one letter of praise and another one that said, “Hey you @#$%^& mother*&^%er @#$%^&&.” This definitely made Karen feel better and she learned that all idols get cut down, and when they do, they simply need to get back up.  

The night would have been a wild success with only Bill and Karen entertaining the crowd.  But there was a competition to be had, and that just made the night even better.  In between the contestants battling it out with their remarkable stories, Karen shared an anecdote about seeing four guys on the side of the road in her little town of Joshua Tree, California.  They were wearing trench coats in 125 degree weather.  Karen became excited, thinking that she finally saw some bums in her town.  But it turns out that they were actually the band members of U2.  Talk about encountering your idols! 



Paula Junn started the official competition talking about Ron, the sandwich maker she obsessed about in her college dining hall.  To enjoy 15 minutes of glory, Paula ate sandwich wraps every single day.  Finally Ron asked her out for a cup of coffee.  He picked her up in a bright blue truck that he had built, adorned with blue dice hanging from the rear view mirror.  When Paula noted the dice, Ron said, “Yeah I fucking love blue…and yellow…and purple.”  As they proceeded to the Dunkin Donuts drive thru, Ron talked about his paraplegic uncle.  Their date cost a whopping $3.25.  When Paula went to reach for her wallet, Ron announced in a chivalric manner, “It’s on me!”  On the drive back to school, Paula noticed dragons all over the place, even dragon stickers.  When she asked if he likes dragons, Ron said, “Yeah I fuckin’ love em!”  He told her he was set to get a dragon tattoo, and when Paula said that that sounded painful, Ron said, “Yeah I fuckin dig pain!”  After their date, they didn’t communicate much, and Ron was eventually fired for smoking weed.  In the end, his obsession helped her overcome her obsession.

Brandon Schneider

Brendan Schneider spoke next about his wiseass Uncle John, the kind of guy who when shushed in church for talking too much, yelled at that very person to shut up.  Uncle John liked to watch Donahue, and when he saw episodes about people overeating, he thought of Brendan’s brother who also ate a lot of food.  Instead of kindly confronting him, he said that he was going to rub his face on the grill.  Despite Uncle John’s brashness, when Brendan had a bad breakup in 2002 and was heartbroken, he called his uncle.  Uncle John advised Brendan to find a book and stab it.  He explained that you should think of a breakup like a book and stab it.  While the cover and first few pages become destroyed, as you go along, the intact pages represent your healing, and your story is that much more experienced and rich.  And this is exactly what Uncle John did when he wanted to “fucking kill” his ex.  Today Uncle John is a licensed marriage and family therapist in New York and rocks at his job.

Bruce MArcus

Bruce Marcus, the 2nd place winner, spoke next and shared about the origin of Brother Blue and his story telling program, The Story Space.  When Bruce was a teenager, walking around Harvard Square in the 70s, he frequently noticed a man with balloons all over him and couldn’t understand what he was saying.  He thought this guy was a mad man.  After college, Bruce moved to Cambridge and saw the very same man accompanied by a woman and got to know him as Brother Blue the storyteller.  Far from being a mad man, Brother Blue had a Doctorate in Divinity and preached storytelling with his wife Ruth.  Their first event took place inside of a book store café in Porter Square, and the place was packed.  Brother Blue went on to preach storytelling at academic centers, festivals and even on some famous stages.  As they became closer, Brother Blue started calling Bruce his son, touching and perplexing Bruce simultaneously.  Brother Blue has long passed.  Bruce misses him dearly and honors him by committing to be himself. 

Robin Maxfield was next, sharing her obsession with Happy Days and her love of Fonzie.  She loved him so much, she used to style her brother’s hair like his.  She also wore a jean jacket to bed every night, with the collar flipped, and constantly said “hey” and “oh.”  When she turned 12, Robin didn’t understand her burgeoning hormones and budding attraction to Fonzie’s swagger.  She just about died when she found out that he was making an appearance at the major auto show in town.  She could finally meet him in person.  Standing on line for 2 hours, Robin thought about how she was going to introduce herself.  Finally the moment was here, and when the Fonz grabbed her hand, it was clammy.  Then he kissed her on the cheek, and it was wet and gross.  Robin couldn’t believe that the Fonz was just a regular man.  This incident was the perfect cure to never becoming a groupie. 

Sarah Krakauer was the next teller who shared a story about volunteering at a Buddhist school in India when she was 22.  A field trip was planned so her students could meet the Karmapa.  In Buddhism, the Karmapa is the 3rd most holy man, and in the city where this school was located, he was considered the top holy man.  The school invited Sarah to attend the field trip so she could also receive a blessing.  There were concerns, because her visa was restricted to a limited geographical region, but she went regardless.  She didn’t realize just how daring this was until the bus was pulling away, and Sarah noticed that she was the only volunteer in attendance.  When Sarah asked about this, the principal explained that the trip was simply too risky for volunteers and told her to hide in the back of the bus.  The bus ride was pure torture, with a lack of food for the 8 hour trip and boisterous kids singing non-stop.  At one point they all feared for their lives when they saw dead bodies resulting from a vehicle veering off of the side of a mountain.  So much to endure to meet the Karmapa.  And when they finally got there, and it was Sarah’s turn to receive her blessing, the Karmapa looked at her and was like, “Hey what’s up?”  This top holy man seemed more like a 17 year old teenage boy. 

Norah Dooley

Norah Dooley then shared a heartfelt story about her Aunt Vera.  Norah didn’t have the best opinion of Aunt Vera growing up, thinking she was embarrassing and crazy, especially when she sang horribly in public.  When Norah expressed her disgust to her mother, her mother took the opportunity to share some sad details about Aunt Vera’s upbringing.  At the age of 5, Vera’s mother was too sick to care for her, so her father shipped her to a creanza in Italy.  Vera and her 7 year old sister were forced to do many chores and also had to care for their 3 younger brothers.  Their mother eventually passed, but it took forever to get back to the United States, and when they did, their father didn’t care for them.  Vera continued her caretaker role, having to quit school at 13 in order to begin a real job.  Learning the horrible conditions that Vera endured growing up made Nora change her opinion about her tough Aunt.

Dale Averill spoke next, discussing public speaking and how George Gurdjieff’s book impacted him.  Dale was a first time teller and shared with the audience his internal debate about going up on stage and competing.  He related these feelings to lessons he learned in Gurdjieff’s book.  Hopefully massmouth is lucky enough to have Dale tell at future events.

Marissa Hecker

Marissa Hecker, who manages sound production for Club Passim, wowed us with a story and won 1st place!  She spoke about her obsession with Karate Kid growing up.  Since she lived just outside of Los Angeles, Marissa was surrounded by people who had connections to celebrities.  It turns out that her school principal’s son knew the guy who played the bully in Karate Kid.  She attended a Lutheran school, so the principal arranged for the bully, whose real name is Billy, to make an appearance during chapel.  Billy wore tight pants during his visit, and when he went to sit on a stool, he split his pants.  Everyone laughed at his expense, and when Billy left the stage, feigning the need to change his pants, he actually left the event altogether.  This caused Marissa and her sister to have a soft spot for Billy.  Then in her senior year of college, Marissa and her PR intern friend were talking to a group of guys, and she suddenly recognized Billy.  “I know you,” Marissa exclaimed, and then she proceeded to tell Billy how she remembered him splitting his pants 15 years ago at her school.  He admitted that indeed that was him, and it was the worst experience ever.  His friendliness and admittance turned Billy into Marissa’s idol.


Brandon Irvine then shared tales about a series of rock idols and attempting to learn the guitar and emulate the various styles of his idols.  His first guitar teacher wanted him to play like Rush, but then Brandon realized that he didn’t like Rush.  Nirvana eventually grew on him a bit, but he wasn’t sold.  And while Brandon liked Pearl Jam, they were difficult to mimic, because their music wasn’t melodic.  As he went through idol after idol, Brandon realized that he didn’t even care for music all that much, and that what he liked was the attention from being on stage.  In college, he finally heard a Bob Dylan song that he could tolerate, a song that was simply about life, and in that moment, Brandon realized that he didn’t need an idol.

Anja Rose

Anja Rose concluded the competition with a story that won her the Audience Choice Award.  Growing up, Anja was an obsessive wisher and used any scenario to make her wish.  She even tapped door jams in the same manner every time she entered a room.  One night when she was visiting her best friend’s Cape May family home, both girls wished on the first star, and her friend wanted to know what she wished for.  Anja told her that she couldn’t share her wish, but her friend eventually convinced her to divulge her secret.  Anja wished for her mother to recover, because she was dying from MS. Suddenly her friend was embarrassed, because the wish was so significant compared to hers.  And as time progressed, Anja knew that her mother’s condition wasn’t improving, but she still wanted to wish.  A college class in grant writing helped her to re-channel her wishing into a more productive way of making an intention.  Instead of keeping wishes and desires a secret, Anja vowed to tell people about her hopes and dreams.  Now she writes songs, plays the guitar and sings.

massmouth's winning circle of friends at Club Passim

As you can see, this was a fascinating evening of remarkable stories.  If you attended, thank you for your support.  If you were not able to make it, hopefully this recap gives you a glimpse of how enriching the massmouth experience can be for our community.  We hope to see you at the next event.          
Laura Cannon- is a massmouth member ,co producer of Club Passim slams and a past story slam winner.