Peter Sagal to host the Moth GrandSLAM

Peter Sagal to host the Moth GrandSLAM
Peter Sagal to host the Moth GrandSLAM

Peter Sagal to host the Moth GrandSLAM

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Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me’s Peter Sagal is teaming up with our friends at The Moth to host the first-ever Chicago Moth GrandSLAM event.  According to The Moth’s Sarah Austin Jeness, the GrandSLAM will take place on Wednesday, January 26th at the Park West in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.

“I’m a great enthusiast for telling stories, as my exhausted and bored friends and colleagues know, so I’m happy to see anecdote-spinning become a competitive event,” Sagal told us. “By supporting the Moth, I’m hoping that anecdotage might someday become an Olympic sport.”

The GrandSLAM pits the winners of the previous 10 Chicago Moth StorySLAMS  against each other to decide who’s the ‘best-of-the-best’. The winner gets a shot at The Moth mainstage in New York.

The Moth was founded New York in 1997 and features real-life, first person stories told before a live audience.  Since it’s debut, The Moth has achieved popular and critical acclaim in such cities as New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit .  More recently, it’s podcasts have become a huge hit on iTunes and spawned a series of new public radio specials via PRX.

The Moth launched Chicago StorySLAMS in collaboration with WBEZ in late 2009.  They take place on the last Tuesday of every month at Martyr’s.

Each StorySLAM features a theme.  Aspiring storytellers put their name in a hat, hoping to be picked to tell their story before the live audience.  A three-member panel of audience-member judges then decides the winner.

Doors open for the The Moth GrandSLAM in Chicago at 6pm and stories start at 8pm.   The event is ticketed - not first come, first serve.  Details can be found at  www.etix.com.