4-Time The Moth Story Slam Winner Bill Ratner To Compete in Grand Slam June 1 in Los Angeles

May 29, 2010 - PRLog -- BillRatner.com
Media contact:  WJ Carrel


Los Angeles – “I’m tonin’ up, poppin’ ‘roids, and filling my gloves with birdshot in prep for June first,” exclaims four-time The Moth Story Slam winner Bill Ratner who returns for a show down with nine other Story Slam winners for The Moth Grand Slam Storytelling Competition Tuesday, June 1, 2010, at the famed rock’n’roll club Echoplex in Echo Park, Los Angeles (enter through the alley at 1154 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026), at 7:30 pm.  Ratner and the nine other storytellers will wait to be called to tell five-minute true tales based on the evening’s theme, “Big Breaks” – stories of opportunities, fractures, breakthroughs, and breakdowns.  

“The Moth Grand Slam is a battle of wits and words – fierce, hilarious, heartbreaking and all points between,” comment its producers.  “We are dedicated to finding intriguing people to tell inspired stories.”  

Each month of the year LA storytellers gather at Los Angeles bars and nightclubs to compete and win that evening’s The Moth Story Slam.  Three winners emerge each month, one from each venue, and a final 10 are selected to compete at The Moth Grand Slam Storytelling event.  The winner of the Grand Slam gets to travel to New York to perform a one-minute version of their championship story at The Moth 2010 Grand Ball in New York City.

Ratner created a huge following of fans who remember him as “Flint” in GI Joe, Family Guy, and Robot Chicken.  Currently, he is the voice of numerous movie trailers, TV networks, and affiliate stations around the U.S. where he is recognized for his soothing delivery, inimitable charm, and wry humor.  His short stories and essays are published in Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing, Cheng Kung Literary, Southern Anthology, Papier Mache, Nightblade, Spork, Marquee, and Coast Magazine.  He is the voice of Niteblade.com’s first-ever spoken word horror story which he also wrote.  He lives in Los Angeles, CA, and owns three bicycles in various states of disrepair.  More about Bill Ratner can be found at billratner.com.

The Moth is a New York City based non-profit that conducts live story-telling events at eight on-going venues in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York.   The concept is the brain child of George Dawes Green, a Georgia native, whose intention was to recreate storytelling on sultry summer eves at Wanda’s porch on St. Simon’s Island.  The screen around Wanda’s porch had a hole in it “where moths would flutter through and stay trapped in the light,” hence the name for the narrative sessions.   Since The Moth’s inception in 1997, over 3,000 live stories have been told across the country, and in January 2010 The Moth was ranked among the top 10 innovative media companies in the U.S. along with NPR, the Huffington Post, and Scribd.  The Moth is one of the top podcasts on i-Tunes, and its radio show can be heard on over 60 public radio stations.  For more information on story slam performances visit themoth.org on the Internet.

Tickets to the Grand Slam event are on sale at attheecho.com.  The event is sponsored by PBS affiliate KCRW (89.9 FM), and tickets are expected to go fast.

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