Jeff Polish broke out laughing when I explained why I was taking notes. We'd met in the Harrison Avenue parking lot at Umstead for a two-hour ride; so why did i suddenly have my nifty yellow Waterproof Journal out? "It's for my 'Riding with a Celebrity' blog," I told him. Jeff picked up his Stumpjumper from a guy who races. "It's much more of a bike than I am a biker," he said before we ventured out. Jeff is a celebrity in a small but growing circle. He and wife Allison moved to Chapel Hill last year. A teacher (he's just begun a gig at Cary Academy) he's also fascinated by storytelling. He went to New York to catch The Moth , a monthly storytelling event that features five or six storytellers telling a 10-minute story. Storytellers have included a range of folks, from actor William Baldwin to wiseguy comedian Lewis Black for former New York Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton who wrote "Ball Four," one of the first tell-all books on the the sport. The Moth also features StorySlams, which allow anyone to tell a five-minute story. Just one catch: It's by lottery; on the night Jeff was there 14 people vied for the 10 spots. "I was one of the four who didn't get picked," he said, sounding not unlike the last kicked picked for a pickup baseball game. Anyway, Jeff , who is 36, decided, "Heck, I can't keep going to New York to try and tell stories; I'll just tell stories here." So in April he started The Monti, which features six storytellers te ...
Anytime
Jeff Polish broke out laughing when I explained why I was taking notes. We'd met in the Harrison Avenue parking lot at Umstead for a two-hour ride; so why did i suddenly have my nifty yellow Waterproof Journal out? "It's for my 'Riding with a Celebrity' blog," I told him. Jeff picked up his Stumpjumper from a guy who races. "It's much more of a bike than I am a biker," he said before we ventured out. Jeff is a celebrity in a small but growing circle. He and wife Allison moved to Chapel Hill last year. A teacher (he's just begun a gig at Cary Academy) he's also fascinated by storytelling. He went to New York to catch The Moth , a monthly storytelling event that features five or six storytellers telling a 10-minute story. Storytellers have included a range of folks, from actor William Baldwin to wiseguy comedian Lewis Black for former New York Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton who wrote "Ball Four," one of the first tell-all books on the the sport. The Moth also features StorySlams, which allow anyone to tell a five-minute story. Just one catch: It's by lottery; on the night Jeff was there 14 people vied for the 10 spots. "I was one of the four who didn't get picked," he said, sounding not unlike the last kicked picked for a pickup baseball game. Anyway, Jeff , who is 36, decided, "Heck, I can't keep going to New York to try and tell stories; I'll just tell stories here." So in April he started The Monti, which features six storytellers te ...