Preview: Tales of NSFW with Tynan Rhea Hosting (Tales of…)

Tales of… is a storytelling event that varies in theme from month to month, and on August 20th they’re getting raunchy with Tales of… NSFW – Not Safe For Work (acronym may not apply for those employed in the sex industry.) Co-producers Brian Finch and Erin Rodgers have got some big names from Toronto’s sex-positive scene to grace the stage with their true X-rated stories.

I asked a few of the storytellers to answer two simple questions:

  • Can you give us a teaser as to what your story will be about?
  • What do you like about storytelling and how is it different from/similar to other work that you do the realm of sex-positivity?

Here’s what they had to say.

Jon Pressick, award-winning sex journalist, plans to “…wait until I get there to figure out a story. Get a feel of the room.” Winging it like that sounds risky, but I’ve known Jon for many years and can attest that the man has a wealth of stories and an ease with an audience.

Here’s Jon on the art of storytelling: “To me, storytelling is a natural extension of our increasingly social lives. Except this actually takes place in person. Sure, people have always been sharing stories, even sex ones (though that has been hard in more conservative times). But these days, stories are told every day. We relate through our stories now, as opposed to through proscribed interaction. And that is allowing our sex stories a place, a time, and an audience.”

Sophie Delancey, porn performer/director/editor and vice president says “Despite being from TheArtofBlowjob.com, my story is about how oral sex can go terribly, terribly wrong.

For me, storytelling is a great function within sex-positivity, as it allows us to share and make public sides of our sexual selves, opening the minds and horizons of those who are listening and hopefully encouraging them to tell their stories as well.”

Peter Troyer, life savant & storyteller, hasn’t yet made up his mind which story he’ll tell. “There are two strong contenders that involve the same themes, only with slightly different details. They are both stories of sex gone awfully wrong – situations and consequences that are impossible to plan for or anticipate – or in both of these cases, even to imagine.”

Peter was on the roster with me at the Tales of… Pride in June and his hilarious story featured a Prince Albert that became, well, lost mid-coitus. He tells me that whichever story he tells this Wednesday will make that one pale in comparison, as a missing piercing is “within the realm of everyday complications or possibilities” while the two options he’s considering are “unimaginable possibilities.”

Peter on storytelling: “Telling stories (and clearly consciously collecting stories to tell) is how I communicate. I have always been ‘rewarded’ for telling stories and my friends have always encouraged me to ‘do something more with it’, etc. And now I am! My first time was the Pride show. And I’m hooked.”

Check out Jon Pressick’s blog at Sex In Words and visit the porn site that Sophie Delancey’s VPs at TheArtofBlowjob.com. Sophie and another of the Tales of… NSFW storytellers, Samantha Fraser, run Tell Me Something Good, a storytelling event that’s always NSFW.

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