Roger Jenkins Storyteller more videos
Very short stories - under 6 minutes
3 FRIENDS SHARE A TAXI – a funny modern pourquoi story (ie a ‘How’ or ‘Why’ astory from the Frnch word pourquoi which means why or because.)
one of series of redocrdings made in hotel bedrooms while travelling as a teller!
I heard this 60-ish years ago from my Headmaster – he set the story in Korea (as the war in the peninsula was relatively recent, I suspect) which is why I put ‘Korean’ in quotes – I’ve seen the story ascribed to any country where chopsticks are popular! I’ve added a short reflection – not something I usually do – but this was for my friends at Bukit Merah Secondary School in the early days of the covid-19 lockdown. The story is particularly appropriate for teens because . . . well, watch it and see!
DIVIDING THE HARVEST
Whenever I ask kids ‘who has a sibling?’ (many hands up) and then ‘Does your sibling always treat you fairly?’ the answer is without fail a resounding chorus NO!!
Which is why I like to tell this story! I wonder if you can predict the way it’s going to go?
Asian folktales
I loved working with Ni Jia Wei whose guzheng perfectly complements this story of THE LEGEND OF WILD GOOSE LAKE from China. Recorded at the library in Chinatown (Singapore).
An Indonesian folktale recorded in Bali (hence the frgog chorus throughout!) – the story of Princess Dewi Ratih (who lives in the Moon) and the monster Kala Rahu.
A very popular story from Burma (Myanmar) IT’S NOT OUR PROBLEM. Sadly very much Myanmar’s problem nowadays!.
DON’T EAST YOUR LITTLE SISTER is one of my signature stories and you’ll find a number of different versions (including a bi-lingual one told with Gene Shaudyn telling in Bahasa Melayu. Antonio Rocha (Brazil/USA) saw me tell tihs back in 2005 and asked my permission if he could re-tell it his way. Flattered by this request, I was happy to encourage him to do oso, and he tells it inimitably to this day!
What is carved on rocks
will disappear in time.
What is told from mouth to mouth
will live forever.
– Vietnam ese proverb
shared by Cathy Spagnoli
I fell in love with Shel Siverstein‘s THE GIVING TREE when I saw the US National Theatre of the Deaf stage it in sign & voice in Singapore (1978) To me it’s a powerful parable of the self-centred nature of mankind (take, take, take) and the way Mother Earth gives, gives, givvs.
The video is adapted from ap owerpoint by Seti Wicaksana and the gorgeously simple music is Blue Ridge Mountain Mist by Ralph Schuckett
Fairy tales are more than true:
not be.cause they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us
that dragons can be beaten.
— G. K. Chesterton
It is the duty of the present to convey
the voices of the past
to the ears of the future.
– a Norwegian saying,
with thanks to Richard Martin
THE THREE BEARS RAP
My rhythmical verse re-telling of Goldiocks and the three baears.
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.
– Albert Einstein
I think i heard this story in 2003 or 04, from the American storyteller Doug Lipman when he performed at the (now defunct) Singapore International Storytelling Festival. It’s a testament to both Doug’s telling and the story that I’ve remembered it! Or at least, this is how I remember it!