“Brian breaths fire into the story and carries you to the belly of the beast . His energy catapults you right into the story and you find your self riding along with the cast of characters. You can’t help but enjoy a storytelling by Brian.”
– Michele Podesto, Artist & Ritual Leader
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“You’re helping to keep cultures and ancient tales rich and alive in an age of quick info and technology.”
– Joe Roche, Writer, Actor, Humorist
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“Brian, thank YOU! It was a pleasure working with you and learning with you! You created an experience specifically for our students, meeting them where they were at and crafted a story that helped personalize and contextualize our congregational learning theme for the year. I appreciate that we spent time planning together and you came prepared and ready to work with our students while being quite flexible and accommodating. I’d recommend your workshops for other high school students anytime!”
– Laura Siegel Perpinyal, Director of Congregational Learning at Temple Chai, Long Grove, IL
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“Greetings Brian, I wanted to extend a warm thank you for your participation in the Solstice. I’ve been reflecting upon it for the past two weeks and feeling the power of it. I keep coming back to the story and how it captivated everybody in such a different state than I’ve not seen before. It was so wonderful to have the pile of children near the fire, listening to the story… able to have their own little chatter, while being fully engaged and not distracting from the story. I have longed for something like that and didn’t even know that that is what I was longing for. So… I must thank you again for bringing that into my life and I feel so honored by the whole of that night.”
– Cath Seiffert, Licensed Massage Practitioner & Mother
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“Brian, I wanted to thank you for coming to Journeys Rites of Passage leaders and mentors to spend a couple hours educating us about storytelling. The story you told had one side of our brains glued to it, taking it in; the other side of our brains was realizing all the ways we could use storytelling in our wilderness retreats and other activities. Then you laid out for us how to tell a story, where to find stories, how to “memorize” them, when to use them, and ways to treat a story. We learned things we didn’t realize we didn’t know, and you made it seem as if we could do it. This will enrich our work and lives, plus those of the teens and others we work with. Many thanks.”
– Frost Freeman, Ritual Elder & Rites of Passage Leader
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“Thank you for your stories… You are a very passionate and gifted storyteller. I was moved, intrigued, and inspired by the folklore and how you weaved the story together. Each one resonates truth.”
– Eric J Jones. Sr.
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“Brian, I watched your DVD soon after I received it. The stories you chose were wonderful, and I thought you gave a masterful performance… It was a pleasure to view the film – the fascinating stories and your skillful way of delivering them kept my attention fully riveted throughout. I look forward to more ‘wonder-full’ stories to come.”
– Robert Komishane, Poet
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“Brian, I would like to take the time to thank you for your work as a story telling artist at Bet session this summer. I was very pleasantly surprised with the level of detail in your planning for running both the daily activity session that you ran and the all camp program. I have spoken with many of the campers and staff about your time here at Schechter and the feedback was that you were fun, interesting and very easy to work with. I love the way that you involved and immersed yourself in camp while you were here. Storytelling is an easy way for camp to reach its goal to… educate informally, and you put together an excellent program for camp at a very reasonable price. Thank you again.”
-Sam Perlin, Executive Director, Camp Solomon Schechter
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“Your presence here over S’lichot was such a blessing to all of us. [The storytelling] truly set the tone not only for the evening, but for our ongoing learning about belonging, believing and becoming. Thank you once again for your special spirit that you brought to that evening.”
-Rabbi Stephen Hart, Temple Chai in Long Grove, IL
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“Whenever I hear Brian tell a story I am swiftly transported to another space that is, in some distant way, familiar to my being. I am left living the symbols as I digest the story for a period of time beyond the telling. Brian’s choice of stories are deeply transformative and his tellings are engaging and compelling to the listener. I support and encourage him to continue completely in this, his true vocation.”
–Velda Thomas, Healer & Ritualist