I recorded a story told by my boyfriend about an old friend of his that he's trying to find. Dr. Bomer mentioned that storytelling is different from conversations, almost more of a monologue, so I was looking for a cue that would signal the story as being set apart from the conversation we were having. Much like "hook" to grap a reader's attention at the beginning of a piece of writing, Ruben set apart his story with a question. "So, do you remember me talking about my friend Wayne?" I answered that I did, but that was the end of my oral participation until the end of the story. I also noticed that this particular question served to activate my prior knowledge about Wayne--that he used to work with Ruben (at a place Ruben no longer works) but he was no longer there and no one seemed to know what had happened to him. This was troubling to Ruben because Wayne had been going through several personal hardships around the time he was let go. My knowledge of these things would be important to the subsequent storytelling, and Ruben's question allowed him to gauge what he needed to repeat.
Ruben's story consisted of him relaying to me that another former coworker had called him back with a few more details about how/why Wayne lost his job. Ruben continued to hold the floor with pauses, some unintentional as he searched for seemingly important details (such as specific dates) which often he would decide weren't important enough to keep the listener waiting and would just continue with the story. The story ended with a conclusion-type statement of, "I'm sorry that story was kind of a downer." Ruben "held the floor" for a solid 10 minutes. During that time, I participated by nodding, but I did not speak, even to ask a question or give a cursory affirmative response.
Besides the way he told the story, I thought it was significant that he chose to tell me this story at all, and the setting in which he did. The story, although about Wayne, inherently relates to some very serious and personal parts of Ruben's past. I felt that he shared this with me was a way of furthering a developing bond. Although we had just eaten dinner in an intimate restaurant, he waited to share the story until we were alone in the car on the way home. Again, I felt this suggested that to Ruben, this story was both serious and personal.
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It's interesting how sometimes the location of the story-telling makes a big difference. For some reason, I always feel slightly guilty when retelling a sad or upsetting story, like I ruined someone's day. My parents sometimes have to call me to tell me something, rather than on email, because they are paranoid someone could read my email (which is true). I imagine the place of the story-telling plus the content matter adds more layers to the context of the performance--you don't tell sex stories at a funeral and you don't talk about dead puppies at a party.
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