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WOSAS : F721 WOSAS/CD226/track2
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Sound recording, story; a folk tale and outwitting the devil story from Armenia told by Ben Haggarty, at the fifteenth Storytelling Unit Clubnight, at an unidentified venue, London, 1984

Story told by Ben Haggarty. A poor man works for the fisherman, killing his fish. The man takes pity of one beautiful fish and throws it back. He is sacked from his job and on the way home he makes a deal with the devil, who gives him a white cow, on the understanding that in three years time the devil will return and ask the man a question. Three years pass and the night comes when the devil is expected. Before the devil arrives a stranger seeks shelter in the poor man's house. The devil arrives and the stranger helps answer the devil's questions until the devil retreats.

audience:- adult; contributing storytellers
    recording quality
condition:- poor
completeness:- complete
duration:- 0 hours, 8 minutes, 45 seconds

The West London Storytelling Unit Clubnights or The Storytelling Unit Clubnights were begun by Ben Haggarty, TUUP and Daisy Keable in 1982 shortly after beginning to work together as the West London Storytelling Unit (W.L.S.T.U). They took place on roughly a fortnightly basis during the atumn and winter months, in community centres in Acton, Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith. The clubnights were an opportunity for anyone to come and tell a story, or perform music on the condition that it had a toe-hold in tradition. The performance of original poetry and the reading of original writing was actively discouraged as there were plenty of other fora for 'new writing' elsewhere in London. In 2007 Ben Haggarty explained that the clubnight format was in part inspired by the College of Storytellers, but with the aim of doing something less bourgeois, for a younger audience and which was not dominated by Idries Shah's mission to promote his vision of Sufi storytelling. The clubnights also took inspiration from the anarchy of the London Musicians Collective clubnight events in Camden. The clubnights led Ben Haggarty to inaugurate the First UK International Storytelling Festival at Battersea Arts Centre in London in January 1985. After the 1985 festival a few further clubnights were run, before ending in 1986. The clubnights were superseded by the formation of the Company of Storytellers who pioneered the touring of adult evening shows throughout the UK, and by the formation of the Crick Crack Club in 1987, which focused on the programming and development of professional storytellers, their performance skills and their repertoire for adult audiences.

storytelling:- storyteller: Ben Haggarty
male / British / born 30.11.1958

origin:- Armenia


administration:- storyteller; promoter: Ben Haggarty
storyteller: Daisy Keable; Georgiana Jerstad; Georgiana Keable
storyteller; musician: TUUP; Godfrey Duncan


storytelling:- London, England
1984
storytelling club: Storytelling Unit Clubnight
storytelling club: Clubnight 15


gift from:- storyteller: Ben Haggarty


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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