I want to talk to old guys about telling stories that nobody wants to hear.
You know in Hollywood they actually have a system for telling stories.
Say for instance you have a movie idea, I got lots okay, but you know anyway.
A professional with a concise premise of one or two sentences, something like:
"A meteorologist and his ex-wife chase tornadoes around the Midwest; and a bunch of special effects happens."[He wiggles his fingers trying to help visualize the story, and then he giggles.]
Yeah, if people like that, and only if they like that, you can go on to tell the treatment.
And it's just like a little longer version with more details.
Then if they like that, you can go into the full-blown screenplay. That's it an entirely like two hours! [Harold giggles, making motions with his hands.]
See how they do that? You see, they a little bit of the story to see if people are interested.
You older guys... you might want to try that.
The next time you guys go to the mall, and you see a bunch of teenagers out there talking about something interesting like the new Alanis Morissette CD. [He gives everyone 2 thumbs up and with a high pitch voice and says] RULES!
Okay so, and you know it reminds you one of your [making quote marks with his hands to sarcastically emphasize]"Amusing stories".
Don't launch right in to the two hour version you know, see if you can get their attention like uh, you know.
"Uh, you uh know one time I uh had to change a tire in the rain, on my way to a wedding."
If you are met with cold stares, don't tell the story! Move on, pitch out another idea!
[He does his old man impression and says]"Duh (Did I) tell you kids about the time I stepped on a birthday cake? Duhuhuh (to emphasize a dumb old man)"
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The Red Green Show pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.