((PKG)) 60 SECOND STORYTELLER
((TRT: 06:22))
((Topic Banner: 60 Second Storyteller))
((VOA Russian))
((Reporter: Anna Nelson))
((Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Dmitry Vershinin))
((Editor: Natalia Latukhina))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main character: 1 male))
((Sub character: 1 female))
((NATS: Dan Hurley))
Are you ready for your story?
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
So many people just rush by. They’re in a rush. Their head is lost in their thoughts. I think it’s kind of zen. It’s, you know, be here now. Let’s do this. Let’s play.
((NATS: Dan Hurley))
Why Not?
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
So, I was an editor in Chicago
((Courtesy: danhurley.com/60seconds))
at the American Bar Association.
I always had a sense of adventure.
((Courtesy ends))
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
For Halloween one night, I was lying in bed thinking about it and I went, “I think I can do this.”
((Courtesy: Best Documentary))
In April of 1983, I took my typewriter onto the street on Michigan Avenue.
((Courtesy ends))
((Courtesy: danhurley.com/60seconds))
And as I'm doing this, I'm thinking, “This is a big mistake.” I was starting to feel very embarrassed and nervous. ((Courtesy ends))
((Courtesy: Best Documentary))
So, I sit down. I put the little sign, you know, “60-Second Novels”.
“Sir, would you like a story? Miss, would you like a story?” And everybody's ignoring me. And then a older woman came over and said, “What are you doing? I will have a story.” And I just talked to her for a minute.
((Courtesy ends))
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
And I wrote just a few sentences. I pull it out of the typewriter and there's like 20 people around me. And I read it to her, everybody claps. And I'm like, “What just happened?” And I did it for a couple hours and I made like $50. And I thought, “Wow, this is - people like this. What did I just invent?”
I was from the New York area. I said, “Let me go back to New York for a weekend
((Courtesy: Best Documentary))
and write stories.” And I went to New York and I wrote stories for two days and I made like $500.
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
And I said, “I am out of here with this job.” So, I quit my job. My boss told me, “Dan, don't do this. This is a mistake.” And I was like, “Thank you for the…” you know, “Thank you but I'm going to give it a shot.”
I moved to New York and never looked back. You know, sometimes I think I'm crazy. I mean, I've done it. So, I've done it now for 38 years.
((NATS))
I wear a yellow sport coat and a yellow bow tie and a yellow hat. They're like, “He must be some kind of performer. Wow, what is this?”
So, when I started, people were still using type…some people were still using typewriters. In 1983, very few people had a computer. So, to have a typewriter was no big deal. It's turned into this retro typewriter and I'm going to just do this old-fashioned thing called talking. You know, have a conversation, listen.
What I'm doing is interacting with the person, talking with them, trying to get a sense of them. And then writing something for them. And those are selected stories that also make sense to other people.
It’s just for that person. So, I kind of think it's like a unique. Some people are lonely. I definitely get people who I feel like I'm the first person they've had a real conversation with in years.
Folks tell me about divorce, mental illness. I'm like totally open to them. I'm not judging them. I am there to write their story.
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
I did it four years. But pretty soon, I got into the whole party and event
((Courtesy: danhurley.com/60seconds))
where people were paying me a lot of money to show up and do the stories. That's how I've been able to buy a house.
At private parties, big corporate events, birthday parties, all that kind of thing. And it was actually seeming kind of dull and stupid. Like I began to feel, you know, like you know, “What am I doing here?”
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
Yeah, like I really missed doing it
((Courtesy ends))
for ordinary people. And I met my wife doing a 60-second novel for her.
((Alice Garbarini Hurley
Dan’s Wife))
He was really handsome and he had like freckles. And then he also asked me about their lives and wrote me a story that was really comforting. It said, “One day, Alice will be walking by the ocean, will come a man.”
Months later that when he wrote that story, we were sitting at Rye Playland near the ocean, near the beach, sound. And we've been on a long journey together. 30 years of marriage.
((Alice Garbarini Hurley
Dan’s Wife))
I realized that other people were talking about him as odd that he was sitting on the street doing it. But he's also a New York Times writer and a science writer. I'm proud of him.
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
It's not a photograph of a person. It's my creative interpretation. Yes, it's pretty insane that there's 50,000 little life stories. It is.
With COVID then, because like more than a year went by, I would like to do it on the street again
((Dan Hurley
Novelist))
to the original idea which was to be with ordinary people.
((NATS/MUSIC))
When I did it on the street, it's my world. I've invented it.
For the individual person, I think people just like this idea that there's someone there listening and waiting. Why aren't there writers everywhere sitting on the street, ready to tell people's life stories?
((NATS/MUSIC))