Tiff Stevenson
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
Tell you how the night's going to go. We have three stories and a break where you can go to the bar. Yeah, see, that's how you know you're in the UK and not America. People will cheer going to the bar as a part of the evening. And tonight's theme for the show is all in. That's the theme for tonight's show. Stories about going all in, like the time I went to Paris. I went all in on mezcal.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
I drank a lot of it. In fact, I was still throwing up on the way to the Eurostar the next day. I walked up to the desk, having done a little puke in a bin. I'm very classy. Let's get that out of the way. And as I walked up to the desk, the man behind the check-in counter said, is it contagious? Yes. I said, sorry, what? He said, what is making you sick? Is it contagious?
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
And I had to say, no, I did this to myself. It's beautiful, beautiful. So as I introduce our storytellers tonight, I like to introduce them with a little bit of a question to get you into the mood and the vibe of the evening. And because it's me, I've asked a question about fashion. I like to know when our storytellers have gone all in on fashion.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
Navid Madavian. Fantastic. If you don't know, The Moth is an independent arts organisation supported by members and generous donations. And if you want to find out more about workshops in schools, other events and workspaces, please visit themoth.org. Let's have one more round of applause for our storytellers. Thank you.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
You know, I've gone all in on fashion plenty of times. There was the time I bought fingerless gloves and thought they were a good idea. Yes, exactly. Fingerless gloves, not a good idea. Not combined with a shawl. In London, when it's foggy. As I said, I asked everyone a question before this, and our first storyteller said, when she went all in on fashion, she said, I have to dress up for work.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
I said I'm in my 40s. I'm a very sexy age now. I'm the kind of age where if I turn down an alcoholic drink at the bar, people are like, oh, are you, is she on antibiotics? Because they want to know. Sometimes I order a cranberry juice just for an air of sexual mystery. Keep it fresh and exciting.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
I'll tell you how you can tell that you're middle-aged, when you start buying your clothes in places that also sell food. Yeah. That would be my fashion all in, you know. I like it, because if I can double down on a pair of shorts and some chicken wings, I'm barbecue ready. That's me. I'm good to go. Just those little signs.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
So I asked our final storyteller tonight the same question that I've asked all the others. Tell me about a time you went all in for fashion. And she said, when I was 21 years old, I went to Jamaica for the first time to discover my roots and heritage.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
We were going to a party on the beach and I decided that my outfit should be maybe the shortest booty shorts with the word Jamaica emblazoned across them. LAUGHTER and a top with Jamaica emblazoned across it, in case anyone had forgotten whereabouts in the world we were.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
I hopped into the taxi to head to the party, and when we got five minutes away, I made him turn back and take me home, because I lost all confidence in it. So please, welcome our final storyteller for this evening to the Moth Stage. Are you ready? Catherine, I've just realised that I've not written your surname, but I know what it is. It's Catherine Joy White. Please welcome her.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
So the first time I went swimming, I was five years old.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
I work with families in museums. In the last few weeks, I've been a pirate, a spider, a very sweaty anteater, and a spunky squirrel. Okay, so strap yourselves in and get ready, and please welcome to the stage, the moth stage, our very first storyteller, Kate Oliver.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
Katherine Joy White, everyone. It's so funny, I met everyone yesterday for the first time, and I think I didn't write Katherine's full name down on my card, because I was like, oh, I just know her. So, Katherine also has a film out based around this story, and it's in festivals, and it's storming and winning awards, so you should definitely check that out. Just smashing it.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
All that's left for me to say, really, now we've heard all our stories, is thank you to you, the audience, because the storytelling literally can't happen without an audience. So thank you to you guys. Otherwise, we're just one person in a room telling a sad, lonely tale to ourselves. So give yourselves a round of applause.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
Sharing stories has to involve an audience, and I think it's how we connect. It's how we find our humanity. It's how we reach out to each other, find understanding, empathy, learn, get new ideas. And so this is the first ever Moth I've hosted, and I hope it's not the last, but I've absolutely loved this evening. So thank you. I've been Tiff Stevenson. I hope you've enjoyed me as well.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
And we're going to give it up. I want to give it up for storytelling. in all its forms. It's fantastic.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
How beautiful. Welcome to The Moth. Hello, I'm your host, Tiff Stevenson. I'm local and cheap. Also, a sexually confident woman in my 40s. Yeah! The men are, like, frightening. People are frightened of sexually confident women in their 40s. It's what I went as for Halloween last year. People were like, hideous, kill it. Who's been to the moth before? Let me hear you cheer.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
A few of you, about half, I would say. If you've never been to the Moth, let me tell you about the Moth. It's non-profit. Excellent. It's storytelling. It's first-person storytelling.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
Ah, yes. What an opener. How fantastic. Give it up once more for Kate Oliver.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
And we have storytellers coming up tonight telling true stories, personal stories from their lives because the Moth believes that building community and empathy through storytelling is more important than ever before. Yes. I think that's a beautiful sentiment. The storytellers will use no notes, no cheat sheets. We have three stories. This is how it's going to run.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: All In - Live from London
So, moving on to our next storyteller. When I asked him about the time he went all in on fashion, he said, two words, JNCO jeans. I said, I didn't know what they were. And he said, they were balloon jeans, the hugest, overly large jeans you could wear. I said, enough said. I get it. I get the visual. Please welcome to the moth stage, Navid Madavian.