The Unchained Tour

When I heard a while back that The Unchained Tour was coming to Chapel Hill, I knew I wanted to go.  I love the idea behind it:  a group of storytellers get on a bus, drive for nine days to a bunch of cities, one each day, and in each tell stories, just people talking on stage, in support of storytelling and local-sourcing of everything--books, produce, restaurants, you name it.

The show looked even better when I learned that in addition to Peter Aguero, Dawn Fraser, George Dawes Green, and Edgar Oliver, Neil Gaiman would be performing.  I wanted to see him, but I would have happily gone if he had not been on the bus.  Of course, when word leaked that he was, our show--and I suspect others--turned into Neil Gaiman events.  To his great credit, he didn't mention it on any of his social media outlets until they needed to make sure some shows sold out, and he took his turn as an equal, one among many.  Nothing he could do, though, could stop everyone in line around us from referring to it as "a Neil Gaiman reading," "a Neil Gaiman thing," and so on.  So it goes.

My hope is that after having seen this show, all those people will support the tour when it next comes near them--even though it won't have Gaiman.  All the storytellers were at least good and frequently excellent.  My favorite was Peter Aguero, who acted as MC and told two very good stories, his second being my pick for best of the night.

The tour is over now, but it will be back.  If it comes near you, do not miss it.

And, because several folks have already asked me, yes, hell yes, I would get on that bus for nine days.  I'd be thrilled to do it.

They won't ask me, of course, but hell yeah, I'd do it.