Brian Walsh is a professional storyteller, specializing in sacred stories from Celtic culture and other traditions from around the world. Irish stories form the core of his art as a storyteller, and his love for these tales from Irish mythology and folklore is contagious. Prose and poetry, humour and horror, romance and respect, are all drawn together in Brian’s faithful but accessible tellings of these amazing Irish stories. While his repertoire is wide, Brian’s signature mythic stories include “The Birth of Lugh”; “The Coming of the Sons of Mil”; “The Tale of the Two Bulls”; and “Niall and the Hag”.
Brian tells primarily for an adult audience(12+), and where appropriate he has been known to throw in a “cúpla focal as Gaeilge” (a few words in Irish). He is especially interest in the role of myth-telling as a vehicle for tradition, healing, wisdom, and building deeper relationships, all while having a bit of fun along the way.
Some of Brian’s storytelling highlights include participation in the Toronto Storytelling Festival or related Storyfire events (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014); while guest lecturing for classes at University of Toronto’s Celtic Studies Department (2023, 2022, 2021, 2017, 2016, 2010, 2009); the Parliament of World Religions Conference (2018); “Up Yer Celt: a StoryFusion Ceilidh” (2016); at Dundas Square for the Wheel’s Samhain Event (2012); and deep in the woods, around a campfire with friends.
He is a regular teller at Toronto’s 1001 Friday Nights of Storytelling, and as a proud member of the York Storytelling Guild, he also performs with them at several events every year.
Brian is also a Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO); a Spiritual Care Provider and Supervisor-Educator (CASC) in a hospital setting; as well as a chaplain and adjunct faculty at the University of Toronto. He finds that his work in these meaning-making professions and his work in storytelling are mutually supportive and deepening ways of exploring of the human condition.
Website: http://www.brianwalsh.ca/
Email: [email protected]
The Tales of Brother Wingfoot:
These wild first-person tellings put a Southern New World spin on ancient mythic stories of Greece. Making these ancient tales both more familiar and less familiar, you’ll feel like you’re hearing them for the very first time, but at their core, you’ll see I haven’t changed a thing.
“How Winter and Spring Came to Be”
“My Humble Start” or “How I invented the Banjo and Got a Place at Daddy’s Table”
“How Sister Far-Shot Gets Her Own Wagon”
“Poor Laurel” or “How Brother Far-Shot Loses by Winning”
“The Weaving Contest”
A Note on “True Life” Tales vs. Traditional Storytelling:
While I think the power and wisdom of Mythic Story and Folktales are often underestimated in today’s world; a growing focus on personal stories and story-worthy incidents in biography and history has given us another way to find meaning in day to day life. I love these stories, but I don’t tell these stories.
Even though personal stories (yours) figure prominently in my psychotherapy practice, true life stories are not the primary focus of my path as a traditional storyteller. My passions, as a teller, rests with ancient Celtic tales of gods and spirits, whose seemingly unpronounceable names scare away the faint of heart and whose themes point to the timeless nature of archetypal wisdom. By lifting us out of our preoccupation with the present and with our own self concern, Mythology can help us find humour, depth, pathos, and insight through traditions that brought us this far but are fading fast in a fast-food world.
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