VOTM: What is the most unusual experience you've had at a reading?
STEVE: Being fairly neophyte at fiction, nothing that unusual has happened at my handful of events. Yet. So I will have to dredge through some memories.
Years ago Tennessee Williams was speaking in LA. He was quite a bit out of it with drink. (What a shock.) A guy in the crowd came up to him afterward and was all over him with adulation--“Man you’re my idol--you’re the greatest--Sixteen Tons is my favorite song.” (He seemed to have mistaken him for Tennessee Ernie Ford.) The guy kept prodding him to sing a few bars--until Tennessee actually attempted to do so. With marginal results.
That guy in the crowd (to my eternal shame) was me. I was a snotty young provocateur back then. Could never do such a thing today. Though many around me where aghast, he seemed to enjoy it a bit.
I owe my soul to the company store.
Come see Steve read from his award-winning stories at The Mountain on Sunday, September 26 at 8pm.
