Storytelling School

I’m prepping for a role when my movement coach John asks me, “What animal are you?” I’m confused because I’m playing a police officer from Philadelphia, not an animal. He continues, “We need to infuse your character with an animal. So what kind of animal would a Philadelphia police officer be?”

I honestly have no clue. First, I say I’m a jaguar. But that doesn’t work. He doesn’t think a fox quite fits either, but then he mentions a Doberman Pinscher. 

I don’t get it. What does a Doberman have to do with my role?

But here’s the thing: Dobermans are badasses in the canine world. They’re smart, protective, and always on the lookout for danger. You really don’t want to mess with them!

Rehearsals begin and I take on the traits of a Doberman in the way I move my head, my body, and even walk across the stage. It completely transforms my character--just from that one coaching session!

Kalinda Gray spends her life creating characters as her vocation, and today she and I dive into so much goodness about how she does it, where characters matter in storytelling, and so much more! You’ll hear about character and stories as a personal escape, what helps suspend belief the most in storytelling and performance art, and how adaptation helps a business survive through a crisis like COVID when other companies fold.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How fairy-tale princess stories also serve as life lessons
• How to help your audience go along for the ride with you as a storytelling performer
• How storytelling through character can help others with trauma

Who is Kalinda?

From Southern California, Kalinda made the world of performance art and storytelling in all forms her home from a young age. Her parents and high school drama teacher encouraged within her the expression of myth and legend ever since she was five years old. She particularly enjoys works that bring to life historical events and figures like Eva Peron, The Waltons, and Marilyn Monroe.

In the live theater world, Kalinda has performed in over 200 local Southern California productions at the MET, the Blank Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, Segerstrom Hall, the Maverick Theater, and other institutions. She co-founded the comedic improv puppeteering group All Puppet Players and has been involved in original works and creating characters for the stage, screen, and theme parks with Disney, Youtube, Universal Studios Hollywood, actor Cliff Osmond, and television writers Stan Zimmerman and Daniel Knauf.

Kalinda uses her love of fairy tales, impersonations, puppetry, working with children, and event planning to entertain at parties through her Wishing Well Entertainment and Parties company. As the highest-rated company of its kind in Southern California, Wishing Well Entertainment has planned over 6,500 events for all ages to date and is privately sought after by the entertainment industry, A-list celebrities, high-end events, and families.

When not on stage or at an event, Kalinda loves traveling to investigate famous myths and legends of famous places like Transylvania, Glastonbury, and Versailles. She also works in film television, and commercials and is a voice-over artist for video games and web series projects. Currently, she has multimedia projects, essays, and a Salem Witch Trials storytelling tour based on her independent historical research in the works.

Links and Resources:

• Kalinda Gray
• @kalindagray on Instagram
• @kalindathegray on Facebook
• @kalindagray on Tiktok
• Wishing Well Entertainment and Parties
• @wishingwellparties on Instagram
• @wishingwellparties on Facebook
• @wishingwellparties on Tiktok
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

I’m five years old, sitting with my Mom in a crowded movie theater, about to watch my very first film ever. As the lights dim and the movie begins, I become enraptured with the animated cartoon world and the characters. Then, something we call an “inciting incident” in storytelling happens onscreen. When it does, little five-year-old me starts screaming so much that my mom has to take me out of the theater.

I’ve never watched Bambi again to this day (if you’ve seen it you know exactly what inciting incident I’m talking about). Although Mom had no idea an animated movie would have such an effect on me, at the same time, it also reinforced my love and deep caring for animals. Plus it showed me how worlds on film, even in cartoon form, allow me to feel something.

My guest today, Lindsay Eberts, has lived her life in and around story, film, and the delicious emotions they evoke. It all started first with her father, Jake Eberts, a film producer with a storytelling gift who created pioneering films like Driving Miss Daisy, Dancing With Wolves, and Gandhi, and later with her own work in helping emerging filmmakers around the world.

If you’re curious about:

What makes a story stick? What’s one way to challenge yourself in creating stories? How do you get past your fear and get back into the emotion you want to convey through your storytelling when you’re speaking in public?

Then you’ll want to tune into this episode as Lindsay and I take you behind the curtain as she shares her incredible perspective through stories about growing up with her dad, their Oscar date night a few months before he passed, and the last words she heard him say on his deathbed that all illustrate the importance of living a life surrounded by emotion.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why everything can be made into a story
• How one or two words can tell a story
• How to focus on serving your audience with your storytelling

Who is Lindsay?

Lindsay Eberts is a British-Canadian film producer and emerging filmmaker consultant based in Québec, Canada. Using the example of her father Jake Eberts' extraordinary career and wonderful character as a central guiding principle, she helps emerging filmmakers develop their first projects for maximum impact for their long-term career goals. Thanks to her time attending and working for the Sundance Film Festival, she is obsessed with short films and what they can do for filmmakers, especially if they get the right support. 

She is currently serving as Executive Producer on the feature-length documentary, For Love, which is a celebration of Indigenous culture and people that draws the connection between residential school trauma and the overrepresentation of Indigenous kids in foster care, and a promise to do better. 

Links and Resources:

• Lindsay Eberts on LinkedIn
• @starlingfilmhouse on Instagram
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

I’m sitting with my husband at a huge speaking event. He’s “The Closer”, and it’s already been a long day with lots of speakers on the stage. As we’re waiting for his turn to come, I turn to look at him and see he’s starting to fall asleep!

Uh oh! I grab him and take him outside of the theater because we’ve got to get his energy back up somehow. I say to him, “How about you put in your earbuds, play your power song, and take a brisk walk around the block?”

So off he goes, and I anxiously wait for him in the lobby. The minutes pass like hours. But when he walks back in, it’s like he’s a different person! 

Just that one song recharged him and got him amped up to deliver his speech. He jumped up on that stage and owned it!

My belief is that he lit that stage on fire (figuratively speaking, of course) because he simply changed the story of what was going on with him - through music. Music has such a powerful effect on our bodies. And few people know that better than my guest today.

David Dabbon is a songwriter, arranger, and composer who’s worked on Broadway and received an Emmy nomination for his music composition in “Eat Shit, Bob!” (which you’ve probably heard on John Oliver’s HBO late-night show). Story through music is a huge part of his business and his life.

Why is story so much more than just the written word? How can musical choices change not just the feel but also the perspective of a scene? What are the layers that give music the power to energize and affect people so deeply? In this episode, David and I discuss the nuances of storytelling through musical choices, particularly its power to change (or manipulate) the feelings and perspectives of an audience.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why form is a big part of storytelling in all of its guises
• How music can support your emotional connection to stories
• Why we create different characters in storytelling

Who is David?

Based in New York, David Dabbon is an Emmy-nominated composer and arranger whose work has been featured on television and on the stage. He earned a bachelor of music degree from The Hartt School and his master of music degree in choral conducting from Carnegie Mellon University. He’s also a Usual Suspect at New York Theater Workshop and a member of the Television Academy, ASCAP, and The Society of Composers and Lyricists.

David earned his Emmy award nomination for composing music in the song “Eat Shit, Bob!” for HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He worked as the dance arranger for the Tony-nominated Broadway musical adaptation of Beetlejuice and the musical comedy Disaster! He also provided additional orchestrations for the Grammy-nominated Sondheim on Sondheim and orchestrations and arrangements for the HBO documentary Six by Sondheim. Other composer works include the interactive game show musical Game On, the Golden Lotus workshop, the ballet commission Surface, the production Our New Town, films Dori the Donor and All God’s Creatures, and The Mysteries plays.

In his ongoing collaboration with six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, David regularly provides orchestrations for albums and concerts. You can hear his work on McDonald’s New York Philharmonic: Sing Happy and Go Back Home. Also, at the 42nd Kennedy Center Honors, his orchestration of “Somewhere/Some Other Time” was performed. Currently, David is dance arranging and writing additional music for Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ production and creating additional arrangements for the Funny Girl revival.

Links and Resources:

• David Dabbon
• @daviddabbon on Instagram
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

It’s my first ever Improv class and because I’m so nervous, I don’t want to be there by myself. So I have my husband Mark sitting next to me after I’ve (ahem) tricked him into coming.

Our teacher Alan Irwin starts the intro, and I listen as he goes through the basic rules. But I’m thinking, “Hang on. Isn’t Improv comedy supposed to be made up on the spot? You’re not supposed to have rules in your head the whole time!”

All of this is just making me even more nervous. So I approach Alan after class and he says, “Kymberlee, these rules are there to give us a foundation. In Improv, we need a common language as we train. Then from there, we can play with it and bring our own style to the stage.”

A few classes later, after I get some training under my belt, I realize Alan’s right. With any new skill, you have to learn the fundamentals. Once you have those, you can make the skill your own.

That’s what we’re doing today in the first episode of a new series I call, “So You Think You Want to Become a Storyteller…” And we’re turning the tables a little bit, as I’m the one in the Hot Seat. I’ve invited my husband (no tricks this time) to take over interviewing duties. 

In this episode, I look at a foundational question people ask me all the time: Where do I start if I want to become a storyteller?

To help me answer this, we cover why stories work, whether stories can be made up, what being “story curious” means, why people feel resistance when telling their stories, where you can tell stories, and how I always have a story ready to tell.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How stories help you build trust and rapport fast
• What it means to purposefully tell stories and be a story detective
• How to get better at storytelling and overcome the fear of telling your stories 

A little about me:

Hi there. I’m Kymberlee.

As a Speaking Strategist and founder of Storytelling School, I’ve had the pleasure of working with over 500 speakers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs worldwide for over a decade. No matter if those folks were getting ready to take the TED or TEDx stage or preparing for a high-stakes presentation with everything on the line, my specialty is High Stakes Short Form Communication. I’ve seen what works when influencing change and what doesn’t. It turns out storytelling is one of the most powerful tools you can have in your arsenal. That’s why I’m building a movement of master storytellers to affect change in the world on a global scale to help people tell real stories that have influence and impact. With effective storytelling, you change people’s lives.

Since competition for potential client attention is fierce, a story can make the difference between being memorable or irrelevant. You’ll find me sharing my matcha tea mishap to discuss perfectionism, my quest for Bruce Lee and Hello Kitty art to explore kindness or the six months of live blade training I underwent to illustrate presence. I spend my days showing the power of using stories to help cement ideas and bring lessons to life and teaching my clients to do the same.

If you think business owners can’t tell stories or don’t have stories to share with their clients, staff, donors, followers, or investors, I invite you to reconsider your perspective. There’s no better place than in business to tell your stories so audiences, no matter how big or small, can understand how you think and what you value.

Now it’s your turn... If you’re ready to become a master storyteller and affect change in our world, you’ve come to the right place.

Links and Resources:

• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

I’m taking an improv class in Los Angeles when the instructor turns to me and says, “Kymberlee, the last three characters you’ve done are all the same. You need to switch it up.”

What? There's no way they're the same! (I don’t say this to my instructor out loud, of course.)

She notices that my character choices of a fancy lady, a CEO, and an airplane pilot are all high-status characters with the same point of view, and I use the same voice for all three.

“So what do I do?” I ask. She tells me all I need to do is to simply change one thing. Making a choice to change one thing - doing a different voice, posture, or walk - will change everything about the characters I’m creating.

At that moment, I choose to change the way I talk. I put on a Southern cowboy accent instead (and then laugh at myself because of how horrible it is). 

And it works! That one difference not only changed everything about my character, it has made me a better stage performer ever since. Plus this mantra works in business too:

Change one thing, you change everything.

My special guest today, Jenn Wong, knows how to change characters up and it’s no wonder why! She’s the ultimate multi-hyphenate: an actress, voice-over artist, “urban ninja”, writer, and much more.

Are you curious to know:

How do you use your voice to tell the story of different and distinct characters? What kind of uniqueness can you find in working on various projects? How do you put humanity into characters, no matter how crazy their circumstances, and avoid separating yourself from the story? How can you ensure that people find your characters interesting?

In this episode, Jenn and I chat about all that and tell stories of wine snobbery and nerd-dom in college, recognition through Call of Duty and Raya and the Last Dragon characters, and more. We’re getting into some good stuff today!

What you will learn in this episode:

• How to turn characters on paper into three-dimensional characters
• Why representation in stories and characters matter
• What to avoid so that your characters appeal to more people 

Who is Jenn?

Jenn Wong refuses to pigeonhole herself into any singular type of person. She writes, acts, and voices characters. She’s a first-generation American and Southern California girl who loves pickles, french fries, and industrial design. Her friends consider her an urban ninja who knows where to find everything--from unique gifts to the occasional pop-up restaurant, speakeasy, or cabaret--which led her to create her blog, Way of the Wong.

As a performer, Jenn’s best known for voicing several notable characters in Disney XD’s Yo-Kai Watch and Yo-Kai Watch: The Movie like Spoilerina, Toiletta, Mermaidyn, and the evil Gin. She’s also voiced video game characters such as The Great Fairy Mija in Hyrule: Warriors: Age of Calamity and Operator Isabella Rosario Dulnuan Reyes in Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Jenn's writing has appeared in travel, technology, and cocktail culture publications. She previously served as the Creative & Technical Director of Move LifeStyle, a lifestyle destination e-magazine for the modern working woman. Currently, she lives in Los Angeles with her partner Jason and their two dogs, Ninja and Junebug.

Links and Resources:

• Jenn Wong
• Way of the Wong
• Jenn Wong - IMDB 
• @wayofthewong on Instagram
• @jenn.wong.awesome on Facebook
• @wayofthewong on Twitter
• @justjennwong on LinkedIn
• @wayofthewong on Youtube
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

It’s Saturday. I’m having a few laughs and some coffee with friends after kickboxing like we always do. 

Grandmaster is with us on this particular Saturday and halfway through my matcha latte sip he looks over at me and says, “Shouldn’t you be getting ready?”

I respond, “Ready for what?” 

Grandmaster announces, “You're testing today.” 

Wait. What??

Even though I’ve put in the extra time and training in preparation for this moment, I don't feel ready to go out on a mat and test in front of an audience anytime soon. Definitely not today… and most definitely not 20 minutes from now when the testing is set to begin!

I also can’t pass up this opportunity… so I decide to give this test everything I have. 

Heart and mind racing, I rush home and put on my uniform (which I find still wet in the washing machine, by the way). Then I zip back to the dojo and have to park several blocks away. On top of all that, when I get out of the car I realize I don’t have any shoes on! 

Not having time to do anything about it, I grab my bag of weapons, run down the street barefoot as fast as I can, and step onto the Martial Arts mat, wet uniform and all, with one minute left to spare.

That whole experience reinforced a critical lesson I think about to this day: We have the opportunity to trust our training, rise to any occasion and go all in. And my special guest today on the Storytelling School Podcast, Ivan Burev, has done this himself many times over. Ivan goes all in, in everything he does.

Have you ever wondered:

How can finding people you like (who also like you) benefit your business? What misconceptions you might be making right now about your audience? Why is fun critical to your success? If you have, this episode is for you.

Discover the answers to those questions and more as Ivan and I discuss the power in and purpose of being authentically you. You’ll learn how choosing to be yourself affects your energy, the people you attract, and your business; how a varied background adds to your story and life experience; and how a love of disco (and other joyful things) can tie into business success.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What people actually buy from businesses these days
• How to discover the right audience for you when starting a new business
• How to find the attention-grabbing hook to your stories 

Who is Ivan?

Ivan Burev isn’t your typical social media guy. In his world, anyone can be an artist without the need for tools other than your brain and phone. His life motto, “When hard work meets fun, it becomes disco!” reflects his belief that hard work and fun can go together.

So Ivan created a place where you can find both. He uses his passion for helping small and medium-sized businesses attain their goals by developing successful digital strategies that increase brand awareness and generate leads. Find him on his website, Funky Business Media, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.

Links and Resources:

• Funky Business Media
• @imivanburev on Instagram
• @imivanburev on Facebook
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

I’m in the audience at a business conference when the speaker suddenly asks, “Who here is an artist? Raise your hand.” While a lot of hands go up, mine isn’t one of them. 

My friend in the next seat elbows me in the side and says, “Raise your hand.”

I whisper to him, “I’m not an artist, I’m an athlete.” I’d never think to plaster that label on myself. Being an artist is reserved for painters and pop stars, not me.

He whispers back, “Hello! You’re a Black Belt, a Martial Artist. You ARE an artist.” 

In that exact moment, a lightbulb goes off. He’s right. Martial Arts *is* an art form. Hello - it’s literally in the name! I also realize then and there that the labels I put on myself are subjective and not necessarily a complete picture of who I am to others and to the world. 

My guest today is a military officer, an orthodontist and pageant queen who knows all about labels and turning them into your competitive advantage. In today’s show, Dr. Corinne Devin talks about the commonalities you can discover between very different careers, building confidence on the inside and the outside, and overcoming the stories others try to tell you about yourself.

How can you translate common skills between completely different jobs? How do you deal with limitations that others want to place on you? What do people get wrong about confidence? Discover the answers to those questions and more in this episode!

You’ll also hear about the career counselor giving questionable advice, how to harness the energy to prove wrong those who say you can’t be, do, or have what you want, and what to do when you’re multi-passionate and feel drawn to play very different roles in your life and career.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why admitting your struggles is actually a sign of confidence
• What you can do to gain instant confidence if you lack it
• How to reverse the limiting stories you tell about yourself

Who is Dr. Corinne Devin?

Dr. Corinne Devin is a multi-passionate woman who enjoys life as a U.S. military commander, orthodontist, motivational speaker, world traveler, and pageant queen. She balances her passions and uses them to make her better at every position she holds. The winner of International Ms. 2020, she also completed her orthodontics residency program at Wilford Hall Medical Center and served as a STEM keynote speaker to over 1,000 middle school girls in Japan and Italy for the Department of Defense.

As a female, Dr. Devin is already a rarity in the U.S. military where only 18% are women. But she also holds the rank of commander in the Navy, which only 0.29% of all females have achieved. She is a Daughter of the American Revolution and was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to Al Asad. You can find out her latest updates here.

Links and Resources:

• @drcorinnedevin on Instagram
• @drcorinnedevin on Facebook
• Dr. Corinne Devin on Youtube
• Dr. Corinne Devin on LinkedIn
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

I’m sitting in the audience after a special screening of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s incredible new musical drama, tick, tick… BOOM! about Jonathan Larson’s tragically short but dynamic life. It’s time for the Q&A session and the star of the movie, actor Andrew Garfield, takes the stage.

When he starts talking I quickly discover two things: First, that he’s British (who knew?!?) and second, that prior to shooting this movie, he was not a trained singer (yet his vocal range is incredible in this film).

As the Q&A goes on, I learn so much more about him and this film through his stories and perspective of the movie itself. It becomes a meta “story within a story” experience, with Garfield’s conversation showcasing Larson’s narrative on film. It’s a seemingly unplanned and unrehearsed example of a complex story popping up in an unexpected and delightful real-life situation.

My special guest this week, Jena Ellenwood, also uses storytelling in an equally surprising way. In this episode, she reveals the biggest misconception about her industry, why she moved from behind the bar to the virtual classroom, and how she utilized storytelling to win international cocktail competitions. We also discuss using stories as history lessons, seeing stories as reasons to care about what you do, and the value of being an educated consumer.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How to use stories to educate others about your industry
• Why your family most likely has ties to the spirits world
• How stories can work so well in competitions

Who is Jena?

Located in Astoria, New York, Jena Ellenwood is recognized worldwide as an award-winning bartender, cocktail educator, and writer. For over a decade, she’s excelled at crafting unique cocktails for all occasions. Her cocktails have appeared in several publications and on menus at establishments such as Dear Irving in Manhattan & The Sparrow Tavern.

Jena grew up watching Julia Child and always wanted to have a cooking and cocktail show. Since the pandemic, she’s moved from teaching sold-out cocktail classes in person to hosting them virtually, including Cocktails with Jena on Youtube and Instagram. She now offers custom virtual classes through her website and runs the cocktail class programming for The Raines Law Room and Dear Irving.

Links and Resources:

• Jena Ellenwood
• Cocktails with Jena on Youtube
• @jena.lane on Instagram
• Last Call: The Shutdown of NYC Bars
• The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

Are all the Christmas or Holiday or Birthday gifts you receive… surprises? So often we make lists of “wishes” and our family and friends grant those wishes, exactly. While this is incredibly generous and kind, it leaves out one of the best parts of opening a gift: the surprise.

One year, I decided to start a family tradition and change things around with what I call the WTF gift. All year long we look for an item a particular person would love to have, yet when you remove its original packaging and give the gift wrapped, the receiver would have no idea what it was. Thus begins the game. When you unwrap this unpackaged gift, you think to yourself, “What the @#&% is this?!” and try to guess what it actually is. There’s a timer and scoring too, so it doubles as a competition. Hilarity and stories ensue.

Our WTF gifts have become a family-favorite event every Christmas now, with everyone trying to outdo the prior year. {My hot matcha tea almost came out of my nose this year from laughing so hard.} 

Imagine, though, taking this crazy concept and applying it to other areas of your life… My special guest this week on the Storytelling School Podcast is a satirist who knows all about turning things on their sides.

What comes first when creating satire? How do you get rewarded as a writer before you actually get paid? How do you take the mundane and find the funny in it? What’s the real reason behind why someone would take the time to express anger about you sharing your authentic stories?

In this episode, my marvelous guest Andrew Briedis takes us behind the curtain and discusses his process for coming up with satire. He also talks about the anonymous actor parody account he ran on Twitter and demonstrates how he heightened, changed, and re-heightened a satirical sketch he wrote for Leslie Jones on SNL.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What essential storytelling element you can learn from soap operas
• How to find your way into the story
• What it’s like to be in the SNL writers room

Who is Andrew?

Andrew Briedis is a writer and actor. He’s written for The Golden Globes and Saturday Night Live and developed a Netflix feature film. His book #SOBLESSED: the Annoying Actor Friend’s Guide to Werking in Show Business debuted as the #1 best-selling theatre and parody book on Amazon.

Andrew has also made appearances on the web series Turning the Tables and on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Currently, he does random stuff on TikTok in his spare time.

Links and Resources:

• @andrewbriedis on TikTok
• @andrewbriedis on Instagram
• @andrewbriedis on Twitter
• @actor_friend on Twitter
• #SOBLESSED: the Annoying Actor Friend’s Guide to Werking in Show Business by Annoying Actor Friend
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook

How would you go about breaking a wooden board in half? 

I’ve taught many mindset workshops for professionals and other non-martial artists, and one of my most popular live classes is where attendees have a chance to break thick pieces of wood with their bare hands.

Many people think breaking boards is about muscling their way through them. But actually, that’s not the case at all! 

Every time I run this workshop, I reveal the real secret to board breaking in my lesson. Then, I ask for a volunteer who isn’t the biggest or strongest in the room to demonstrate it first so others can see how easy it can be.

When you do it right, board breaking can feel like butter. And it’s the same when you’re telling stories. 

My guest today, Gerald Ishibashi, has made a career out of making stories come to life for tens of thousands of people in a single night, by applying the same board-breaking secret… to storytelling.

How can you expand your focus for maximum effect and benefit? How can you bring stories to life in huge venues? Why is an impending event so important to get things moving? 

In my conversation with Gerald, you’ll discover the answers to these questions, hear about launching a new career path with only $100 in start-up business money and the role technology has played (and will continue to play) in changing businesses over decades, and more!

What you will learn in this episode:

• How working backward takes the pressure off performing
• How to use an impending event to propel yourself forward
• Why storytelling is such a valuable commodity for the foreseeable future

Who is Gerald?

Gerald Ishibashi and entertainment became linked when, at 13 years old, he first performed professionally as the frontman and leader of Stonebridge Band. Forming ISHIBASHI/Stonebridge Productions in high school, he built it into one of the leading live entertainment production entities in the country. Over the years, he has led a colorful and award-winning career as an entertainer and musician, music store owner, concert promoter, emcee, producer, and motivational speaker.

During his career, Gerald has worked with hundreds of the biggest names in the music industry such as The Beach Boys, Three Dog Night, Jackson Browne, Pat Benatar, Michael McDonald, and the Righteous Brothers. He’s also the leader of a popular 11-piece rock band in Los Angeles and the creator of the Island Crooners.

Currently, he’s developing a musical play based on Harry Manaka’s book Chronicles of a Sansei Rocker and bringing his parenting and motivational speaking background to bear in co-writing a book with his three daughters. Also launching in 2022 is his star-studded podcast Meetings with Masters, focusing on life lessons from creative communicators and leaders in entertainment.

Links and Resources:

• @geraldishibashi on Instagram
• @geraldishibashi on Facebook
• @geraldishibashi on LinkedIn
• Chronicles of a Sansei Rocker by Harry Manaka
• Storytelling School Website
• @storytellingschool on Instagram
• @storytellingSchool on Facebook