PORT ANGELES — The Story People of Clallam County will host the annual contest for skilled exaggerators and full-on whopper-tellers at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets are available in advance — $10 general, $5 for youngsters under 16, $8 for Story People members — at www.ClallamStory People.org.
Any left by Saturday evening will be available for purchase at the door.
A pack of 10 people from across the Pacific Northwest will partake in the lucky seventh annual Liars Contest.
Their tales, at seven minutes in length, will unspool in the Raymond Carver Room at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
“I love emceeing these shows. There’s a lot of creativity and hilarity,” said Ingrid Nixon, a storyteller and the host of the Liars Contest.
Among the competitors are Port Angeles Fire Chief Ken Dubuc, who took the top prize in last year’s event.
Portland, Ore., storyteller Anne Rutherford, who was a close second, is also back, hoping to embroider her way to a win this time.
And Norm Brecke, another Portlander and 2017’s third-prize winner, isn’t about to miss Saturday’s contest.
They will have to outdo themselves and the rest of the field, of course.
Dubuc won with a story about digging a hole in his backyard; “I think it may have gone to China,” Nixon recalled.
Dubuc is also known for his second-prize story in 2016 — a fish tale from his vacation in Fiji.
A barracuda took off his arm, and Dubuc turned things around with duct tape.
Rutherford’s saga last year explored the “handwich,” a sandwich without bread.
According to the tall tale, you assemble the ingredients on your hand.
As for Brecke, he had the audience going with a story about one of his first jobs, in which he was called on to take an order from a dog that communicated only in barks.
A panel of judges will determine the biggest, best liar. Cash prizes — and this part is true — are $100 for first place, $50 for second and $25 for third place.
Judges are Akasha Atherton, a storyteller from Port Angeles; Heidi Hansen, a writer and a board member at Sequim’s Olympic Theatre Arts; and a third to be named later.
Atherton got involved with this crowd not long ago when she entered the 2016 Liars Contest.
“Though I didn’t place, my positive experience encouraged me to continue attending and telling at other Story People events,” she said.
Atherton has partaken in several story slams, themed competitions in which entrants unleash true, personal stories in five minutes or less.
Olympic Theatre Arts partners with the Story People to host the slams every six to eight weeks.
The 2017 contest drew a sellout crowd and people had to be turned away.
To find out more about the Liars Contest, the story slams, monthly story swaps and the annual Forest Storytelling Festival in Port Angeles in October, visit www.ClallamStoryPeople.org.
Nixon, for her part, will be all warmed up for a special performance after the Liars Contest.
Michigan storyteller Jeff Doyle — one of the lying competitors — will join her for “The Lost Diaries of Eve and Adam,” their original comic presentation based on the writings of Mark Twain.
For details, call 360-683-7326.
