My upcoming performances and adventures...
My upcoming performances and adventures...
My upcoming performances and adventures...
So, about me...
Scroll down
I love climbing
mountains
And
TREES
Meeting
ANIMALS
And soaking up
the wild PLACES
OTHER IMPORTANT
JAKE FACTS...
I am Just an overgrown hobbit
I am 1/3 and lead singer of the band TOPBANANAS
I am training to break the world record for distance travelled on a spacehopper
I have always had a bottomless appetite for potent stories and adventures. A hunger fed by burrowing my head firmly in any book, listening to my parents' outrageously fantastical tales and boyhood explorations over windswept moors, into deep woods and across forgotten coastlines - usually with a sturdy stick in hand.
I didn't however have any idea that professional storytelling was a thing for quite some time.
UNTIL
At the age of 15, I got wind of the National Young Storyteller of the Year competition. It sounded like a bit of quirky fun and so armed with some beginners luck, I went along and managed to win the title with my first public performance. Although my eyes were then opened to the world of traditional storytelling, I still didn't wholly appreciate its vast potential.
Things then changed...
During my last couple of years at school, I got involved with an exchange project where I had the good fortune to visit Kenya. There I was given the chance to perform to audiences of hundreds of students at a time. An opportunity I grabbed with both hands!
Finally the power of storytelling truly hit me.
I saw how language and cultural divides can be bridged, unfamiliar ideas and viewpoints shared and strong friendships bonded, simply through a good story.
Turning what quickly was becoming a genuine passion into a vocation was then my clear goal.
Life is short, spend it doing something you love! And so since those Kenyan trips I've totally immersed myself in the art-form of storytelling; working and performing in schools, museums, libraries, festivals, and many other weird and wonderful events and venues across the country and the world.