Antonio Rocha faces the challenge of trying to appease everyone in the room. As a storyteller, he has to make sure that what he is saying works for the young and old, men and women, and people from different cultures and backgrounds. One time, in India, he started telling a story in which a cow is killed. In India, of course, the cow is sacred.
“I mean, it had to be (a cow) right?” Rocha said.
It could have been anything else in the world, yet in his story, it was a cow.
Rocha said in that situation all he could do was be honest with the audience. He apologized.
“I got this great amount of sympathy and this ‘carry on’ attitude from the audience,” he said.
Rocha has also trained as a mime, in addition to his storytelling prowess. One of the most important things in a story, he said, is minimalism and doing the most with less.
“The human body is concentrated that you get everything,” Rocha said. “If you watch a movie with a great actor, it’s a marvelous thing to witness. In a single glance you get the whole picture. That’s what I’m trying to achieve in my work.”
