"When I was 20 years old, a hundred dollars was half my annual income," he said.
He won the contest and has been honing his lying skills ever since. He said the secret to a good story is a grain of truth that stirs up an emotional reaction in the audience.
"To be good at storytelling you have to identify what the audience responds to and present the story in such a way that maximizes the audience's response, the audience's connection," he said.
The greatest reward, he added, is to tell a story he's worked on for six months to a year at the National Storytelling Festival and watch the audience respond, an honor he initially received through a stroke of "pure luck."
Five years ago he was selected as one of six lesser-known up-and-coming storytellers to participate in the event's Exchange Place, where regional tellers get 15 minutes to wow the audience.
"I got my fifteen minutes, and fortunately the audience responded well," he said. "So for the last five years I've become a nationally known storyteller. It's the most fortunate thing. I appreciate that people enjoy my stories so much."
Storytelling Revival
According to Lepp, the National Storytelling Festival has become the proving ground for the world's best storytellers. Since success at the event can make a storyteller's career—as it did for Lepp—tellers work hard throughout the year to perform well at the festival.
The result, he added, has been a revival in storytelling around the country, with festivals held throughout the year.
Smith, the International Storytelling Center president, said that most of these festivals can trace their origins to the national festival in Jonesborough.
"What we really did was ignite a revival, a renaissance, of interest in and appreciation for storytelling," Smith said.
According to Smith there are at least 200 full-time storytellers around the country and hundreds more who make it a part-time job. They speak at festivals, business seminars, schools, and anywhere else there is a need for community.
"What we are finding is people are seeing the wisdom of using storytelling as a tool to enrich their lives," he said.
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