Who better to support an organization specialized in storytelling?
Over 600 hundred guests – many dressed in capes, masks and other superhero garb– attended Tuesday night’s MOTH BALL at Capitale in New York City. This year’s fundraising gala for storytelling group THE MOTH drew a well read and well-heeled crowd. Louis C.K. was honored. When Louis C.K. took the stage for his award, he started off with how much he appreciated The Moth and all that they do to continue to help and enhance the art of storytelling. He has been a huge supporter and fan of The Moth for many years. What he appreciates about stories is that they are unique. With that being said, he decided to tell his own story about the time he went to Russia when he was around the age of 25. This was around the time the Soviet Union was disbanded and so things in Russia were a little crazy to say the least. C.K. then said that the only reason that he went to Russia was that when he was a writer on The Conan O’Brien Show he was extremely unhappy and having a nervous breakdown and so his job gave him a two week paid vacation. With that in mind, he chose Russia because he read a lot of Russian novels, but novels translated into English so keep in mind he had no knowledge of the Russian language at all. From the second he landed in Russia, he was thrown into an environment full of scary people and troubled times. And for the majority of the time he spent there he had no interaction with people because he was too nervous to talk to the people there. But there was this one time where he decided to travel into the subway line. However, while he was there he saw that mostly everyone in that subway was extremely poor . It was then where he saw a man around his age talking to a young child who was also pretty poor and out of nowhere the man pulls out a torn apart shoe and asks the boy for something in Russian. Apparently, the man was asking the boy for some shoe glue and surprisingly enough, the boy just pulled out a bottle of shoe glue. Louis C.K. was so astounded by what he just saw that he had a look of awe on his face, but eventually started to laugh. He ended his story and his speech with the idea that no matter how bad life can get, there will always be things that are funny.
Darren Aronofsky also spoke about supporting the event.
Q: So what is it like for you to be at this event tonight?
A: It’s great. It’s always good to hear some great stories and it’s always entertaining so it will be a great night.
Q: And what do you think about The Moth’s mission to enhance storytelling and promote storytelling?
A: It’s what I do, I am a storyteller and I think it’s one of our oldest arts. People have been doing it since we have been talking to each other, maybe even before that. And so I think it’s great to celebrate that.
Q: And what is it like for someone from part of your team to be a part of the auction tonight?
A: My writing and producing partner is donating some of his time. It’s cool. I hope he goes for a lot of money. I hope they think that we are worth something.
Q: And what do you think about Louis C.K. being honored tonight?
A: He’s the greatest. I am a huge, huge fan and I have known him for a long time and I am excited that he is getting this honor tonight.
-Vinesh Vora
