49. bawdy storytelling: horizontal with a sexual folklorist

horizontal is a podcast of intimacies recorded while lying down.

In this second part of our episode, I lie down with illustrious Southern firebrand Dixie De La Tour. Dixie is the founder, curator, and host of Bawdy Storytelling, the longest-running sex storytelling series in the United States.

I first saw Dixie perform live at The Bell House in Brooklyn, during a collaboration show between Bawdy and Risk. Dixie is one of the finest storytellers I have ever personally witnessed. First of all, she is redheaded and big-smiled and generously bosomed. Also, she’s brazen and irreverent. She’s hilarious and saucy. In short, she is captivating.

In the first part of our conversation, released as episode 48, she spun tales about her sexual awakening in the porno movie booths, Bawdy, Bang-O, craigslist personal ads, the unknown hookup, and being a porn magnet. I tried to shut my mouth and listen. But! I was so excited I kept interrupting! I calmed down toward the end, though. And Dixie told me an incredible true tale about a porno booth (with glory holes everywhere). If you haven’t heard it, go back and listen to that episode right now!

At the top of this episode, I try to tell her the story of the longstanding unrequited love of my life, and fumbled all over the telling of it. She said, “You just haven’t told it enough, is all.”

* and the clouds parted *

Of course! OF COURSE! As an actress, I wouldn’t perform in a play when I’d just barely memorized my lines! I need to have it down stone cold. I need to be able to run lines while half my brain is occupied with other things. That’s when I’m ready to go on stage.

So of course the most impactful, distilled, punchy, succinct personal stories are the ones we’ve told over and over. We’ve honed them. Like a stand-up act. We’ve stripped them to their essential parts. Like a statue.

If I want to tell my stories on a stage, I have to practice them. The longer they are, the less I’ve practiced! Have you ever heard the quote, I have made this letter long, for I had not the time to make it short?

This is why Dixie coaches storytellers and run storytelling courses. Find her body of work and let her teach you how to craft a tale, on Bawdystorytelling.com.

If you enjoy our horizontal storytelling, become a patron of the horizontal arts, darlin! You can become a patron for $2 on up, and the rewards get more delectable as you increase. If every person who has received benefit from listening to the podcast became a $2 patron, it would be LIFE-CHANGING for me.

The rewards get more sumptuous as you increase your patronage, too! For instance, for $10 a month, you’ll get access to the love poem of the month, a private recording of one of my favorites. For $15 a month, you’ll get a ticket to a live show, or access to a secret episode, and so on.

Patronage is what makes it possible for me to continue making independent, uncensored, ad free homemade radio. I believe that when we make private conversations public, intimacy becomes contagious, and the more intimacy we cultivate, the happier our lives. Be part of it through Patreon.com/horizontalwithlila.

In this part of our conversation, we discuss the intimate art of storytelling and its ability to connect people (the amount of folks who have gotten laid because of Bawdy shows and Dixie’s super-connector skills is LEGION), Dixie tells me stories about a bbw (big beautiful woman) seeking Viagra on Craigslist, dick pics, cream pies and fuckbuddies, and her rant with a twist ending. Then we cap it off with a tale of her wild wild wedding, at which her Southern family met all her freaky friends.

Stick around at the end of this episode for another song by Jefferson Bergey, an ode to Dixie and Dixie’s ample bosom, titled “The Mammarian.”

For the next couple of weeks, horizontal will be on Burning Man hiatus, while I head to Nevada with my shiniest clothing!

And Now, you know what you gotta do, right y’all? You gotta come lie down with us.

Credit where credit is due!

Here are the people who made this episode possible. Chad Michael Snavely has edited every episode in Season Two. Check out his roster of podcasts on chadmichael.com. Shana Shay created my cover art, and you can hire her through 99designs. And Alan Markley created my intro music. He’s plasticcannons on the Instagram.

More!

For more stories (including Lila's writing), pretty pictures, videos, vocab, and resources, sign up on horizontalwithlila.com! I’m also at horizontal with lila on Facebook, Instagram and (gasp) Twitter. Drop by, ask me a question, make a suggestion for a future topic, or just say sweet things that are true. I really like sweet things that are true.

Remember that horizontal will be on hiatus for two weeks while I attempt to survive a giant art project in the middle of the desert!

Big Love!