A woman with short, curly brown locks and a flowing gold-black, jungle-print chiffon skirt maneuvers her way through the sold-out crowd of 90 up to the microphone at the front of the room.

Her voice booms through the medium-size performance space at the Spice Street restaurant in Chapel Hill. The Alabama twang is velvety and thick.

"I'm gonna tell you six words, and if I totally draw a blank here -- because I'm a writer more than a storyteller -- you're supposed to call out these words in this order: Intro, Underwear, Mormons (a few in the audience laugh), Phone Call, Mormons, Wal-Mart."

Laughter fills the packed room as listeners make eye contact with one another. Are any Mormons in the room?

Melissa Delbridge knows she has their attention.

"OK, now I can relax and enjoy myself," she says to the puzzled crowd.

And so the author and Duke University archivist, 55, launches into her story, the last of the evening at The Monti, a live storytelling event. The story was about her quest to purchase a particular kind of long underwear -- "step-ins," her grandmother and aunt called them -- with a vest and knee-length pants.

After several failed attempts, Delbridge went to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Web site to purchase the closest garment she could find: a Temple garment, the religious clothing worn by some members of the Church, which she figured was close enough to what she needed. Not being Mormon, however, made this complicated -- and made for an entertaining story.

Good stories

The Monti's three sold-out performances have drawn people away from their televisions and computers -- just to hear a good story.

"There's a part of us that really wants to be gathered around a campfire, or sitting around the table at a bar just talking," Delbridge said. "While the technology we have makes it easier to connect and communicate in a lot of ways, they aren't quite as tactile. We want to be able to drink together, or smell the food together."

Jeff Polish, founder of The Monti, was inspired by The Moth, a New York City-based storytelling group.

"My mission is to find the story in everyone," he said.

Polish, 36, whose job as a biology teacher pays the bills, has told his own stories at The Monti, which is named after Polish's best friend from college. The pair met as part of a college fraternity rush, spending their first 10 hours together locked in a room drinking and telling stories. Polish went on to get married, get a Ph.D., and have a child. It wasn't until he saw The Moth that he decided he wanted to start something similar in the Triangle.

North Carolina authors Daniel Wallace and Clyde Edgerton have told stories here. So have spoken word artist Dasan Ahanu, and UNC law professor Michael Gerhardt. The storytellers must abide by four rules: The story must relate to the theme; the story cannot exceed 12 minutes; the storytellers cannot use notes of any kind; and, perhaps most important, the story must be true.

"This is not wholesome storytelling," Polish said. "I want life to be represented as it is and you know, I think too many storytelling events are about idealizing life and I think that's what older generations are used to."

Stories at last month's event, themed "Trials and Tribulations" were varied -- some funny, some tragic, others inspiring.

Shana Scudder, 30, shared a story about her troubles with alcoholism and cutting, though she deliberately kept some details vague.

"I'm a pretty open person, and I like to talk about hard things so people can see that that happens and it's not a big deal," the musician and writer said in an interview later. "But I didn't want to get into what I call emotional exhibitionism. There's a way to take a personal story and share it in a way that would make a listener feel like they understand the whole world better without feeling like they're in group therapy."

Being able to share her own truth was therapeutic, though, in a way.

"I think our culture is having a shift that's really interested in each other's lives -- reality television, memoirs, and this show," she said. "We all really want to know what's true in others' lives and it makes us feel less alone."

But she acknowledged that her story probably alienated a few people. Polish theorized that this has to do with the demographic of the audience, which skews older.

"I think storytelling is an old tradition -- not a geriatric tradition -- but something that has got a quiet connotation," Polish said. "I don't want to abandon my demographic, but I am trying to appeal to the 20- to 30- somethings. I want the audience to know that this is an uncensored event, and we will push the envelope for good stories."

He said he knows he's offended people and lost audience members in the past. Some stories have contained profanity, and some have discussed taboo topics such as drug abuse or sexuality.

Of the South

Polish said that though storytelling is universal, the South breeds its own kind of stories, many of which would not do well in New York, and vice versa. Delbridge agreed.

"We put a tremendous store on good storytelling and a lot of agrarian cultures do," Delbridge said. "It was always a large part of my childhood. Daddy was a very big storyteller, and he really valued someone who could tell a story well. And my grandmother was just a great gossip."

North Carolina boasts a number of professional storytellers. The North Carolina Storytellers' Guild, which hosts storytelling festivals a few times a year, started 10 years ago and has grown from 25 to 145 members.

Bill Friedman is a family physician and member of the guild who has been telling stories for more than 20 years. He shared a story at last month's Monti event about growing up Jewish in Alabama. He said he can work two to three years to craft the perfect story.

"I liken it to sculpting," he explained. "You have a raw piece of stone and you have to figure out what to chisel away and what to polish. Then you practice it with people and figure out what works and what doesn't. A good written narrative doesn't always mean a good story to tell out loud."

Polish said he knows this, which is why he spends time with each of the storytellers beforehand to map out the presentation. As for The Monti and its future, Polish has big plans. He's contemplating a weekly radio show featuring storytellers sharing and discussing their work, expanding to other parts of the state, and a change of venue and time to attract a younger crowd. He's still on the lookout for top talent, which has recently involved e-stalking celebrated writer Haven Kimmel, who has expressed interest but hasn't made a commitment.

If Kimmel does finally commit, she'll likely find an audience as eager as the one waiting to find out just how the Wal-Mart fit into Delbridge's story.

You can find out yourself by listening at themonti.org/audio/listen.html.

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