Odds Bodkin is an Elizabethan proclamation-curse, not unlike "Zounds!" or "Gadzooks," although in that archaic context, the jolly epithet is spelled "odsbodikins."
It's a memorable and familiar turn of phrase, with its element of in-joke; even Daffy Duck has squealed, in his inimitable Daffy Duck style, "Odds, my bodkins!"
And perhaps for those delightfully convoluted reasons alone, it seems the perfect stage name for a storyteller who wants to catch an audience's attention, even before they've seen him.
One thing is clear: Once they've seen him—Odds Bodkin is now appearing at the Clark Studio Theatre in the Lincoln Center Institute—the colorful moniker only enhances the extraordinary impression he makes in performance. With instruments in or at hand (12-string guitar, Celtic harp, grand piano, and African kalimba, among others), Bodkin accompanies his narrative with original musical compositions, but allows his facial expressions and voice to tell the story. Bodkin is one actor who fully inhabits a stunning array of characters without ever running amok. Indeed, he remains seated throughout. No sets, no props.
"If you look at me on stage and expect me to grow horns or have a spray of peacock feathers, it won't happen," says Bodkin, who meets with us in the theatre before a performance. "But if you allow me to disappear—and that is what I want—then the true value of the entertainment will become apparent."
He should know. The 49-year-old New York City native, whose last name really is Bodkin—"It's an old Scottish name," he notes—has been a professional storyteller and student of the genre for 20 years, specializing in legends, myths, folklore, and epic poetry.
His five programs over the last three months have included a Halloween offering (supernatural tales from Confucian China, Tsarist Russia, and America), a children's show called "What a Woman Desires Most: Three Tales of Love," "The Winter Cherries: Tales for Christmas and Chanukah" (running through mid-December), and "The Odyssey: Belly of the Beast," focusing on a small segment of Homer's classic tale—specifically, Orpheus' encounter with the cannibalistic Cyclops in the giant's cave of horrors.
Undoubtedly, storytelling is a peculiar amalgam, bringing together writing and acting skills, asserts Bodkin. "I think of what I do as a two-headed man, talking to one another at a great rate. The writing and acting define each other, but storytelling takes place in the moment."
Nevertheless, there's much preparation involved, starting with story selection. "I choose my tales from the public domain so that I don't have to ask extant authors for their permission," Bodkin chortles. "If I'm adapting a huge epic, I select the scenes that are most telling and meaningful. Over the last few years I've been scripting my stories—not that I can remember what I've written. I never scripted 'The Odyssey'; it's totally improvised."
Engaging the audience imaginatively is the key to storytelling, an art form and an impulse (for both the teller and listener) that has been in existence since antiquity. Indeed, Bodkin believes we are all programmed to be inner storytellers.
"Can you read without hearing an inner voice?" Bodkin asks rhetorically. "Without an inner voice, do the symbols on the page mean anything? For 99% of the population, mental imagery [evoked by oral presentation] is the key to comprehension. People are hardwired to delight in the spoken word and, if you capture them, it is hugely satisfying because you are tapping into an ancient part of the mind."
Still, being a storyteller is difficult, not least because it's an unfamiliar genre to many audiences, who are used to special effects in the theatre and on screen, not to mention high-speed interactive video games and the Internet at home.
"I think the last time the world was listening to complex language was at the Globe Theatre when Shakespeare wrote and audiences were primed for metaphor and imagery," says Bodkin. "Today, with the preponderance of graphical images, information comes into the mind in a different way. Still, there's a resurgence of storytelling as an antidote to too much screen life. In fact, there's a National Storytelling Network that meets annually in Jonesborough, Tenn. [with more than 10,000 members]. I'd like to believe that I'm pushing the boundaries of a profound and ancient art form in my use of music, which is a fairly complex accompaniment. Many of my compositions are crafted in the moment on stage."
Bearded, square-shouldered, and based in rural New Hampshire, Bodkin looks like a naturalist-environmentalist (right out of central casting); interestingly, among his many gigs, there was his stint as a white river rafting guide. He was also a professor at the Antioch New England Graduate School, where he taught storytelling, mythology, and imaginative technique.
And then there are his interests; he talks about Nabokov, Rachmaninoff, and Eric Clapton—all of whom contribute to his eclectic esthetic—along with the elements of bardic tradition.
His books and records have received numerous awards—including Booklist Editors' Choice, The Storytelling World Award, and the New York Public Library's 100 Best Titles for Reading and Sharing.
Bodkin is also a savvy businessman. His website, oddsbodkin.com, features an online store, articles for adults and children, as well as his original 15,000-line epic poem in iambic quadrameter, "The Rowan Canticles."
He is now writing his own stories and incorporating them into his programs and would love to do " a fractured fairytale for adults using hard rock motifs. I usually don't play with venerable stories, but some are so well known, they scream out to be deconstructed."
Trained in Psychology
The son of a design engineer, Bodkin's early ambition was to be a marine biologist. At Duke University, however, he majored in cognitive psychology (training he utilizes in all his performances, he emphasizes) and minored in anthropology.
After graduating, Bodkin found himself back in New York City, working as an outdoors guide, taking young children—from the Spence and Ethical Culture schools—on walks in Central Park, "talking about the flowers and pointing out where the animals were hiding," he recalls.
"And I started telling them Native America myths, so they could have an imaginative look at the landscape, along with learning all about the hydrologic cycle. The kids really enjoyed the stories and I was getting into it, too.
"And then one day I had a revelation," he continues. "I suddenly knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life! I wanted to be a storyteller!"
It was at that point he decided to take on the name Odds Bodkin, a private joke and an oblique way of getting back at all the kids who had teasingly called him that, he chortles. "I can't really call it [the changing of his name] a business decision because, at that point, I had no business."
His first storytelling gig of any consequence was at a children's camp in New Hampshire. With that experience under his belt, he and his wife, Mil (who functions as his manager and business partner), "started sending out flyers to schools and other places—and used all of our savings to do it—and I finally began to eke out a living."
He also, as noted, taught for seven years at the Antioch New England Graduate School. "I believe storytelling can be taught," he reflects. "I informed my students' imaginations, taught them how to become aware of their five senses and use them, and, most important, taught them how to encounter their muses and then get out of their [the muses'] way."
Over the last two years, Bodkin has worked out of the Lincoln Center Institute as a touring artist. Still, he views himself as "an invisible dot attached to the side of Manhattan."
His goal right now is to find a larger New York audience—perhaps by seeing his show housed in a small Off-Broadway theatre. "New York audiences are more skeptical than those elsewhere. I feel they question my motivation: 'Why are you doing this?' "
Nonetheless, he remains convinced there is an audience for him, although, he stresses, "It's too early for me to know the demographics."
For tickets and/or more information, call (800) 554-1333 or log onto www.oddsbodkin.com/boxoffice.