Going first at The Moth GrandSLAM

The piece of paper that I pulled out of The Moth bag had a squiggly number 1 and a sad face drawn on it. I suggested to the producers that drawing a smiley face might change people’s minds about going first. They tried to comfort me, and even quoted statistics about GrandSLAMS wherein the person who told first won (LA….that one time). I was milking it for the attention, but in all honesty I was happy to go first. I got to open the show. To set the tone. And I got to prove to myself and to 600+ audience members that I could do it up right. I think I delivered. Another bucket list item crossed off.