If This Is True with Chris Hall

As everyone knows, last fall the Western North Carolina region suffered the most devastating flooding in a century. The beautiful place we call home was forever scarred and changed. But true to form, this region had each other’s backs and staged quite an incredible comeback. While some areas are still damaged, we by all means welcome the world back to the Appalachian mountains you know and we love! Everything you were excited about in October 2024 will be back this time around including: 4 NIGHTS, 4 VENUES, 11 SHOWS, 6 HEADLINERS, 11 WORKSHOPS, 40+ IMPROV COMEDY TEAMS FROM AROUND THE USAGeorge Awad is the producer of the Asheville Improv Festival and creative director of Double Dip Productions in Asheville, NC. Double Dip is the production company for four monthly improv shows in the Asheville area. Asheville has become a hotbed of improvisation recently.For more information on the festival, go to doubledipproductions.com on the World Wide Web, or @ashevilleimprovfest on Instagram!

Kay Smith-Blum, a former fashionista and Seattle School Board President, spends her days debunking the tropes of the mid-20th-century history. An odd dream and the recent upheaval over leaking radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear site compelled her to write, TANGLES, named 2024 Book of the Year by the Literary Global Book Awards and Best Debut Fiction by the American Writing Awards 2024. Smith-Blum, a sunrise writer, has lived in Seattle for four decades. She works out her writer’s block in her sons’ gardens (which she designed) and the nearest lap pool. We discussed public schools, finding character voices in fiction and the Hanford site, featured in her book, Tangles. Don't miss this episode!

Marcia Peck was inspired by the rhythms and sounds of music echoed in language; her debut novel, Water Music: A Cape Cod Story, combines all of her passions – music, writing, and Cape Cod.The book has received critical acclaim and has received many book awards, including Literary Titan Gold, National Indie Excellence Award, New England Book Festival Regional Lit Winner, and Feathered Quill Reviewers Choice Award Winner. Additionally, she was a finalist for American Writing Awards, Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize, Firebird Book Awards, and Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Pacifica Book Awards designated it as a “Notable Book” and her book was long-listed by both Historical Fiction Company Book-of-the-Year Award and Somerset Book Awards.Peck grew up in New Jersey and summered in Cape Cod. Her love for Cape Cod has been a strong and deep current throughout her life. She and her sisters still return to the house their father built in Orleans. She lives in Minnetonka, Minnesota with her husband and two verynaughty dogs For more information, please see: www.marciapeck.com.Give this a listen!

Kat Koppett is the Eponymous Founder of Koppett, a consultancy specializing in the use of improv and storytelling techniques to enhance individual and group performance. She has worked with diverse clients including Meta, Apple, Prezi, PwC, NASA, Havas Health, Mass General Hospital, the United Nations and the Clinton Global Initiative.Her book Training to Imagine: Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership, and Learning , is considered a seminal work in the field of Applied Improv and is used by professionals around the world. She has given two TEDx talks on the use of improv to enhance non-theatrical performance.In 2019, Kat was the winner of the North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA)’s Ifill-Reynold’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the co-director and a performing member of the Mopco Improv Theatre, a founding member and the current vice-president of the Applied Improvisation Network, and the co-host of the podcast, Performance Shift: The Art of Successfully Navigating Change.Give this a listen!

Sydney Lea was named Vermont’s Poet Laureate and received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, his state’s highest artistic distinction. He has had 25 books published in a celebrated literary arts career. His latest book, Now Look (Down East Books/Roman Littlefield), explores the ravages of addiction and a dying north country culture in his first novel in 35 years. It is a moving story about second chances, missed opportunities, and redemption.Don't miss this one! Give it a listen!

Harker Jones grew up on a dirt road in Michigan in a town so small it doesn’t to this day have a traffic light. Now a Los Angeles denizen, he has written the best-selling, award-winning novel “Until September” and nine screenplays, revealing truths through humor and horror.  His short thrillers “Cole & Colette” and “One-Hit Wonder” have been accepted into more than 60 film festivals combined, garnering several awards. His first children’s book, “Violet’s Pretty Purple Playground,” and his second novel, a thriller titled “Never Have I Ever,” are due to be printed in 2024. A published poet, he was managing editor of “Out” magazine for seven years and is a member of both the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Mensa. He loves cats and carbs and would like to be a one-hit wonder but would settle for being killed in a slasher movie.Give this one a listen!