2nd Thursday of Every Month Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro 3905 N Lincoln Ave., Chicago 7:30 PM (Doors at 7:00) FREE |
This Much Is True is the longest running monthly storytelling show in Chicago, IL. (Since 2008). Every month, we come together for an evening of true personal stories from some of Chicago's most fascinating people. An all new cast takes the stage each month to let you in on the heartbreaking, the hilarious, and everything in between.
Past guests have included writers, actors, chefs, theologians, SNL alums, musicians, bloggers, activists, professional storytellers, comedians, and more from our city and around the world. We hope that you can join us.
Past guests have included writers, actors, chefs, theologians, SNL alums, musicians, bloggers, activists, professional storytellers, comedians, and more from our city and around the world. We hope that you can join us.
April 11th Cast
Shawn Cobb
Shawn Cobb has worn many hats over the years, working jobs ranging from forklift operator to Cosmetologist and pretty much everything in between before landing at the railroad where has worked as a mechanic for over 15 years. There, he has worn many hats as well: Crew Leader, Car inspector, or Car Knocker, as the old timers used to say, Engine Man, where he got good and dirty servicing and rearranging locomotives to ensure the safest possible departure. Safety Chairman, where Shawn carved a niche for himself as an artist, painting murals, illustrating posters, even designing a safety periodical with a comic strip in the back. Shawn has always been passionate about creating art, and is currently on book two of a Sci-Fi Trilogy that has unwittingly become a lifelong companion, as he animates it with his own life lessons at times and at others, is surprised find advice even ideas to apply elsewhere within its pages. However it was through Toastmasters that he found his voice as a storyteller. For Shawn, to be vulnerable while operating from a place of love has proven to be the perfect counterbalance to the sometimes harsh and less forgiving conditions of the railroad. He aspires to inspire through life experiences and stories that find and exposes that common thread that binds us all.
Julie Danis
Julie is a writer, storyteller, and former global marketing/advertising executive. Most recently she was part of Lifeline Theater’s 2024 Fillet of Solo Festival where she performed her solo show, Life's Too Short . . . and So Am I — a coming of middle-age story about a woman searching for her place in the world with the help of the Queen of Reinvention. Julie’s other credits include being a writer for the award-winning documentary film, The Girl Who Wore Freedom, contributing essays to Storyteller’s True Stories About Love. Volume I, by Chicago Writer’s Press, and Fast Fallen Women and Fast Famous Women, by Woodhall Press, telling stories at Second Story, Story Lab, & Story Club. As a business humorist, she wrote a Chicago Tribune column called "It's a Living", and contributed commentary to Marketplace radio. She’s done other things and has too many degrees and certificates. Her favorite professional title was Director of Mind & Mood.
Lauren Kee
Lauren is a Boston native who has called Chicago home for the past eight years. She works as a project manager at a nonprofit that empowers low-income college students to tell their stories and find fulfilling careers. Lauren loves to play soccer, practice yoga, craft, have long talks with her cat, and use storytelling to find meaning in the highs and lows of life.
Madhu Shukla
Madhu's love for storytelling emerged from the simple desire to explore what helps people connect authentically. Her work in theatre facilitation for leadership and trauma informed psychodrama practices for groups and teams brought her to the same place inside her - what is my story to tell today ? Madhu is a co-founder of By the River, an initiative for exploring how stories expand our ability to connect within and outside of us. She believes that exchanging stories can be away to build bridges to create a more respectful and harmonious society.
Darren Stephens
Darren Stephens makes his living as a full-time freelance actor, voice talent and voiceover coach. His voice has been heard on hundreds of radio and television commercials and his face seen as the on-camera spokesperson for Physician’s Mutual Insurance and as the Mayor who watched the Statue of Liberty sail into New York Harbor and thanked France by ordering a cheese platter on Etsy. He has performed long-form improv with Baby Wants Candy, Cast On A Hot Tin Roof, and the Free Associates and short form improv with the Second City House Improv Musical Ensemble. He can be heard at local venues with his three-part bluegrass harmony comedy group, The Famous Brothers.
Jack Zimmerman
Chicago writer, storyteller, and urban photographer Jack Zimmerman was a fleet sailor during the Vietnam War, a trombonist on WGN’s Bozo Circus Band, and a PR man for both Ravinia and Lyric Opera. Now retired, he spends his days reading Zane Grey novels and watching “Rifleman” reruns.
Scott Whitehair
Host/producer of This Much Is True
Scott Whitehair is a storyteller, teacher, and producer living in Chicago, IL. He is the producer of This Much Is True, creator of Story Lab Chicago, which has put 850+ new storytellers on stage since 2011, and director of Do Not Submit, a grassroots network of open mics across the city bringing people together to connect with each other. Scott tells anywhere someone will listen, including The National Storytelling Festival Exchange Place, Steppenwolf Theater, the historic Green Mill, and on NPR, the Risk podcast, and Siruis XM. He is a frequent guest instructor at the city's top universities, and his personal narrative class has been selling out every month since 2012. Scott is in demand as a coach and trainer, spending his days helping individuals, companies, and non-profits develop their voices as storytellers.
Scott Whitehair is a storyteller, teacher, and producer living in Chicago, IL. He is the producer of This Much Is True, creator of Story Lab Chicago, which has put 850+ new storytellers on stage since 2011, and director of Do Not Submit, a grassroots network of open mics across the city bringing people together to connect with each other. Scott tells anywhere someone will listen, including The National Storytelling Festival Exchange Place, Steppenwolf Theater, the historic Green Mill, and on NPR, the Risk podcast, and Siruis XM. He is a frequent guest instructor at the city's top universities, and his personal narrative class has been selling out every month since 2012. Scott is in demand as a coach and trainer, spending his days helping individuals, companies, and non-profits develop their voices as storytellers.