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Upcoming Events, Shows & Performances:

Feast on Viking Food, Drink Mead, and Enjoy Two Norse Myths Sunday April 3 in Cambridge MA

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Feast on Viking Food, Drink Mead, and Enjoy Two Norse Myths Sunday April 3 in Cambridge MA

For a total immersion into an ancient mythic world, join Master Storyteller and Musician Odds Bodkin for a storytelling concert: ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS. A full 90 minutes of imagination entertainment.

Grab a table with friends, eat heartily, and then sit back for Thor’s Journey to Utgard and The Mead of Poetry, two Viking myths performed with character voices, sound effects and music on two different 12-string guitars. Plus a Viking lore introduction told with Celtic harp.

Children over 12 are welcome.

“Bodkin’s enchanting voice, musical prowess, and larger-than-life persona have earned him an illustrious career as a master storyteller.” — The Harvard Crimson

“a consummate storyteller”—The New York Times

“a modern-day Orpheus”—Billboard

ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS

Odds Bodkin

Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 5 pm

Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square

Tickets: $25

Power Myths of Ancient Greece: Storyteller Odds Bodkin on Zoom This Thursday

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Power Myths of Ancient Greece: Storyteller Odds Bodkin on Zoom This Thursday

Master Storyteller and Musician Odds Bodkin kicks off his 3-part series, Power Myths of Ancient Greece, with a revelatory show:

EARTH OVERTHROWN: Gaia and the Titans

Thursday, March 3rd at 7 pm EST on Zoom

With character voices, narration and a full score on 12-string guitar, the storyteller takes you back to the dawn of time, according to the ancient Greeks. It’s the tale of Gaia the Earth and her Titan children. And of their terrible war with the upstart Gods of Olympus.

Storytelling for adults.

Get your tickets today!

$30 per screen

90 Minutes of Horror Tales with Live Acoustic Music from Odds Bodkin

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Enjoy 90 minutes of Horror Tales with Live Acoustic Music from Master Storyteller Odds Bodkin this coming Friday, Oct. 29th at 7 pm EST. A Zoom performance.

Two 12-string guitars and a Celtic harp; those are Bodkin’s tools of the trade for HEARTPOUNDERS: Halloween Horror Tales.

A New England ghost legend. A Samurai tale of demons. A French Canadian tale of a girl and the devil. These tales are told with sound effects and vivid characters. Recommended for 12 and up. Don’t miss it!

HEARTPOUNDERS: Halloween  Tales of Horror

Friday Oct. 29th, 2021 at 7 pm EST

Zoom Tickets: $25 per screen

Buy yours now and get a viewing party together! 90 minutes of horror tales.

HEARTPOUNDERS: Halloween Tales of Horror…Odds Bodkin returns to Zoom on Oct. 29th.

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HEARTPOUNDERS: Halloween Tales of Horror…Odds Bodkin returns to Zoom on Oct. 29th!

A 90-minute live storytelling event!

Friday, Oct. 29th at 7 pm EST

When the wind roars, the whip cracks and the horse gallops into the storm, you know you’re hearing Master Storyteller Odds Bodkin tell The Storm Breeder, the legend of an undead man doomed to flee thunderstorms across New England. The 12-string guitar score rivets you to the storyteller’s hands, while his face, close up on Zoom, transforms from character to character.

He’s called “a consummate storyteller” by The New York Times and this HEARTPOUNDERS performance is one of the reasons why. Experience vocal effects so realistic, the sounds evoke cinema in viewers’ minds, even as a host of characters come to life. And it all breathes with music, building tension and emotion as each tale powers toward its shocking end.

Drawn from supernatural traditions around the world, these tales come complete with introductory lore. A full 90-minute evening of imagination entertainment. Heartpounders with Odds Bodkin.

Grab some friends, get your ticket and save the date!

Tickets: $25 per screen

(buys your login and password)

Includes a post-show Q&A!

Shiva, Parvati, Yudisthira, Ganesha, Bhima, Arjuna and a Faithful Dog in Mahabharata Tales for Adults

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Although the princes of two families grew up as demigods together, they have always competed for rulership of the city of Hastinapur. Each armed with fantastical powers, the Kurus and the Pandava brothers fight with magical mantras as much as with weapons. They’re not above trickery and murder. And it is their sweeping tale, arcing across history, bejeweled with hundreds of stories-within-stories, that is The Mahabharata.

When I first read it, I was stunned by the particle weapons and cluster bombs the characters wielded–this in a book created 2,500 years ago. I was also amazed by the immense floating cities. And by the Himalayan forests where emeralds were the leaves. And by the epic journeys encountering beings of all kinds. And by the Hindu gods especially, visiting humans like aunts and uncles on vacation from heaven.

It reminded me of Homer’s Iliad, and how the Greek gods whisked warriors away from death on the Trojan plain.

It’s a mythic storyteller’s dream, this great epic. And with my 12-string guitars and harp tuned to the world of Indian ragas, I’ll scratch The Mahabharata’s surface on Sunday, March 29th at Grendel’s Den in Cambridge, MA.

If you’re of Indian descent, please do come. You’ll enjoy it. It is highly honorable and Indian folks in Chicago loved it.

This fourth Grendel’s Den winter season has been a series of sell-out shows, and India’s Ancients: Tales from the Mahabharata and Beyond is the performance that fans voted for, out of a field of four adult tellings, to be the final one.

So this is the one I’m preparing for.

Some of the finest, most wondrous stories I’ve ever come across.

 

INDIA’S ANCIENTS: TALES FROM THE MAHABHARATA AND BEYOND

ODDS BODKIN

MARCH 29, 2020 AT 5:30 PM

GRENDEL’S DEN, CAMBRIDGE MA

TICKETS $20

VIP TABLES AVAILABLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Sunday in Cambridge, MA: ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS

Posted on by Odds Bodkin

As Loki hangs on while Thor thunders his chariot down Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge to earth, Loki hollers over the wind, “Thor, how fast can this chariot go?” The heavy vehicle is drawn by two He-Goats, Snarler and Tooth Grinder.

“I can cross ten leagues in an hour!” Thor proudly replies.

“Oh, then how many leagues can you cross in ten hours?”

Thor’s brows knit. He snorts, unable to think that far. “Don’t ask stupid questions, Loki!” Then a light enters Thor’s eyes. Ah, he has the answer. “Far enough!”

In Odds Bodkin’s telling of Thor’s Journey to Utgard, although Thor knows Loki is a liar and tells him so to his face, he still needs Loki’s cleverness. At least he thinks he does. Their insulting banter is constant as they make their way to Utgard, the capital city of the Frost Giants.

Thor is there to prove his strength. The outcome is altogether different.

This is one of two Viking myths, along with Viking lore, I’ll be offering Sunday March 8th at Grendel’s Den in Cambridge, MA.

Come eat Viking food and drink mead from Grendel’s Den’s complimentary Odds Bodkin glass!

ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS

An Adult Storytelling with live music

Sunday, March 8th at 5:30 p.m.

Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square, Cambridge MA

TICKETS: $20 in advance, $25 at the door

 

TAKE ODDS’ STORIES HOME WITH YOU.

Standup Comedians, Musicians, and…Odds Bodkin storytelling?

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Zinger’s in Milford, NH usually hosts stand-up comedians and music acts, but on January 17th, 2020, at 7 pm Odds Bodkin will show up to tell ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS, an adult storytelling show with live acoustic accompaniments. He’ll use Celtic harp and 12-string guitars.

Talk about some cognitive dissonance. And yet, not so, because very hip young crowds have been coming to get their minds blown at Odds’ adult shows at Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square for years now. They found the secret ticket to the true intelligentsia. Now you can, too.

If you’re a hard-boiled comedy fan who can’t find anything to laugh at anymore, then come to this show. Odds Bodkin doesn’t care if you laugh.

He’s there to make you dream.

 

ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS

Odds Bodkin, Storyteller and Musician

January 17, 2020 at 7 pm

Zinger’s, Milford, New Hampshire

Tickets $15 advance, $20 at the door

 

HORROR TALES IN BRADFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE ON OCT. 25TH

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When Hanna and I first talked about it, there was no outdoor stage at 11 West Main Street, here in Bradford, New Hampshire, otherwise known as the Sweet Beet Cultural Center. At least that’s how I think of it. It’s not called that yet.

 

And so Pierre built me a stage up against the woods. It’s still there, three years later.

And when Hanna and I attempted our first fundraiser for the Sweet Beet—now a cluster of entrepreneurial ventures housed in the old inn, a rebirth of a time when our little town was a destination for horse and buggy tourists, but which inn has now been gloriously renovated by the Two Mikes (Mike Bauer and Mike James)—I said, “Well, if we can get around 150 people to show up at ten bucks a head, all the money is yours. Consider it my in-kind donation.”

That was Halloween 2017. Lo and behold, we had 150 crazy Bradford souls and other crazies from other towns show up, bundled in winter hats, gloves and blankets, eating chili, and generally settling in to hear the local storyteller tell some tales with guitars, alto recorder and harp.

Other than adding a mysterious new horror tale to this upcoming evening’s entertainment, I’ll be reprising my show of two years ago on Pierre’s stage this Oct. 25th at 7:30 pm. Please bear in mind that as a musician, performing outside in the cold is a challenge. Cold slows the fingers. However, it quickens the mind.

The Storm Breeder, a New England ghost legend. 12-string guitar.

The Panther Boys, a tale of lycanthropy from Confucian China. Alto recorder.

Treasure Trove, a deeply unsettling story from Old Russia. 12-string guitar.

And the new story, which shall remain as cloaked as a ghost. This will be its debut.

You’ve never heard it, because I’ve never told it.

 

Bundle up. BYOB. Hot food for sale. Braziers will be burning.

Odds Bodkin’s

HEARTPOUNDERS I +

Friday, October 25, 2019

7:30 p.m.

11 West Main Street, Bradford NH

TICKETS $20

12-STRING GUITAR MOTIFS for Fall of the Titans

Posted on by Odds Bodkin

 

I’ve had a wonderful run of well-attended shows at Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square this winter and want to thank Kari Kuelzer, Charlie Gargano, Joe Froeber and the great staff at Grendel’s for making all the evenings run so smoothly.

Everybody’s having a good time.

This season’s last show is Sunday night, March 31 at 6 p.m.

FALL OF THE TITANS

TICKETS $15

American Mythology: The Phantom Train of Marshall’s Pass

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During the late 1800’s in Colorado, narrow gauge railroads crossed the Great Divide of the Rockies heading for Sante Fe and other parts west. In those days, nothing facilitated the Westward Expansion and what Americans thought of as Manifest Destiny more than the invention of the steam locomotive. The Iron Horse, as it was known.

Various folklores grew up around the railroads, including those of ghostly trains. Much as in earlier seafaring times when folklores centered around phantom ships—the Flying Dutchman being the most famous—where dead souls seeking vengeance chased the living, so too in the early Industrial Age in America similar tales were handed down about the captains of the locomotives. The engineers.

Whether these frightening accounts were actual events or not remains open to debate. Still, they are a part of American mythology.

The attached early map from the Denver and Santa Fe Railroad shows Marshall Pass (in the story, Marshall’s Pass) the topmost rail crossing of the Great Divide. It is at this Rocky Mountain pass that one of the tales I’ll be telling this weekend takes place.

It’s accompanied with a flat-picked score on a Taylor 6-string guitar.

 

DARK TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL

Friday, October 19th at 8 p.m. at the Sweet Beet, Bradford, New Hampshire.

An outdoor event. Bring warm clothes, chairs and blankets.

Freshly made hot food and drinks available for purchase.

 

Tickets $13 in advance, $15 at the gate

HORROR TALES FROM THE DEEP VAULT/October 19th Outdoor Show

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HORROR TALES FROM THE DEEP VAULT/October 19th Outdoor Show

I stopped performing Sedna the Ocean Mother because it’s just too unsettling, especially in the #MeToo era. Still, I’m going to do it. I haven’t told The Phantom Train of Marshall’s Pass in years because the flat picking on 6-string guitar is so fast. Still, I’m going to do it. I haven’t told The Infallible Doctor since I made the mistake of doing so in New Jersey shortly after 9/11 for schoolkids who, I only learned afterwards, had lost loved ones in the Twin Towers. Despite that bad memory, I’m going to do it. And I’ve never told The Demon Heads ever, so I’m going to debut it and see what people think.

Music on Celtic harp, 12-string guitar and 6-string guitar.

October 19th, 2018 at 8 pm, outdoors at the coolest new food and culture hub in New England, the Sweet Beet Market in Bradford, New Hampshire.

Hot chili, freshly baked breads, mulled cider and lots of organics to buy. Bring a blanket or chair, hat and gloves for this outdoor show by the cemetery.

DARK TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL

Tickets $13 in advance, $15 at the door.