Libby Thornton photos
Kim Weitkamp tells the audience one of her many stories at the Pike Piddlers Story Festival in the Trojan Center Theater.
The Pike Piddlers piddled their way to the Trojan Center Theatre once again for the annual Storytelling Festival. Year after year, renowned storytellers captivate audiences with their wit, sentiment and passion.
The festival took place last weekend. The first event was at the We Piddle Theatre in Brundidge, Alabama, while the next three showings were on campus.
“It’s a way to connect,” said Kevin Kling, one of the storytellers. “We’re so isolated these days, but storytelling is a way to pass down information, traditions and legacies.”
The storytellers featured included Andy Offut Irwin, Kim Weitkamp and Kevin Kling. Each show lasted two hours and featured a variety of styles between each storyteller.
Andy Offut Irwin has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival. Irwin started his set out by singing a comedy song “Mistletoe is Gross.”
Irwin proceeded to tell a story about growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in a post-segregation South. He kept the audience laughing with quips and sound effects while also commentating on the bigotry that his Black friends had to face.
Irwin laughed about a prank he pulled on a classmate, utilizing skills he learned throughout his classes to get back at her for being rude to him and his friends.
Kim Weitkamp was second, telling a passionate story about how she found out about her lineage. Weitkamp’s biological mother had abandoned her when she was a baby, and Weitkamp hadn’t known until middle school.
Weitkamp’s story turned into one about learning about her mother’s struggle with alcoholism and how she tried to overcome it. Weitkamp found an old bible of her mother’s with notes on her struggles.
“Seeing those notes and writings in the margins,” Weitkamp said emotionally. “It lets the mercy and forgiveness flow through you.”
Kevin Kling went last. Kling is a Minnesotan native. He told a plethora of stories about travels, love, loss and recovering from an accident that left him disabled.
Kling also offered advice for anyone interested in pursuing the art of storytelling.
“Why does a novelist speak to you?” Kling said. “Figure out why they do, so when you find a voice, you try to tell a story like that person.”
The Pike Piddlers hold their storytelling festival on the last weekend of January every year. For information on the 2026 festival, visit piddle.org.
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