Greg Marshall on stage.
Greg Marshall: ‘Storytelling keeps us together.’
Like most other young folks in their first years of college, Greg Marshall was just trying to find himself.
But the cops were trying to find him too.
On one fateful night of partying some 20 years ago (preceded by too many other nights of partying), when Marshall was running and swimming away from the police, he finally admitted to himself that he was on a path paved with poor decisions.
It was then that he chose to stop lying. It was then that he chose to stop feeding the burning pit of dark secrets that he carried inside him. It was then that he chose a different path.
The journey that followed includes a number of twists and turns, “with the happy ending of me homeless on a beach,” he says.
Now Marshall is a father and a husband. He’s won three Emmy Awards for his work in brand marketing and he’s telling the story — and stories — of what was set in motion on that nearly-catastrophic night. On stage and in front of crowds. He’ll bring his one-man show Greg Marshall Pops Out of the Trees to The Bur Oak on July 14.
Since he first began performing it last November, he’s added audio and video elements, as well as live, looped guitar samples to give the show more life and variety.
“It’s a mix of storytelling, music and improv,” says Marshall, who was born in Madison but also lived in DeForest, Dane and Lodi while growing up. “It’s a true story and it’s very humorous, but it goes to a very deep place.”
He also includes a storytelling technique you might not expect: freestyle rapping. That skill stems from Marshall’s teen years when he was a hip-hop artist who performed at open mics and MC battles. He and a couple of friends later formed a hip-hip group called The Figureheads that won acclaim for their uplifting, positive songs.
Marshall says he hopes audiences relate to his one-man show and that it makes those who see it feel like it’s their show too.
“I wanted to create something that would introduce people to themselves because when people know themselves better, everything else kind of falls into place,” he says. “I picture it like I’m walking people into a garden during the show and I’m pointing out things in the garden and then, all of a sudden, people start to realize and say, ‘Wait a minute, this is my soul that I’m looking at, this is me that I am looking at.’ And then when people start to realize that, I start backing away and leave people in that garden to just experience what’s going on and know themselves.”
The audience does become part of the 80-minute show’s finale, making each show unique.
“It becomes about the audience’s stories — I create a song about their stories right there,” he continues. “So the freestyle at the end feels like a magic trick because you’re where the show comes from.”
Marshall says it was that decisive night on the run from the police that pushed him to become a professional storyteller — so it’s come full circle.
“I had this realization that telling stories might be something that I’m alive to do,” he says. He hopes his story inspires others to tell their story.
“I think storytelling keeps us together. It’s an essential way to understand ourselves and understand each other and to move forward as society.”
