As Tate Russell Tells It, Some People Are Better Actors Than Friends
The Moth has platformed storytellers from all walks of life: Nobel laureates, astronauts, a hotdog eating champion, and an actor with Chippewa Valley ties
Can an actor perform so well that they fool everyone – even themselves?
The Moth, an internationally renowned storytelling podcast and event series, recently featured a short story from Tate Russell, the son of acclaimed local performers Kobi Shaw and Steve Russel. In the story, Tate recounts his experience performing as the lead in a high school production of The Music Man alongside his co-star; his ex-girlfriend. What follows is a heartfelt, eminently relatable story of breakups and professionalism.
Tate first performed a different story at the Moth Story Slam in August of 2022. After winning that storytelling event, he was invited back to perform at the Moth Grand Slam story event in May that year, at the Fitzgerald Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There, Tate shared this vulnerable story of behind-the-scenes drama.
On Feb. 16 this year, nearly two years after Tate's original performance of the story, Moth included it in their podcast series as part of the episode titled "Timeless Love" and shared a video of Tate's performance online (as of March 5, the video has over 2,000 likes on Facebook and Instagram).
At Carlton College as an undergraduate, Tate co-founded a storytelling group and worked to hone the true stories he already had. "Being vulnerable helps build trust with the audience," Tate said. "It's a story where I bought into the way I thought things were supposed to go. The way things were meant to be. Stories don't always have such a neat conclusion."
Check out Tate Russell's story "Better Actors than Friends" on The Moth website and podcast, here.
