A storytelling show about the audience, The Campfireball is created spontaneously out of whatever stories and lives happen to be gathered together at that moment in time. Workshopped and developed over two years in the master's program for storytelling at East Tennessee State University and showcased at the 2023 Asheville Fringe Festival, host Cory Howard blends intimacy and absurdity in an effort to shepherd the audience through unique yet reverent ways of drawing out their life experiences. Never possible to know what’s coming next, each Campfireball slowly begins to reveal surprises, connections, and communitas as the space transforms from a room of strangers to a room of neighbors. Worth noting, some people think the premise of The Campfireball sounds “like their worst nightmare”, but participation is never required, the show is just as much fun to sit back and watch unfold as it is to play along, so don’t be afraid to take a risk! Come on out for a night of storytelling you will literally never be able to experience again.
The January Campfireball theme is the 'First Timers Club', a night to celebrate all the various firsts in our lives—for better or worse—these moments shaped who we were to become, and are still becoming; first loves, first heartbreaks, first tries, first failures, first time you ever shared a story at The Campfireball, its all fair game in this fast paced ridiculous yet authentic experiment in collective storytelling.