♪ ADAM WADE: I made a Little League team, and then I went to the first practice.

I found out quickly that I inherited my father's athletic ability.

(laughter) RAE MARIE LUNA: And they're all shouting, "Dive, dive, dive!"

Like that's going to make it happen.

BERNARD LEE: But when the six of diamonds rolled off onto that green felt, I just fell to the floor.

Couldn't believe it.

WES HAZARD: Tonight's theme is "For the Win."

ANNOUNCER: This program is made possible in part by contributions from viewers like you.

Thank you.

HAZARD: Some of us grew up hearing that winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.

And some of us grew up hearing, "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game."

And some of us just don't know what the rules are and how we win this at all.

And that's totally fine, no matter what, how you get through this life, how you compete, how you strive, whatever you strive for, the point is that you show up and you do it.

♪ LUNA: I am Rae Marie Luna, I'm a writer and a storyteller, and I write fiction and poetry and all kinds of stories.

HAZARD: When did you first hear of people telling stories?

LUNA: Onstage, I got my start at the Green Mill in Chicago in the early '90s, when the poetry slam movement was just first starting out.

And my poems were a little bit more narrative, they were almost like little stories in and of themselves.

So that was when I first got into this.

HAZARD: What kind of stories do you like sharing the most?

LUNA: I really enjoy a good story arc where people start one way and they're transformed, and they learn something, and they come out the other way.

And I like to sort of beat up my characters and put them into complicated situations that seem like they're backed into a corner, and how are they going to get out.

And sometimes it's not always pretty, it's not always a happy ending.

(laughs): So I really love complicated stories.

HAZARD: And I'm just interested, I mean, you are a writer on the page, and you're a storyteller on the stage.

Does your approach to both of those, is it the same, is it different?

And if so, how is it different?

LUNA: I think that they are very similar to some extent in the way that I sketch things out, or I get an idea and I craft the bones of it, and then I start to work it out.

And the difference with storytelling is, it's coming from my own personal life, and I have to think about things, but I will get visuals in my head, like cue points almost, of where I am in the story.

And I think it's very similar to when I'm writing it on the page, but I have to do a lot more visualization when I'm telling the story in person.

You know how there are things that everyone else knows how to do, but you don't know how to do?

My thing is diving.

I don't know how to dive.

I do know how to swim very, very awkwardly.

I have taken swim lessons, so it has actually nothing to do with teachers, it has everything to do with this cartoonish cavalcade of worst-case scenarios that sort of percolate in my brain about everything that's going to go wrong, like, there's going to be water that goes up my nose, I'm going to spontaneously combust.

I just, I feel like there's no reason to be airborne with your head going first.

In my mind, there just, there's no need for it.

Fast-forward.

I'm at a family reunion, and we're up in northern Wisconsin, and we're on a lake, and it's beautiful.

And the water is so pristine.

They don't have motorboats, you can only have canoes, so it's very clear, it's unpolluted.

There's beautiful woods up there.

So we're up there, and we've taken to gathering picnic tables together for our meals.

And we're out there one day, and we're having breakfast.

It's my whole father's side of the family.

There's tons of them.

And the conversation starts going around about, "What can't you do that everyone else can do?"

And people were saying things like, "I don't know how to rodeo."

Like, that's just, like, something that people don't, like, everyone, "What, really?

Everyone rodeos?

No one rodeos."

So I'm, like, "Well, I'm just going to say the thing, you know, that I don't know how to do."

So I say that I don't know how to dive.

And I think that the conversation is just going to keep on going.

But instead, it comes to a complete standstill.

And I'm, like, "What?"

And I'm looking at all these faces looking at me from these picnic tables.

And I realize that these are swimmers.

Capital-letter, neon-sign swimmers.

There's my grandmother sitting here.

She competed in the Senior Olympics into her elder years.

There's my uncle.

He swam this lake.

And my father's going to do the same thing.

They recreationally swim lakes.

And they're looking at me like I'm out of my mind.

So next of all, I find myself on this floating platform in the middle of the lake, and my dad's going to teach me how to dive.

I mean, he is so hopeful.

And I'm, like, "All right, I'm going to be hopeful, too.

"I... maybe my dad will have the magic solution "to this mental block that I have about me and diving.

Dad's going to do it."

So my dad's there, and he's all, you know, hyped.

And he's, like, "All right, "you're going to put your hands like this, "and you're going to put your knees like this, "and you're just going to go.

You're just going to go."

And I'm, "All right."

So I put my hands like this, I put my knees like this, and I go.

And it's my feet that go first.

So I come back up, and my dad is shaking his head like... (snorts): "All right, maybe I didn't say it loud enough."

(loudly): "You put your hands like this, "and you put your knees like this, and you're just going to go like this."

And I think the translation of, "Just go like this" means, "And then you dive."

But the translation for me is, "Then you don't."

So I go in with my feet first.

And I do it again and again and again, and it's feet first, feet first, feet first.

And my head just, is just controlling this whole thing.

And it's very tiring, because every time I come back up on the platform, I'm doing this, like, side lobbing, kind of doggie-paddle swim thing, hoping he doesn't notice, because then he's going to correct me on that.

And I get on the platform, and there's my dad.

And I'm ready to say, "You know, Dad, "like, can we just call it a day?

"Can we go canoeing?

You know, this is just really the worst."

And I look over his shoulder, and, on the shore has gathered an enormous crowd of people, and it is not just my family.

I feel the word has gotten out around all of the campgrounds that there is someone that doesn't know how to dive.

And they're all there.

I feel like the mayor has been invited.

I feel like there's talking deer and birds and dogs, and they're all there, and they're all shouting, "Dive, dive, dive!"

Like that's going to make it happen.

So I'm freaking out.

I'm just freaking out, and my brain is going, "You know, just dive, just do it.

Why can't you?

Why can't you just do it?"

And this other part of my brain is going, "Uh-uh, no."

This water is so pristine, I can see the side of this platform.

I know my head's going to magnetize right into that.

And I'm not convinced that this lake is deep enough.

Like, when my dad goes, he goes at an angle, But I can see these shadowy boulders kind of deep down there, and I'm really sure that when I go, I'm going to be a torpedo, I'm going to go straight down, and I'm going to combust, and that is going to be really embarrassing.

So I, I'm in this, and I come up with this idea in a moment of panic, and I decided that I'm going to fake-dive.

That if I put my hands like this, and I do my knees, and I kind of just sort of go sideways, like, off the platform, like, maybe this will appear to, to be like a dive.

So I get my hands together, and I got my knees, and I go for it.

And it happens in slow motion as I traversed through the airborne cosmos in this dream of finally diving, that somehow my body will do what I'm trying to tell it what to do.

And this will be the moment, and I will be applauded.

And my body goes in the water, and it is my feet that go first.

(laughter) And as I make contact with the water, what I hear is... (groaning) And this is loudest from my father, but it comes from the crowd.

And so I come up for air, and everyone's gone.

I've never seen a crowd disperse so fast.

And my dad, I can see, he's already taken off.

And it's one of those moments when you're really kind of alone in your own madness, and you're just really sitting with it.

And I'm just really feeling it.

And you know, it could go one of two ways.

On the one hand, I could say, "Ugh, that was so humiliating.

"I disappointed my father.

"I didn't get the applause.

I don't know how to dive."

On the other hand, "Hey, I'm not leaving here in an ambulance.

"I'm not in traction.

"I didn't spontaneously combust as the human torpedo "that's now all over the internet.

"I think I did okay.

I think this is good, I didn't want to dive anyway."

And I get myself back to shore, and I join my family, and they don't say anything to me, thankfully.

And they still to this day have not said anything to me.

And as the day goes on, at some point, a game of Scrabble comes out.

And that's the thing you need to know about my family, is that even more than swimming, they love Scrabble, of which I happen to excel.

And I hit a winning streak that day.

And so in the end of it all, I became not known as the one who can't dive, but the one to beat at Scrabble.

Thank you.

(cheers and applause) ♪ LEE: My name is Bernard Lee, I'm from Wayland, Massachusetts, and I am a professional poker player and poker media personality.

HAZARD: You are definitely the first and only professional poker player that we've had here on Stories from the Stage.

I'm really curious, how and when did you start playing poker?

LEE: When I was a youngster, my father and his brothers and sometimes their friends would come over for the holidays.

And they would ship the kids up to go to bed.

But I never really went.

I stayed at the top of the stairs and just listened.

And I really enjoyed listening to them argue and, and talk about cards, and I really kind of fell in love with the game.

And so I asked my dad to teach me how to play.

HAZARD: Hmm.

And so we all know that you are quite clearly used to a lot of stress at the table.

As I understand it, tonight's going to be your first time sharing a story in this kind of environment.

What have you done to prepare for that?

LEE: It's definitely a, a different skill set.

I'm very impressed with a lot of the people I've seen on previous shows.

Some of them I, I literally watched three or four times, 'cause it wasn't just learning from them, but I just enjoyed their story.

HAZARD: Excellent.

And last question that I had was, what do you hope that the audience takes away from your story tonight?

LEE: Couple of things.

One, my love of poker, and how it almost... really accidentally happened.

I didn't get two degrees from Harvard, and I didn't get an MBA from Babson to become a professional poker player.

But on top of that, how family has really helped me get to where I am, because my wife didn't marry me thinking I was going to be a professional poker player.

And I worked over a decade in the real world for a Fortune 500 company in marketing and new business development.

You can't do this without your family's support.

♪ When my wife and I got married, like many couples, we vowed, "For better or worse."

We had a two-year-old boy, and we were waiting for our second child to be born.

And my daughter was born on the night of April 28.

But unfortunately, it went all downhill from there.

After a very quick delivery, my wife had some serious complications.

We could tell that something was wrong, because the nurses were racing in and out of the room, the doctors started whispering to each other.

It was serious.

She was bleeding out.

They were racing her out of the room, and I just begged them, "Can you please stop?

I want to say goodbye to my wife."

I walked over, I reached for her hand, gave her a kiss, and I told her I loved her.

She knew I was really nervous, and she tried to calm me down.

And she told me the words that I'll never forget.

"I'll be back soon.

I love you."

It was probably the worst night of my life.

Thoughts racing through my mind: "How am I going to take care of these two kids alone "being a single father?

What am I going to tell her parents?"

I, I just didn't know what to do.

There was no news that was coming.

Finally the doctor walked in.

I just cried and collapsed when I heard the news.

My wife had lost over half her blood.

But thankfully, she made it.

She survived.

He told me it was going to be a pretty lengthy recovery, but after several days, we went home.

You know, after everything we had been through, I was just so fortunate to have my family together.

About two months later, my wife actually started having more stomach pains.

And the doctors told us now she had a softball-sized tumor on her right ovary.

The good news was, it was benign.

The bad news was, is that it was a pretty major surgery.

And now he said that there was going to be another lengthy recovery.

Well, there's a little bit of a backstory to all this.

I was actually preparing for one of the biggest moments of my young poker career.

Earlier that year, I had qualified for the World Series of Poker.

Many of you might have seen this on TV.

It happens every year.

It's a $10,000 buy-in event, and it's the dream of every amateur poker player to play in this event, and it certainly was mine.

So how could I leave my wife, after everything she went through, to go play in a poker tournament?

She said, "Go."

She had watched me work so hard for the last year, year and a half, and she said, "Go live your dream."

So I flew my sister-in-law in to take care of my wife and the two kids, and off I went.

Flew off to Las Vegas to play in a poker tournament.

I was a little guilty.

But I was so excited.

I was about to play in the World Series of Poker main event, and I knew if I played well, maybe strung a few days together, I could have a special run.

And that's exactly what happened.

After day one, there were 5,619 people who played in this event, and I was one of the chip leaders.

I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't wait to go tell my wife and give her all the little details, like walking into that room, this football-field-sized room just filled with poker tables from wall to wall, thousands of people just chattering about poker, the symphony of the cards and the chips.

It really brought me back to my childhood.

In all honesty, it made me feel home.

But in all honesty, my wife doesn't know anything about poker.

It really went in one ear and out the other.

She could have cared less.

But she knew I was nervous, and she wanted to calm me down.

So she told me, "Can't wait till you get back home.

I love you."

We had this call day after day after day, and that's a good thing, because if you have that call, that means you're still in the event, and I have a chance to win it.

On day five, though, the call changed a little bit.

My wife had this excitement in her voice, and I didn't know why.

See, our family, friends, work colleagues-- the press-- were all calling her to tell her that her husband-- me-- was still in this event.

50 people now were only left in this event, and I was one of them.

She couldn't believe it.

She was so excited that I was living my dream, and she was thrilled that I was having the time of my life.

She wished me good luck, and I went back to the poker table.

Unfortunately, my dream ended the next day.

I went out in 13th place, pushed my chips into the middle, and my opponent called.

When we flipped over our cards, I was ahead.

He only had five cards to beat me.

When the last card was about to be turned, I was about a 90% favorite to win.

But when the six of diamonds rolled off onto that green felt... (exhales with frustration) My knees crumbled.

I just fell to the floor-- couldn't believe it.

Flying home from Las Vegas back to Boston, during the five-hour flight, I just kept living that moment over and over again, thinking about every single hand.

"Could I have done anything different?"

I was just devastated.

Got off the plane and went to baggage claim, and there they were.

My boy ran into my arms and gave me a big hug and welcomed me home.

My daughter was lying there, and I gave her a little peck on the cheek, and then my wife.

She gave me a big hug, big kiss.

All the disappointment went away when she said, "So glad you're back home.

I love you."

Thank you very much.

(cheers and applause) HAZARD: Bernard Lee.

♪ WADE: I'm Adam Wade.

I'm originally from New Hampshire, and 21 years ago, I, after going to Keene State College in New Hampshire, I moved to New York City, and I've been there since and doing shows, and storytelling specifically for about 16 years now.

HAZARD: And you know, you've been doing storytelling for so long, you're very accomplished.

What keeps you engaged?

You know, what's the motivation?

WADE: I mean, it's the connection to the audience, and, and that...

I think at first, it was battling fear and, and battling fear, but also feeling like I had something to offer, and then enjoying my time up there.

And, you know, I, I still get nervous-- I think...

When people say they don't get nervous, I don't know.

I, I still get nervous.

And, but that connection, that connection keeps me, keeps me going.

HAZARD: What impact has storytelling had on you?

Has it changed how you deal with people in your personal life?

Has changed your professional life?

What's been the, what's been the, the impact?

WADE: I feel like I'm, I'm better at making a conversation with people.

And I'm still very shy.

I mean, I think part of it is, getting into it, is very shy, but talking to other storytellers, going to these type of shows, you know, I always feel comfortable.

You know, in life, everywhere you go, sometimes you just feel out of place or whatever.

In the storytelling community, I think for the most part, you walk in there, and you're immediately...

I hope, you know, you, you'd feel a sense of, "Oh, okay, wow," like, "I, I kind of, I, I can, I can fit in here, yeah."

♪ So growing up, when I was little, for breakfast, my mom used to always make me pancakes.

I like pancakes, I'm a pancake boy.

And on special occasions, my mom would make me, like, Mickey Mouse pancakes.

You know, it was like a little... On my, like, birthday or, like, the first day of school.

My mom, growing up...

I don't want to brag, but I'll brag to you guys.

My mom's kind of like a celebrity in my hometown.

She's, like, a really good bowler.

On Tuesday, she's in a women's bowling league, and, like, she really kicks butt.

Each year, she would come home after the banquets that they'd have, and she'd have two or three trophies.

She'd walk in, and it was, like, "Wow."

And my father is a really good guy, not a very athletic guy.

And he would say, "Wow, Cindy, you're, like, like, the best athlete in the family."

And my mom, like, never wanted to show up my dad, she was very sensitive to his feelings.

So she would take the trophies, and she would bring them immediately down to the basement.

I used to call it, like, the trophy graveyard.

There's all of these, like, cardboard boxes full of these trophies.

When she would come up, she would say, "You know, "the only reason why I get these trophies are, "because if you're in a league for sports, you automatically get a trophy."

My ears, like, perked up, like, "Whoa."

Like, "So I could get one if I'm in a league?"

She's, like, "Yeah," I'm, like, "Oh."

So then came my quest for my own trophy.

I, I'm asthmatic, and, and in my room I had, like, a little bureau, and I would take like, lemon Pledge and I'd spray it each day and dust it down, waiting for that time I could put my trophy there.

(laughter) So when I turned eight, I made a Little League team, and I can't explain how excited I was.

It was so great.

And then I went to the first practice.

I found out quickly that I... inherited my father's athletic ability.

(laughter) Any normal kid with my ability would have definitely quit.

But there was no way.

I was going to stay there, go to every game and every practice, because I knew at the end, it'd have a banquet, and I'd get my trophy.

So that fall at the Elks' Lodge, they had a stage like this, and it was full of these trophies, table after table, beautiful trophies.

And they started giving them away and handing them out.

And they went with the, the best player first, the second, they kept going.

Then the worst player, they called my name, and I started walking, and my heart was, like, racing.

And I noticed that all the tables were clear.

There was, there was, there was no trophies left.

And my coach handed me... Like, two ribbons.

"He tries hard and was at every game."

(laughter) When I got home, I went in my room, I slammed the door.

And a couple of minutes later, there was a knock, and I, and I opened the door.

It was my mom, and she had this, like, huge, pink trophy, and that the top of it was this golden woman holding a bowling ball.

And I, like, "Wow!"

And then at the bottom, she had taken, like, a, a slip of paper and put "Best Son: Adam."

And, uh... "Hold it."

And I went and I grabbed the lemon Pledge, and I sprayed, and I dusted.

She put it down.

And I go, "You can leave now.

Thanks, Ma, thanks."

And then, like, for the next couple of hours, I just stared at that trophy.

And for the next couple of nights, the next couple of weeks, a couple of months, the amount of time, like, I just stared at that trophy, and the amount of joy it gave me, it was infinite.

A couple of years later, I'm in fifth grade.

I'm not a very popular kid, I'm a nerd.

My mom tells me one night, she's, like, "You know, I'm working on this thing for work, this special project."

And she was coming over, and she's bringing Steve.

And Steve is the most popular kid in my class.

He was very athletic, and he was, he was just cool.

And, like, I was going to get to hang out with him alone.

This was awesome.

He comes home, we go watch the Celtics.

He immediately talks about how small our TV is.

He's, like, "That's a small screen."

I'm, like, "Oh, okay."

He's, like, "Let's go see your room."

I'm, like, "Sure."

So we go up, and I open the door.

"Here it is."

And he's, like, "Wow.

That's weird."

I'm, like, "What?"

He's, like, "That trophy, that is weird."

And I'm, like, "No, like, I'm the best son."

And he's, like, "Oh, my."

I go, "Yeah."

And he goes, "Wait till tomorrow, everybody's going to know about it."

And I go to school the next day, and it's not a fun day.

This kid, Steve, I got to tell you-- not a smart kid, not smart, but very good at getting other kids to make fun.

And, uh... they broke me.

(voice breaking): And I went home that night, and I looked at my trophy, and this trophy that had given me so much joy.

Um...

I was ashamed of it.

And I took it, and I went down to the basement to put it with the other trophies, and I had to go past my mom, who was reading a book.

I went right to my room, and I tried to go to sleep, and I couldn't, I'm tossing and turning.

And I have this feeling that, like, I hurt my mom's feelings.

And it's the last thing, the last person, I'd want to hurt.

And...

I'm a lousy Little League player.

And now I'm afraid I'm a, I'm a lousy son, too.

So at four in the morning, I come up with an idea.

I go back down in the basement, I get a different trophy, and a piece of paper.

I put, "Best Mom," and I tape it to the base, and I leave it on the kitchen table, and I go to bed.

And I wake up in the morning, and my mom sings, singing in the kitchen.

And I go to, and I sit down.

And... She puts down the pancakes, and she pats my head.

And I look down at the pancakes, she's getting me, uh, Mickey Mouse pancakes.

And, uh, it's not my birthday, and it's not the first day of school.

(laughter) But she... she wants me to know it's a special occasion.

And I...

I started eating them, because I told you, I like pancakes.

You don't stare at them, you know, you eat them.

So I ate them, and they were good.

And as I was eating them, I looked into the... through the kitchen, into the living room.

We had this little mantel, and on the mantel... my mom... had put the trophy I'd given her, "Best Mom: Cindy."

She wanted everybody in, that walked into our house to see it.

Thank you.

(cheers and applause) ANNOUNCER: This program is made possible in part by contributions from viewers like you.

Thank you.

♪