a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  2968 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A Day In The Life of Goobster: As a "hostage" in Montenegro

This is an AMAZING story, it's well told. Sad, lovely stuff. Hard to top that, but if there is a story you'd like to share with Hubski, feel free to. I'm sure the world of debt-collection is full of adventure.

How did the musical go? The Grimaldi's?





goobster  ·  2966 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks, TNG. I have a bunch of stories from my life that I need to get assembled and published. Most are just words, but I have built a couple into stories I can present live on stage like this...

As far as debt collection goes... I was the guy that designed the software. But I did go door-knocking in Poland with one of our debt collectors to get a feel for what it was like on the ground. And it isn't what you think. A debt collector in Eastern Europe is usually a retired pensioner, trying to make a couple of extra bucks. A 70-year old man in a suit is not someone the debtor feels threatened by... they are more likely to pity them. So it immediately de-escalates the potential stress/antagonistic nature of a debt collector's call, and turns into the debtor wanting to help the little old man out.

And The Grimaldi's was brilliant. Ran for a month at Hale's Palladium here in Seattle. I got to be a (dead) Olde Tyme Circus Barker, and work with the twin aerialists. (I have a bit of circus background, so aerial rigging is something I can run.) The story is told well in the Indiegogo campaign here.