Mark Petrakis: I am saying the conversational aspects, the ability to do that with a computer, is available. There will be a multitude of ways that will be driven that are boring, you would never want to be around a house with someone interacting with their computer, but someone is going to figure out interesting ways of doing it.

Now the storytelling side, thats away from the technology element and toward the human element, that's about, what do you want to say, what happened to you, what feeling, what emotion is driving forward your need to communicate. That's a wonderful zone obviously because there you are back to the basics of transforming experience into art. What's your choice in medium there, you can use film and text and stories and so this another avenue. Its a really fun avenue, and can be really funny, like the old Spoon man animations I used to do at your theater, Life On The Water.

Interviewer: Yes, but as you say, making these storymaking projects are placeholders until there is a time that the computer that is smart enough to be good straight man to your craziness or vice versa.

Mark Petrakis: I think people intuit that, like they did in 1968 when they first saw Kubrick's Hal 9000, like "Oh my god, I am hearing the voice of my mother, she is telling me to clean my room, but she's been dead for forty years."

Interviewer: So for you the definition is not about extending the facility of creation in old mediums via digital tools, it's about what could not be done until there were digital tools. But what about your role as a storyteller using these tools? An extension of live performance or the historical role of storytelling?

Mark Petrakis: Certainly, I believe in live events, people in a room, collective experience, I believe in the basics of show business; magical appearance, participatory ritual and transformation. I don't think you can have that if you are not in a group setting.

When you are in a group there has to be showmaster, leader, you could call him a priest or you could simply call them the toughest guy in the group.

I recently was introduced to a person who was a bard. My friend said he is just traveling through, he lives in a truck, he is a bard. I went to this house, and he told these Indian stories about Spider, etc. He told them beautiful well. And at a certain point, I completely lost it, I mean, I wasn't on drugs, I just lost it. One of his tricks was his repitition of "And so it was", a little trick to help him pick up stragglers, and looked around the room and saw that everyone was back with him. And I went up to him afterward completely effused, to tell him he was incredible. And he said, "Yeh, my favorite part is when people stop hearing my story and they start hearing their own." And that is exactly what happened to me, I had started hearing my own story and he stopped even being there. And that's magic.

On the spectrum of business presenter to inspired bard, on the spectrum of persuasion from "My god, I have to have that product," to "My god, I have to change my life" that kind of experience is way on the far side. So that's the measure of a storyteller, how much they can inspire an audience.

In a business context, you have basic kinds of constraints around the best way to communicate information. There is a charge to communicate in daily life, not to waste time, to get your message across. McLuhan said that television advertising was way more interesting than print because way more thinking went into it, a lot more focus. I think we are going to have shakedown here, with too much media, too easily accessible, and not enough care or thought. "I can do it, so I will do it" attitude, but that is a real adolescent approach to the problem.

Powerpoint presentations can be as broad as the spectrum of transformational experience I mentioned above. So I think business presenters should start with Powerpoint, get that down, and then get good at video. But if it works, it works. Shut my mouth.

Interviewer: But you are enough of an artist to say why it works. Obviously there are no easy answers to art, to the transformational experience, it's a rare experience. I think it's something about emotional archetypes of story, certainly mythical stories like your Bard told, but I also think there are personal story archetypes that don't have to ascend to characters that are bigger than life, they can seem very much like "real life" and yet we can get to that transformational place. Is there anything about the use by the storyteller of the digital tools that makes transformation more possible?

Mark Petrakis: I don't think the feeling is as rare as you say. Storytelling is about the search for meaning, and often is transformational for people. But the digital world has not created that many examples.

Interviewer: Do you think story itself is making a comeback in our culture?

Mark Petrakis: I agree there is a zeitgeist, a well spring of interest in story. I think the driver in the economy, in advertising, is personalization. People are asked to personalize themselves, my email is my email, it is a specific identity, not a market profile.

The digital medium does not retard the ability to be yourself, it enhances that. When the drive to personalization in marketing and advertising meets the personal storytelling movement, there will be lots of synergy.

In the face of the well-tested, well researched advertising messages, the mom and pop store is learning methods for survival in the marketplace. Digital tools will assist these people to get their story out to the specific market they need to survive.

Interviewer: What is your current role as a storyteller?