Dann Seki is highly regarded in Honolulu for his work at Kumu Kahua in productions such as “;Aloha, Las Vegas”; and “;Yankee Dawg, You Die!”; One play utilized his talents as a comic actor and romantic lead; in the other, he spoke for a generation of Asian-American actors in a drama about race, ethnic identity and Hollywood.

Seki is also well known as a television and film actor. He portrayed Koji Ariyoshi in a recent biographical film about the controversial activist, and starred as the anonymous “;Japanese businessman”; in Jack Bender's trailer for the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival in 2006.

Who knew that Seki was also a storyteller?

“;My secret life”; is how he describes that facet of his repertoire. As it turns out, Seki has been telling stories for 14 years. He joins 18 other storytellers, including three guests from the mainland, for the 20th Annual Talk Story Festival this weekend.

“;Nyla Fujii , whom I've acted with several times, is the one who actually got me started,”; Seki said.

“;I consider myself still an apprentice, still learning, and maybe that's going to be true forever. As a storyteller, its always an matter of finding new stories and learning them and telling them.

“;The biggest difference (between acting and storytelling) is that it's like a one-man show. ... When I initially began, the scariest part was that you're 'It'—all eyeballs are on you—and it's kind of like doing a high-flying act with no net.”;

  Seki says storytelling is more popular on the mainland, where the craft enjoys a large enough audience there that professional storytellers often specialize. Baba Jamal Koram, for instance, one of the mainland guests, specializes in African and African-American stories. Others tell stories from Appalachia or Canada or some other area, or tell personal stories from their own family. There are even food stories and, of course, original stories, as well.

Seki says local storytellers tend to be “;generalists,”; but they, too, can have niches.

“;Nyla tells a lot of Hawaiian tales mainly because of her Hawaiian background. I get a lot of calls for Asian stories—Japanese stories, local stories. I get a lot of calls this time of year for Halloween—they want to hear obake or ghost stories.”;

Seki also does “;some Bamboo Ridge stuff ... growing up local in Hawaii.”;

“;The challenge in Hawaii is that since you're getting invited back to the same places—essentially public libraries or senior centers. When people come to see you again, you don't want to be telling the same story, so the challenge is finding new stories to tell. But that's part of the fun of it, too.”;