Adam and Eve Visit The Appalachian Festival

The story of Adam and Eve is one that has been told in numerous ways all over the world but during the Appalachian Festival on September 21, Rich Knoblich drew his audience in with an entirely new take on the famous tale. Knoblich’s storytelling is famously known for his embellishment and humor which was evidently seen in his farcical recreation that finishes with a comical ending. Knoblich begins his storytelling in the Cook Chapel where he creates a vivid world that can only be described as “paradise” to the aloof minded Adam who is completely content with his life. However, “paradise” is soon compromised when a lonely Eve begins to complain about not having any woman to “share cooking recipes with and gossip.” Knoblich discusses the food that Eve makes with high praise by calling her baked goods so good that they were "paradise on earth." The food Knoblich describes is very reminiscent of the food available at the Appalachian Festival such as the pies and cakes. Knoblich even makes a comment about the food at the festival in the middle of his storytelling by saying that it was good enough for "Eve to use."

One of the many baked goods avaliable at the Appalachian Festival that were so good "Eve herself would make them from her cooking recipies."

Knoblich continues his storytelling by doing  a great job at impersonating Eve, giving her a very funny womanly voice that gives off the idea that Eve enjoyed nagging Adam and ruining his “paradise.” According to Knoblich’s storytelling, Adam reluctantly gives in to Eve’s wishes and takes it upon himself to seek out the Lord in order to request that he make more women.Once Adam finally finds the Lord and explains his dilemma, the Lord decides to help Adam out. Knoblich depicts the Lord in a country accent and as a carefree person who enjoys helping out whenever he is needed but is not afraid to teach Adam a lesson the hard way. This is shown when Adam decides that the Lord should instead make more men first rather than following his initial plan of making more women.

 The Lord complies by molding each man out of clay in a different color and then explaining why he decided to pick that color out for that particular man. Knoblich then goes into great length to expose the humor behind the Lord’s reasoning for choosing each color of clay for every man. According to Knoblich, the Lord chooses brown clay because it reminds him of “good ole Nesquick.” The Lord gives another humorous explanation for his reasoning by choosing yellow clay because it reminds him of “Bob Evan’s sunrise.” The audience in particular found this analogy to be extremely humorous and would clap after each of the Lord’s reasoning’s was revealed.  After the Lord finishes making all the clay men, he tells Adam to line each of the clay men up against the white fence next to his house. After Adam finishes lining all the men together, he comments that the clay men “leaning hand to hand was beautiful with all the different colors.”                                                                                  

 The following day, Adam realizes that he still needs to ask the Lord to make woman out of clay and the Lord begins the same process over again. However, the Lord does something differently this time by sticking his fingers in the women ears and chanting the words “E pluribus unum.”  The Lord explains that his reasoning for doing that was because “when we invent money, the women will have good sense.” Adam then pleads with the Lord for him to do the same for his fellow men and when the Lord finally agrees, both he and Adam are alarmed to find that the clay men have gone missing. 

After a few minutes of pondering, Adam and the Lord come to the conclusion that the men have come to life and are wondering the earth now without any sense. However, the Lord is not fazed by this because he claims that “the woman with all the good sense are gonna find those brainless men and populate the earth.” Knoblich’s storytelling comes to a very comical end when he reveals that the story he had just told was “how his wife told him it happened.” Even though the audience was around fifty percent men and female, everyone in the audience could appreciate the humor behind Knoblich’s wife making the story up. Knoblich’s story of Adam and Eve was truly a gem at the Appalachian Festival and showed that an old story can be made new with a little creativity and humor. For more storytelling visit http://storytellerwv.tripod.com/id22.htm and hear more from the fantastic Rich Knoblich.