NSB Ink | PostSecret: The Show

Today’s GSA Ink staff blog is from our West Coast Agent Hans Ongsansoy.

The sharing of secrets has proven so popular that PostSecret has spawned six best-selling books, including the latest release, The World of PostSecret, an iconic TED Talk, a podcast, an album, art exhibits, PostSecret Live – which can be booked through GSA, and most recently, PostSecret: The Show.

If I had to choose a favourite moment from PostSecret: The Show, which I attended on opening night in Vancouver, it would have to be the scene right before the end of the first half. A medley of voicemail messages submitted by PostSecret contributors were played, each one tied to the others by a theme: they were all from loved ones who had died. The messages were sent in response to a particularly moving secret, one that reads “I have saved voicemails from my grandmother on my phone and I still listen to them because I never got to say goodbye and I miss her.” It was powerful stuff, hearing those recorded voices in a dark hall on a winter’s night.

The sharing of secrets has proven so popular that PostSecret has spawned six best-selling books, including the latest release, The World of PostSecret, an iconic TED Talk, a podcast, an album, art exhibits, PostSecret Live – which can be booked through GSA, and most recently, PostSecret: The Show. 

Co-created by Frank and three Vancouverites – TJ Dawe, Kahlil Ashanti and Justin Sudds – the Show took years to get to the stage. Mario Vaira, who appears on stage playing music he created specifically for the production, says he was first approached about scoring it way back in 2012. Vaira’s accompanying music is just one of the ways that The Show differs from Live. Another is the acting out of various secrets by the trio of Ashanti, Ming Hudson and Nicolle Nattrass. To have one of the female actors voice a secret that is clearly written by a woman – for example, one who has been the victim of abuse – gives the secret even more heft, if that’s even possible.

For me, witnessing what was possible is what ended up being so reassuring by the end of the night. Take the scene I described above. The submitted voicemails were a reaction to the core premise of secrets being submitted anonymously on postcards. Similarly, a Paypal account set up by a PostSecret visitor to help a mom pay for presents after she shared on the site that she couldn’t look her kids in the eyes at Christmas is another wonderful offshoot. And that’s similar to a PostSecret art exhibit springing up to display some of the secrets that are simply not fit to print, er, post. Plus, I’ve already mentioned the books and the podcast.

The PostSecret story continues to grow and expand – which bodes well for PostSecret Live, Frank Warren’s personal presentation that I, among others, have the privilege of booking. After seeing the latest incarnation of PostSecret, I feel reassured. Because, thanks to The Show, there is yet more proof that PostSecret is not slowing down.  Audiences at the Live show can expect to hear more secrets – many exclusive – from PostSecret contributors that alternatively make you laugh our loud or get verklempt. These secrets come in from the site but now also from crowds at The Show. They can revel in behind-the-scenes stories about Paypal accounts or marriage proposals or any number of other connections inspired by PostSecret and its offspring. And, finally, they can marvel as more mysteries of the universe are revealed to them – as the submission of secret upon secret begins to create patterns of data that prove, for example, that we are not alone. At the centre of this swirl of sharing – as ever – will be Frank Warren. A man whose “secret” to success continues to change as the seed of the concept he planted 11 years ago sprouts new, ever-expanding branches. I can’t wait to hear what comes next and I know I’m not the only one.