Storyteller Nabs Deal That's No Fairy Tale

By Rachel Tobin Ramos
Atlanta Business Chronicle — July 15, 2005

At age 50, comedian, actor and professional storyteller Rob Cleveland has achieved and unusual dream.

It was the equivalent of buying Disney, said the Atlanta native, who used to tour with the likes of Jeff Foxworthy and Tim Allen during comedy's heydey in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Cleveland and four Altanta business partners recently purchased Little Rock, Arkansas-based August House Publishers, Inc.

Named one of America's top independent publishing houses, August House specializes in what some may call a literary device, but for Cleveland it's a vocation: storytelling. The company competes with giants like Scholastic, Inc. to get a piece of the children's book market.

As part of bringing the company's headquarters to Altanta, Cleveland hopes to create an annual children's storytelling festival.

"I hope that Atlanta would be branded not just the city of hip-hop, R&B, the runaway bride, the crane man and the courthouse shooter but as a center of good stories," said Cleveland, who is director of development for the publishing house.

Cleveland's career, though rooted in the arts, also has crossed to the business side.

Steve Floyd, president of August House, said he met Cleveland about 20 years ago producing corporate training videos for The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO).

And he's taught trial techniques to Emory law students. What more is trial, Cleveland asks, than the telling of a story?

At August House, Cleveland is the director of development and the voice behind the stories — he narrates them for audiotapes, online games, and interactive DVDs.

He also looks for ways to integrate August House into different channels, from animated television shows and family movies to games and interactive tools for teachers and students.

The August House purchase came together after Floyd and Cleveland reunited recently. The comedian performed a story at Floyd's church — and the two instantly hit on their old friendship and found they had new ideas in common.

Floyd was working with Flash animation, and Cleveland suggested several folk tales that could be brought to life with the technology. Eventually, with three business partners, they decided to buy August House, and now seek to take its titles to television, films and product merchandising.

Floyd describes Cleveland's comedy, acting and storytelling as a cross between the "wisdom and experience of a Bill Cosby" and "the excitement of a Robin Williams."

"He's a very rare performer who understands the audience. At the same time, when they walk away, there's a message there that they can take with them," Floyd said.

Cleveland started his career when he was a "predental" student at Emory University. He said he got distracted from biology while acting in the school's nascent theater program in the late 1970s.

His early gigs included a multiyear stint doing stunts as the original Hawks's basketball team mascot, ZZ "Byrd."

Now, he's in his fifth season at Georgia Shakespeare, where he recently appeared in "The Cherry Orchard."

After the birth of his twins, Andrew and Eloisa, now 11, Cleveland jumped off the comedy circuit (though he still headlines at The Punchline) to focus on what he thinks comedy is all about: stories.

Cleveland is storyteller in residence at Fernbank Museum, where he appears once a month to tell fables from around the world. He also appears regularly at churches and synagogues.

August House is devoted entirely to publishing folktales, storytelling tips and fables from around the world, and it owns titles like Stone Soup, The Girl Who Wore Too Much and Trickster Tales. Many books are multicultural, with everything from Yiddish to Asian fables.

The books often are used by professional storytellers such as Cleveland, who appear across the country performing the almost-forgotten art.

"Folktales have always been used to teach. Storytelling is sharing, finding and identifying wisdom, and then passing that on," he said.

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About August House

Recently recognized as one of "America's 101 Top Independent Publishers," August House is a highly-acclaimed and award-winning multimedia publisher of children's stories and folktale anthologies. August House's is based in Atlanta, GA.

August House Media Contact

Rob Cleveland
404-442-4422