For Bookings, email: donthewriter@mac.com
"Pull up a chair, lean back and prepare to laugh, chuckle, snort, and guffaw at the droll humor, and mood-punctuating bongo drum playing of master storyteller Don Smith. He always has a wry and funny take on ordinary, or not so ordinary, life."
---Mandy Dick, Story Grandmother, southern Indiana
"Through the art of storytelling, Don Ray Smith offers lessons on life and insight into human nature. His colorful characters and keen descriptions of their personalities and perspectives will make you smile and, possibly, remind you of someone you know. My group responded to his stories with great enthusiasm."
--The Rev. Nancy Tinnell, Asso. Pastor, Middletown, Kentucky UMC
"Don has been telling me stories every time he visits...one of my favorite observations of Don is his principled take on our complicated communities. Bottom line, he's a good human, a good story teller, who can draw out the whimsy and the verities we all try to live with."
---Peg Taylor, Farm House Bed & Breakfast, Parkers Lake, Kentucky
"We had nothing but praise for our story tellers. It was regarded as our best Tree Week event ever and one of the best presentations in African Cemetery No. 2 we have ever had."
---African Cemetery No. 2, Lexington, KY (October, 2025)
DON THE WRITER...
"(Don) writes about the ordinary, things all of us experience or know firsthand, and then he makes the ordinary hilarious. Fun to read aloud, fun to read yourself, just plain fun to read."
--Playwright Nancy Gall-Clayton (Louisville)
"Don's stories have you rolling with laughter one minute and commiserating the next. Smith uses humor to teach lessons we think we already know...Delicately and as surely as a surgeon, he opens the mind to race relations, and illuminates traditional prejudices."
---Mary Popham, Kentucky writer and reviewer
Slice-of-life storytelling.
Don Ray Smith looks at everyday life from a slightly tilted angle. From spinning a Kentucky fisherman's very tall tale, to using his bongos to tap out a touching love story. Want advice on how to throw out an old garbage can that doesn't want to leave? How about taking in a monumental misunderstanding on a gambling boat? DON GRABS LIFE'S LITTLE MOMENTS AND STUFFS THEM WITH NOT ONLY FUN AND FROLIC, BUT MESSAGES GALORE.
'Growing Up White on Wilson'...Don's Indelible One-man Play About Race.
History should be explained, not erased. It's Don Ray Smith's true boyhood story about growing up in the segregated West End of Louisville, Kentucky in the late 1950s and 60s. It might be non-confrontational, but it's still relevant for yesterday and today. Fees to fit any club, organization, church, school, or other community group. Call: (502) 499-5664 or email: donthewriter@mac.com
Real stories we all can relate to. Mostly fun. Mostly true. And some, well...judge for yourself.
Bongo Love Story #4. Russian Kayaker. If I Die on My Wife's Hair Day. Turkey and Blessing. Gambling Boat. Interracial Couples. An Angel Touched My Toolbox. Bongo Ghost Story. Amish the Old Ways. Daddy's Mashed Potatoes. The Bilingual Garbage Can. The Power of Church Clothes. Far Tar. A Farewell to Hemingway. Pool Room Balls. Next Time Bring the Dog. Arti-fi-cial Inteli-gence.