Storyteller Glynn Washington talks 'Spooked' and his upcoming Seattle live show

It's not even October yet, but the Halloween decorations and fun-size candy packages are already filling store shelves. For those who can't wait to open the door and welcome trick or treaters with their best spooky voice, there's a spooky show coming to town.

Snap Judgment and Spooked host Glynn Washington is bringing Spooked Live to the Moore Theatre. He told KUOW’s Angela King about the show.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Angela King: What fascinates you about the supernatural, or unexplainable stories that just don't fit?

Glynn Washington: I am not a woo guy — the crystals and the horoscopes and stuff like that. That's really not me, but I've certainly seen certain things that I can't explain. And when I say I can't explain it, I don't know what they mean. But it's interesting that the stories that I have that touch upon the unexplained, the paranormal — they mean something.

This paranormal didn't just pop out of nowhere. They're oftentimes grounded in loss and pain, sometimes in joy, but they mean something. Oftentimes, these stories are deeply personal, deeply raw, and deeply impactful, and we love the insight it gives into the person, into the culture that they come from, into the world they inhabit when the rules somehow go askew.

We're looking for people who don't understand what they're seeing themselves, who are grappling with something at the same time we're grappling with what they're telling us. What I love most is when people hear a Spooked story and they say, you know, I don't really go for all that, but I don't think they're telling a lie either. You can have several contradictory ideas in your head at the same time, and that's what Spooked is all about.

Tell us about a story that spooked you — an experience you had.

Oh, there's so many. When I was a kid, my grandmother used to sing me songs, tell me stories. At one point, she told me that the gift that she had, it skips generations, and I didn't know what she was talking about. And the thing was, a lot of the stories she told me were after she passed.

It was normal for me as a kid to just kind of relate to, sometimes granny came. I wasn't scared, it wasn't weird, it wasn't a strange thing. It’s just sometimes granny would come and talk to me. She would tell me so many things about so many people that ended up later on being true. And I got old enough to think, "What in the world is going on?" And it just stuck with me, that we don't have a good idea of where Granny is. Why did I know this before it happened? What is that feeling I get that says, "Don’t go in that room?"

What Spooked is about is the twilight zone, where the rules don't quite line up, where everything isn't the way it's supposed to be, even if it's for a moment. People have experiences that just blow their minds and blow the minds of people they’re telling the stories to. In some of the stories on Spooked, you have a group of people telling the same story that they all can't believe, and they're telling it from different perspectives.

For Spooked Live, I am going to tell probably the most personal story I've ever told in any context on stage. I'm still trying to get my head around it, because I don't understand what I saw. I get to work it out myself. I get to understand it and examine it myself. I think that when you tell your story, people get permission to examine their own. And I can’t wait to rock Seattle with Spooked Live.

Is Spooked Live kid friendly?

I wouldn't probably bring the tiny tots, but there's nothing graphic or anything like that about Spooked. Some of it is deeply emotional, and so I think that maybe a tween cut off would probably be right. We generally say age 12 or 13, but you know your own kid.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.