Jay O'Callahan is a prominent American storyteller for people of all ages. He has performed at numerous national and international storytelling festivals, in theaters worldwide, and on the radio. He performs almost exclusively material of his own authorship. He has recorded many of his oral stories and has written picture books based on several of his tales. O'Callahan is best known for his large-scale oral stories that present the texture of a culture and a time in history through the perceptions of a central narrative character.
O'Callahan's storytelling style is generally quiet and understated. His performances do not use props, sets, costumes, dramatic movement or instrumental music. He has a spellbinding ability to embody through the cadence of words his central characters, evoking soundscapes of seemingly ordinary life, with something epic and magical flickering just around the edges.