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The 16th Annual Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival got off to an early start on Friday morning at the Trojan Center Theater.

West Virginia funny guy, Bil Lepp, entertained high school students from Goshen and Pike County High Schools, Pike Liberal Arts School and from several Troy University classes.

Lepp is a five-time champion of the West Virginia State Liars’ Contest. He also has delved into television as host of “Man vs. History.”

Lepp’s stories kept the students guessing from beginning to end and wide-eyed throughout.

“Did he really do all that stuff?” one student asked the other.

“He’s cool,” was the reply.

Lepp closed with challenging words to the students. He told, or reminded, them that J.K. Rowling, British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, was living below the poverty line and receiving government benefits when she began writing the Harry Potter books.

Lepp said, while the owner of the café where she was hired was working crossword puzzles, she was sitting on a stool writing stories about a boy wizard. Now, she is the richest woman in the world.

Lawrence Bowden, president of the Brundidge Historical Society, festival sponsor, said Bil Lepp is an amazing storyteller.

“First, you think, he’s telling a true story; then you think he’s not but you laugh anyway,” Bowden said. Bil Lepp is a talented storyteller and we look forward to hearing more of his stories over the weekend at the Trojan Center Theater.”

Bowden said tickets for the 10 a.m. and 2 and 6:30 p.m. storytelling concerts will be available at the door.

The Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival is sponsored in part by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.