What do you do in features besides read slam poems?

[sirenoftitan1]

I am dissecting the anatomy of a good feature, because I think a twenty-minute set should be more than just five or six slam poems.

Some things I've used or seen others use:

Cover poems
Short poems
Some type of intermission (Limericks, haiku, beatboxing, etc.)
First drafts

What else, LJ kids?

Comments

[johnnylexicon]

Oh, I thought you were asking what we do. At my Seattle feature, I took my shirt off twice.

I've also played audience interaction games, a la Tourettes. A sing-along or a wacky prize contest can make people sit up in their seats, and enhance the overall show. (Caveat: I was actually banned from the Mocha Hut in Decatur after one such game.) Geoff Trenchard likes to tell jokes between poems, which works pretty well.

I'm skeptical about first drafts, or even debuts, during features. Sure, poems have to be debuted somewhere, but reading a brand-new poem off paper at certain venues can make the audience feel like you're just practicing your poetry out on them. It can come off as disrespectful; after all, you're supposed to be the paragon of poetry for the night, so reading unfinished work can diminish your star appeal and make the audience feel second-rate. The ways to avoid this are A) Know your audience. Some cities, like Boston or Columbus, seem to appreciate new work off the page. Others, like Berkeley, prize delivery and eye contact above all else. And most importantly, you have to ask yourself if reading a new poem will be refreshing or pointless. New work would mean something to a Chicago audience, where it might not to a crowd that's never heard you. B) It's tricky, but of course you can make the audience feel like they're getting something special by being the first to hear a new poem.

[sirenoftitan1]

Please elaborate on these wacky prize contests.

Re: new work...this just came from a conversation Emily and I had about her GM feature last night. Obviously, it was a home crowd, so it was appropriate, and she earned the right to do that by doing really polished work throughout the rest of her set.

[johnnylexicon]

Well, the one that went wrong in Decatur involved having the audience throw their shoes at a picture of George W. Bush taped to a music stand, with the first person to hit the target getting a free chapbook. I think you can come up with anything, so long as anyone can play and the prize is a free chapbook.

[sirenoftitan1]

Interesting.

I also think it would be funny to have a scratch-off lottery ticket as a prize, knowing that the winner would have to redeem any winnings in Illinois.