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

[twosnoos]

I sometimes just pick a theme and go for it. For instance, if there is an arc of my relationship with one person (say, Shappy) which has poems in multiple books, I'll do those poem in chronological order as set.

Similarly, I've done sets which where exclusively my poetry about working in porn (mostly because it's hard to transition into and/or out of porn poem, "And so that's my poem about my mom... and now who wants to hear an ass sex sestina!?"), or poems about historical facts (I just did that set at Drums!), or poems I've written about places around the U.S. -- stuff like that.

If you have a lot of poems to chose from, sometimes that trick helps to keeps the audience on track and engaged (what will happen next in the theme?), instead of just doing a "greatest hits," which sometimes can be all over the place.

Also, Shap and I both like giving out prizes during features, usually candy given out to trivia related stuff. Like if I do poems about presidents, I'll usually give out prizes based on if people can tell me why my "Insults That Only Work If You Are a Presidential Trivia Buff" are funny. Sometimes the answer is "Polio."

But to me, the #1 most important key to doing a good feature is ending the set AT OR BEFORE your time slot is up. The venue knows what works for its audience and/or its schedule. I don't care how much the audience is feeling you, or how much you are feeling your own poetry, when you are closing in on your prescribed endtime: GET OFF THE STAGE. If the host him/herself gets on stage and asks you to do one more poem, THEN do one more poem. But that's the only exception in my book!

[sirenoftitan1]

When I read this on my BB, I thought the comment was from Tim, and I was like "why would Tim have an entire set worth of material about Shappy?"

I like candy.

Because I am also an organizer, I am VERY sensitive to finishing on time. I sometimes forget to check my watch, though, and have to rely on the host to let me know how I'm doing.