Comments | sirenoftitan1: What do you do in features besides read slam poems?

sirenoftitan1

What do you do in features besides read slam poems?

Aug 16, 2010 12:48

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 47

johnnylexicon August 16 2010, 17:49:14 UTC

Striptease?

sirenoftitan1 August 16 2010, 17:50:11 UTC

When I did YCA last fall, I rambled pointlessly for a while about why women should not take off their clothing on stage.

johnnylexicon August 16 2010, 18:05:18 UTC

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 ( ... )

sirenoftitan1 August 16 2010, 18:08:08 UTC

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.

Thread 6

anonymous August 16 2010, 17:57:39 UTC

I like to do fewer "slam" poems at features. I tend to pack my set with a "slam" opener and closer. Maybe one in the middle. If I have room to do 5 poems, I want AT LEAST 2 of them to be poems I don't normally get to read: page poems, specialty poems (Jilted Emily Rose), and at least one newish/raw/unfinished poem. These also tend to be under 2 minutes, so I can use them to stretch/fill time as needed.

I've been told it's good to have one cover on hand. I don't at present.

anomalemily August 16 2010, 17:58:28 UTC

this was me. I forgot to sign in :)

sirenoftitan1 August 16 2010, 17:59:55 UTC

Really? I thought someone else was biting Jilted Emily Rose.

anomalemily August 16 2010, 18:01:34 UTC

she's a hot commodity ;)

k80fs August 16 2010, 18:00:12 UTC

when i've visited cities for longer than a night, putting together a duet or larger group piece with local poets has always been a highlight.

sirenoftitan1 August 16 2010, 18:00:44 UTC

Oooh...that's cool. How do you do that in such a short time-frame?

k80fs August 16 2010, 18:23:40 UTC

1. i roll into town with the script ready. i haven't ever forwarded it to people in advance, but it's something that could be done.

2. i don't give a shit about memorizing--i just want it to sound right and to demonstrate a rollickin good time onstage. most slam audiences i've tried this with are open to a little raw, as long as it's not sloppy. in any case, i think it's a more interesting peek into process (as opposed to polish) than a first draft indy piece.

nerak_g August 16 2010, 18:45:20 UTC

This is awesome. YES! This! More of THIS!

Thread 10

Some things... stefan11 August 16 2010, 18:15:54 UTC

I would do, like to do, or/and encourage to do (time permitting):

multiple haiku; e.g., the feature goes against three different local celebrities in haiku dead match. Chaz Ellik beat in this way 3 local celebrities, going A.

props and costumes

multi-media: I would like to read some of my short pieces and haiku with imagery behind, maybe even a few pics morphing into each other. So, if I went on a ture, I'd like to have a notebook and a little projector to project imagery behind me.

multy-multy-media: e.g., a poem for Thelonious Sphere Monk and Vincent Van Gogh with their music (played by Monk) and their imagery (painted by Van Gogh and supplemented with additional stills) . If I read a poem about my trips to Auschwitz, I'd loke to show images, too (but may be not, it is something I was thinking about).

BTW, 4-5 slam pieces may sometimes be just great.

Re: Some things... sirenoftitan1 August 16 2010, 19:28:06 UTC

Agreed on your last point, but you have to pick the right 4 or 5 and assemble them into the right arc.

Re: Some things... stefan11 August 16 2010, 20:07:23 UTC

Yep!

Do you like other ideas?

I did this Monk poem one time in that way,
it required a help of someone
to punch a computer key at the right places
marked on the script of a poem.
One short rehearsal at most.

Re: Some things... sirenoftitan1 August 16 2010, 20:12:54 UTC

Yes, I think it would be very cool to project images, if I could figure out the equipment and such.

Thread 5

toangelblue August 16 2010, 18:25:59 UTC

You know I like cover poems. Something contemporary and something older (Shakespeare, Cummings, etc).
I'm going to try to write response poems to the other pieces I have memorized. The fight poems. It's still raw, but I'm working on a response to "My Mistress' Eyes" in sonnet form.