The Sly Stallone of Slam sells you on writers group

The tricky part of about Writers workshop on Wednesdays is that most of the people that come, ultimately have seen me or Wil perform on Tuesday and think that we will have the ability to impart some sort of wisdom to them. Its the hardest hump to get over in the basic initial communication with a new member of the group. I don't have a handbook or 12 easy steps to follow and I am not wise.

Truthfully, no one does. Wil can give very specific ideas on breathe control and speaking directly to the audience, specific ideas that are in fact wisdom. They are things that will always help any vocal performance gained from the experiance of continually experimenting. The actual content of a poem or piece is not so clear cut, my job is never to tell anyone that what they have written is bad but to ask them without mincing words if the moment they are intending to create by doing this piece on stage is achieved by the words they have now. If not then the words have to change until they work, no matter how long that takes(within reason..after a while you just ditch the thing and write something better).

If there is no definitive blueprint for success one could wonder the need for a writers group, well i can answer that. Writing for the stage in an insulated way is the quickest way to fail. If you write something and show it to your mother she is going to love it, so you need to venture outside of your immediate circle and ask as many relevant people their opinion as you can find. Its debateable how relevant my opinion is in the world but that doesnt change the face that the response to your work is important. You might as well get as much response before you hit the stage as possible.

If you need two people to hit you right between the eyes with direct feedback, you always have Wil and I on Wednesday 6pm at the North Star Cafe.

slam analysis

Out of everything Port Veritas does we analyze the slam the most, the scores, the rounds, the reaction of the crowd to each piece and whether it was proper or not. Sometimes a great poet gets robbed and sometimes a less then stellar performer gets thrust into the spotlight. We(the rest of the poets) pull every detail apart in our minds and this last week was no different. Its been a few days and I have some points.

It was great to see everyone step up so well this week. When Nate(Piranha) Amadon is on not many people can come close but he was on and people were challenging him. Firstly, TINA SMITH was great and its not about her reaching a new level in her poetry or anything like that. The esteemed former political dark horse and long time supporter has gotten on stage week after week and sometimes messed up but every time got better. This tuesday she was at a level of comfort with her material and performance that she was going on stage without flaws. Thats hard to compete with.

Wil Anthony gave the most stirring and mesmorizing reading he has ever given and it was sitting down, too bad for him it was about a minute and a half over. He's making huge strides with his content and he has this innate talent for bringing the crowd into his clutches. I'm not jealous of him yet but I'm getting there.

Olivia went over on time as well and came in second overall, so thats pretty insane. She projects perfectly and has this certain bobbing back and forth uneasy physical movement while she is performing that keeps everyone off kilter enough to feel every word.

Nate won and qualified for his spot in the big game and he did it the right way, by screwing up last time and fixing it. Same way everybody has to do it. Regardless of what anyone says Port Veritas has no wonderful flawless genius's just people working hard. The ones that work the hardest win.

Taylor Mali, the perfect holiday gift for a teacher

I am one of the most vain people on the planet. I bought my girlfriend Slamnation the documentary on her birthday, so she could learn about slam poetry. I tend to end up buying things for people so they can digest the present and end up being more like me. I'm fine with it at this point.

Continuing in this tradition I gave her parents Spoken Word Revolution and her grandparents the autobiography of my families favorite rabbi. They received these presents gracefully nodding and thanking me but then I had also given her parents the Taylor Mali CD A Like Free Zone, figuring her dad is a teacher and every family has a few teachers in it so this will be therapeutic. I can't tell you how much I dislike Taylor Mali as a person and honestly I don't even know him. He dresses like a car salesman from the 1980's and crafts every poem with a simple point and a lot of condiments to sweeten the pot for any random judge. Just watch Slam nation and you will know what I am talking about.

That being said I kind of new he would kill in that room, he's so profoundly funny and clever with perfect diction that I had to swallow my spit and grin. "He's Brilliant." That son of a bitch. He's completely comprehensive as an artist, every piece makes a sensible progression that ties the audience in.

The end of the story is my fiances parents and grandparents aunt and uncle listening to the album and laughing loudly with tears in their eyes while i try not too. Laughing is just what that heartless fuck wants. When that was done my fiance looked at me and said Perform one for them! She wanted me to walk in the living room and slam for all of them. That is really when the nightmare began...I was on after Taylor Mali.

If he was reading this I would tell him he is a dickhead then I would tell him he is brilliant.