Sham Slam

I lost the sham slam in Maple Ridge last night, which is very bad or very good, depending on how you look at it. The object was to be the worst and the judges gave me the lowest scores, so that was great (or awful - depending). I performed sham translation of Jabberwocky called "Picklewocky" and a 3 minute long haiku.

The Maple Ridge Slam is organized by Devon and Maris Goodman, a sister and brother team. They are young, energetic, talented and intelligent. They are amazing at promoting and hosting their event. The cafe was nearly full, mostly with people who came for the slam. Those who came not for the slam were dragged kicking and laughing into the action. The slam takes place on the 3rd Friday of the month at The Ridge Cafe.

The poetry was truly putrid, on purpose of course. Booing and hissing replaced clapping and cheering. The judges gave zeros and negative scores. Maris and Devon hammed it up with layers of hostful incompetence and rudeness, hurling insults at the audience, the poets and each other. One of the evening's lowlights was a truly vomit-inducing second round sacrifice poem by Devon. Trevor Spilchen featured, and he was great, except when he performed as "Spilli Vanilli" in a tribute to disgrace pop lip-synch duo Milli Vanilli. Vancouver Slam poet RC Weslowski was there too. His homo-erotic ode to a Alberta Conservative MP rivalled Devon's poem for ooky factor, but was not bad enough to earn him a losing title.

This slam is worth checking out. I'm looking forward to attending on a "good poetry" night, when the young and enthusiastic crowd and equally young and enthusiastic poets should put on a really fun show. Next month: May 18 at the Ridge Cafe in the Library/Leisure Centre Building on Dewdney Trunk Road at 224th in Maple Ridge. Admission is $2. Doors at 7.

question: did you ever try to do something badly and find out you could be worse than you imagined?

mompoet - always attracted to awfulness