BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! @ The Phoenix 18 May with Pablo Latona, Josh Inmania and Poets

A BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUITER!

Victory was victorious on Wednesday night as more 1st place winners than BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! can remember walked out the door with free vegetarian things from Gorman House Markets, Harriett with her Humongous Gun and a calendar from Mind Games and Impact comics, a free crappy book from Smiths Alternative Bookshop if they force their poem upon someone in Smiths Alternative Bookshop, and a treasure trove of Easter Eggs in preparation for that looming holiday of horror known as the Queen‘s Birthday. 

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at the Phoenix

Thanks judges, audience, slammers, the Phoenix, the RiotACT, shops that give us their junk and thanks feature acts Pablo Latona and Josh Inmania, next month all our feature acts will have last names that end in the letter B.

Josh Inmania eating babies

The Ghost of the Gorman House Man Hatin’ Matron Poetry Open Mic With-out a Microphone but with a Milk Crate on Saturday 15 May at Gorman House Markets

The first ever The Ghost of the Gorman House Man Hatin’ Matron Poetry Open Mic With-out a Microphone but with a Milk Crate was a success.

Hosted by poets Josh Inmania* and Andrew Galan the Winter Sun saw Sarah and Farah along with Anthony Hayes take to the open mic milk crate and perform several pieces to a comfortable crowd at the second Saturday of May Gorman House Markets.

As well as providing a relaxed and open poetry forum for anybody to take to the milk crate the day provides an opportunity for people to take in some words from two Canberra feature poets and with the support of Gorman House Markets we brought to the milk crate two Canberra poets.

Benjo Keaney somewhere else

One was veteran poet Benjo Keaney, who has been performing around Canberra for at least 25 000 years. On and around the milk crate he performed a poetry set heavily influenced by his gathering of moss, the history of bogon moths, and the impact of Elizabeth Taylor over and over without a seatbelt.

A tiny photo of Senior Kabo

The day also featured Senior Kabo, one of Canberra’s newest poets who represented the Australian Capital Territory and BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at the 2010 Australian Poetry Slam Finals in Sydney. Senior Kabo is obsessed with your mother and trains and he delivered a collection of shorts stories and very short poems to that effect for a responsive Gorman House audience over the course of the afternoon.

With the support of the Markets, the Ghost of the Gorman House Man Hatin’ Matron Poetry Open Mic With-out a Microphone but with a Milk Crate will bring you a duo of Canberra poets every second Saturday of the month, along with providing the milk crate and space necessary for anyone with something to say to come along and under blue or clouded skies tell us something, intelligible, unintelligible or not intelligible.

The Ghost of the Gorman House Man Hatin’ Matron Poetry Open Mic With-out a Microphone but with a Milk Crate hopes to see you at Gorman House Markets on 12 June and every second Saturday of the month there-after.

Elizabeth Taylor without a seatbelt

*Josh Inmania insists on telling people he is a performance poet, for whatever reason I cannot fathom; to me he will always be a poet.

The Tragic Troubadours at the 2011 Australian National Folk Festival

With some time to reflect on the Tragic Troubadours at the National Folk Festival I think it was our best gig yet, despite freezing temperatures we performed nightly for two hours to the lines that formed outside the Majestic and on Saturday night to a crowd inside the venue who wanted blood.

We had a diverse group of interesting poems between the four of us, Skip with minimalist Mafiosi, Josh with comic serial killers, Bela with homicidal Muppet and Bogan love poems, me with my surrealist alcoholic words, and we had an especially animal filled Gorilla play written by Bela which was a great group piece that got an awesome crowd response.

Hinging who delivered their piece based on the choice of concept by one person in the line worked well as many people got excited about choosing with others in the crowd attempting to jump in with their choice. The crowds favoured the mafia some nights, love poems, alcoholics and serial killers others and the play got a good workout.

We did not costume for the gig outside the tent and while a few people have advised we should I enjoyed the aspect of coming out of the crowd looking like Folkie punters, delivering our act to a chunk of the line then vanishing back into the milieu, this also worked well with some people thinking it was our attempt to cut-in on the line and so giving us a go before deciding to let us in or not while others even stayed outside the venue letting others go ahead so they could hear out our performance of the Richard play. We also had two girls come and find us so they could return the entertainment by performing a song for us.

Bela, Skip and Andrew

The act on the Majestic main-stage also worked well, the crowd was only there for faux gypsy band the Askew Wing of Milo* and so when Bela charged the stage to heckle with love poems shortly after we started a Richard play to a bemused crowd people didn’t know if they wanted to support him in his attack on us or beat him up. He had blended into the crowd dressed in his Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi sombrero and wife beater during the band we were due to follow, where he looked totally out of place groovin’, and interrupted our play at two crucial points with examples of a love poem and love advice. The crowd ended up divided between those who supported his impromptu crashing of our play and those who wanted to hear the play. No doubt people cottoned on to what was occurring as how does a heckler get a microphone? But it happened fast enough that probably not many put it together as the act was happening.

Thanks to the Majestic at the National Folk Festival for having the Tragic Troubadours, the venue rocked with Gypsy, Circus and Spoken Word goodness.

*We actually performed between the Crooked Fiddle Band and Flap, both awesome bands; I just think there is room in the Universe for a faux gypsy band called the Askew Wing of Milo.