Cantab Recap for Wednesday, October 30

This past Wednesday, the whole Cantab– both floors– paid a sweet tribute to a heartily missed regular, the late Jack McCarthy. Upstairs, the blues jam took a back seat to the Red Sox’s first home-field World Series game 6 since 1918; downstairs, after a thoughtful open mic, four teams took the stage for a slam battle royale, armed only with a selection of Jack’s poems. Had Jack been there, we know he would have been checking in on both shows as politely and enthusiastically as possible.

The slam kicked off with a lengthy, snarky sacrifice from Sean Patrick Mulroy, covering Jack’s “Sour Grapes”, after which Mark Palos, SlamMaster of New Hampshire’s Slam Free or Die, led off the first round with “Song of the Open Mic” to represent Team Drop the Chalupa. Christopher Clauss of Team Nightmare on Mass Ave. followed with “Annals of Science,” a somewhat more risque poem with a performance tic that got the audience really giggling. After that, it’s hard to pick out just a few highlights in this all-all-star slam, but we can try: consider Kevin Spak slamming for Team I’ll Come Back as a Hawk, entering the home stretch of “Walk of Life” just as the sixth inning finished up upstairs; or Marshall Gillson (of the same team) laying down “Victory” as the band fired up “Sweet Caroline” upstairs, only to be followed by Caroline Harvey herself with a hopeful rendition of “Merton” for Team Drop the Chalupa; or Tom Slavin, the champion of it all, batting clean-up for Team Catholics & Car Thieves and bringing the slam home with a flawless performance of “Great Catches” to raucous applause both up and downstairs.

At the end of the night, the top slammers came from Team I’ll Come Back as a Hawk: the aforementioned Kevin Spak and Marshall Gillson, joined by newcomer Alison Truj and one of Jack’s most famous contemporaries, Brian Comiskey. A respectable almost-win goes to Team Nightmare on Mass Ave., captained by the famed Richard Cambridge and rounded out with Christopher Clauss, Cassandra Euphrat Weston, and Kemi Alabi. The Catholics & Car Thieves banded together to make third place with Sue Savoy, Kieran Collier, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, and Tom Slavin, and Team Drop the Chalupa earns the top pick in next year’s slam draft with a fourth place finish, certainly not due to any lack of heroics on the part of Sophia Holtz, Sam Teitel, Mark Palos, and Caroline Harvey.

Thanks so much to all our slammers who worked so hard to bring Jack’s work to life… Especially those who sacrificed their baseball-watching plans to make our historic show. We like to think Jack wasn’t there only because he was watching the game from his own easy chair.

Next week: we’re in for a wild ride with feature Eirean Bradley from Portland, Oregon! He’ll be joined by his tour partner and spotlight feature, Leah Noble Davidson, and we’ll close the night with an open poetry slam in the 8×8 series, the last series before we select our team for 2014. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: The Jack McCarthy Prompt

Listen up: write down your favorite lines from the open mic. Pick one that inspires and use it to prompt your own new poem. Don’t forget to credit the author!

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, October 30: Jack McCarthy Memorial Slam

This night is an installment in the Boston Poetry Slam’s “Sober October,” a month-long series of shows and readers selected to celebrate the sober and recovering artists in our scene.

The late Jack McCarthy performing at his last Cantab feature on June 15, 2011. Photo by Richard Beaubien.

The late Jack McCarthy performing at his last Cantab feature on June 15, 2011. Photo by Richard Beaubien.

“For me, the live audience is really the only audience I ever think about… When I put something down on paper and publish it, my highest hope is that someone somewhere will pick it up and read it to a third party. My sense of audience does not stop with the person who reads the poem. I hope the poem goes on to another life.” –Jack McCarthy, speaking to the Boston Globe, December, 2012

The Dead Poets’ Slam, a show dedicated to performing the works of long-gone artists, traditionally falls on the Wednesday closest to Halloween. This year, we will move the apostrophe back in order to honor just one: a friend of the Cantab lost in the past year. Please mark your calendars for the first-ever Jack McCarthy Memorial Slam.

All-star performers from the New England scene will perform work from the late, great, and much-missed Jack McCarthy, and they will be scored by a selection of judges, resulting in a landslide win for, well, everyone. Folks familiar with Jack’s work can expect very few of the standbys; Jack wrote thousands of open mic poems over years of performance and some still-hidden gems will have a chance to shine tonight. If you’ve never heard Jack, then this is your best chance to enjoy his work as it was meant to be: live on stage, and delivered with love.

Confirmed performers:
TEAM 1: Tom Slavin, Kieran Collier, Mckendy Fils-Aime, Sue Savoy
TEAM 2: Brian Comiskey, Marshall Gillson, Allison Truj, Kevin Spak
TEAM 3: Richard Cambridge, Kemi Alabi, Cassandra Euphrat Weston, Christopher Clauss
TEAM 4: Mark Palos, Caroline Harvey, Sophia Holtz, Sam Teitel
Sacrifice: Sean Patrick Mulroy

Open mic poets are also welcome to cover Jack at the show. However, we ask that you time your performance (Jack didn’t always stay under 3 minutes on the open, but you still have to!), and that you consider consulting with the SlamMaster to make sure the poem you have selected isn’t already scheduled for the slam.

To learn more about Jack, see his Wikipedia page, local obituary, or the website maintained by his family.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the featured slam begins at approximately 10:00. An open slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, October 23

Last night, Omaha poet Andrew Ek knocked it out of the park at the Cantab. If you missed his series of perceptive, poignant, and scientific stories, you may be out of luck: this was his one and only show on his trip to New England! He’ll be in Manchester on the open mic tonight, but if you want to order one of his sold-out chapbooks, you can contact him through his blog.

After Andrew’s feature, we rolled right into a crazy-all-star Champion of Champions Slam! It was a full line-up waiting to challenge returning champ Tom Slavin, including Bobby Crawford, Marshall Gillson, Meaghan Ford, Melissa Newman-Evans, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Sophia Holtz, Ed Wilkinson, and Kieran Collier… With more than a few not-so-secret grudge matches in that mix. Marshall and Ed rose to the top of the big eight, with Marshall taking the season championship! His triumph was short-lived, however, when despite a great new-poem effort in the title round, Tom Slavin dispatched him on a unanimous decision. Tom retains the title until his next match in January of 2014: in the meantime, we’ll start up a new 8×8 series, the last before our team selection slams for next year.

Next week: we’ll close out our Sober October with our very favorite sober artist… It’s the first-ever Jack McCarthy Memorial Slam. Some of our favorite locals will be slamming Jack’s work in this show, including Brian Comiskey, Richard Cambridge, Kemi Alabi, Mark Palos, Cassandra Euphrat Weston, Alison Truj, Sue Savoy, Kevin Spak, and our recently re-crowned champ, Tom Slavin himself.

Tips from the Bar: the Other Other Other Adam Stone Prompt

What’s the worst pickup line anyone’s ever used on you… that worked?

[example redacted: come to the Cantab on a Wednesday if you want Adam’s war stories]

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, October 23: Andrew Ek and the Champion of Champions Poetry Slam

This night is an installment in the Boston Poetry Slam’s “Sober October,” a month-long series of shows and readers selected to celebrate the sober and recovering artists in our scene.

Andrew Ek, Omaha LTAB co-director.

Andrew Ek, Omaha LTAB co-director.

Andrew Ek is a writer, teacher, and performer who lives in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the Education Director for the Nebraska Writers Collective, a literary non-profit which sends writers into middle and high schools across the state and which puts on the Louder Than a Bomb: Omaha youth slam poetry festival every year. Andrew also co-hosts the Encyclopedia Show: Omaha with Katie F-S, has been on and coached teams representing Nebraska at the National Poetry Slam (including the 2008 team which placed 9th nationally), teaches computer programming at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, teaches math to high schoolers during the summer, makes really delicious smoothies, and plays a lot of tennis. You can read more of his writing at http://andrewcek.wordpress.com.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The Champions of Champions Slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Red Sox game? Janelle Monae concert? Poetry vs. Comedy Showdown? Sure, there might be three other shows in town on a Wednesday night, but that doesn’t stop us from filling the room for Chad Anderson, New Jersey performance poet and long-time LoserSlam coach. Chad brought us a (nearly) banter-free set, closing with a sweet cover that brought all of us in the audience back… Waaaaay back. The slam filled with a motley assortment of competitors, but came down to a scrappy finals pairing of Eddy Martinez and Kieran Collier. Kieran took the win, netting him the coveted final spot in the 8×8 series standings.

Next week: Sober October continues with deft talker and thinker Andrew Ek from Omaha, then an all-star-packed Champion of Champions slam wherein Tom Slavin defends his title. Awesome!

Tips from the Bar: the Morris Slavin Prompt

Write an instruction manual for a procedure that does not yet have one (or need one).

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, October 16: Chad Anderson

This night is an installment in the Boston Poetry Slam’s “Sober October,” a month-long series of shows and readers selected to celebrate the sober and recovering artists in our scene.

Chad Anderson, Jersey performance poet and coach.

Chad Anderson, Jersey performance poet and coach.

Chad Anderson is a poet and teacher from the Jersey Shore. His work has been published in The Barbershop Chronicles (Penmanship Books 2009) and Aim for the Head (Write Bloody 2011). Excerpts from his poetry have recently been quoted in The New York Times. In 2009, he coached the first National Poetry Slam team to ever consciously choose to drop out of semi-final competition.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. An open slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, October 9, 2013

It just wouldn’t be Sober October without Carrie Rudzinski in the house, folks! This world-traveling poet (and recent Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist!) came home to roost with us for just a short while, celebrating her travels and tribulations with our room. If you missed her feature, you’ll have to track her down to get her live CD of performances from the Boston Poetry Slam… But she does have a couple of books available on Amazon if you find yourself stranded and in need.

Our slam that night got off to a rousing start, with more than one out-of-towner making the trip especially to compete on the Boston stage. The last two standing were Portland’s Robin Merrill and Manchester’s Ed Wilkinson! We think Ed just might have put down a few local roots over the years, though, as he eeked out a win over Robin in the finals with great work performed from all parties.

Also this week… The Encyclopedia Show continued with the season’s second episode, all about SERIAL KILLERS. The art was heavy and the jokes were fast and furious; fortunately, all announcements of deaths were premature and the entire cast lives for another day. Extra-special thanks to our performing artists from the poetry scene: Patrick S., Lauren Elma Frament, Wes Hazard, and Megan Thoma, all hosted flawlessly by Kevin Spak and Aimee Rose Ranger. Did you miss the show? No worries: we’re back on Monday, November 18 with all poems and art about THE ZODIAC. See you in Davis Square!

Tonight, of course, the poetry cavalcade continues in Cambridge with Chad Anderson, New Jersey performance poet and coach. We’ll finish up the night with the eighth and final open slam in this season’s Champion of Champions series!