San Jose hosts Oversocial Mofo slam poetry contest

By Joanne Santomauro

On Friday night, poets, musicians, artists and thespians alike gathered in the Gallery Anno Domini for the Oversocial Mofo Revue, San Jose's local variety show hosted by Tatyana Brown, Mike McGee and David Perez.

The Revue showcases three main acts: poetry, music and "something uncommon," as stated on their website. However, last Friday the Revue hosted the San Jose Poetry Slam.

Sophomore Christine Horman enjoyed the event, especially as her first experience of slam poetry.

"I had never been to an event like this before, so it was really interesting to see," she said. "I really liked seeing all these different types of acts in one show."

Guests waited anxiously in lines wrapped around the building 30 minutes before the show. To keep the crowd warm and entertained, local open mic hostess Tori Scoviloe, accompanied by the acoustic guitar, sat outside and serenaded the guests as they waited in the cold night air.

The Revue gauges ticket prices in an unusual fashion. At the entrance, guests roll a die and pay the amount shown on the die in addition to a $5 base fee; admission is anywhere between $6 to $11 at the door.

Among the brightly lit, towering edifices of San Jose, the small, compact Anno Domini is barely detectable on a map. However, for what the venue lacks in size, the performers make up for in talent.

Selections for the San Jose Poetry Slam began at 7:45 p.m. outside the venue. McGee paraded out of the Gallery, a handful of eager poets trailing behind him. To select the participants, McGee drew names out of a hat, and in a booming voice announced the slam poets for the evening.

When the doors finally opened at 8 p.m., the crowd streamed into the art gallery. Various paintings and sculptures created by local artists lined the walls of the half court-sized room that hosted the Revue.

As the audience poured in, the guitar-drummer duo known as "The John Staedler Symphony Orchestra" played an unlikely set of song covers like Weezer's "Undone" and Britney Spears' "Toxic" in the gallery lobby.

The event had limited seating; half the audience remained standing in the back of the gallery. The evening opened with a performance from main poetry act Laura Yes Yes, a Chicago poet who traveled to perform at the Revue.

After Laura's energetic slam piece, the evening continued with the main musical act, "The Emerald Hill," a local indie band that fuses progressive-folk with an old soul feel that echoes the familiar broken-heart-harmonies of artists like "Bright Eyes" and "Bon Iver." "The Emerald Hill" is composed of Rosa Leonardo, Tim Smudski and Kyle Drury. Each had fantastic stage presence — Drury was especially impressive, interchanging the piano for a guitar and then a banjo in between songs.

Following "The Emerald Hill" was the Slam. For those unfamiliar with the competitive world of poetry, slams usually consist of three rounds.

In the first round, poets perform one-minute pieces. McGee introduced the first round.

"This is the lightning round…it'll go so fast I don't have time to go outside and smoke more."

After each poet performed, five randomly selected judges in the audience revealed their score for each performer on a small whiteboard. The poets were judged on a 100-point scale by each of the judges, with the top three scores proceeding to the next round.

Round one of the San Jose Poetry Slam was followed by "something uncommon." A woman dressed in a silver tutu and painted cardboard box skipped around the stage, miming the story of a robot that discovers she is human. The rest of the act was "uncommon," to say the least.

Between acts, Brown revealed to the audience that the Revue coincided with McGee's birthday. As a "gift," Brown offered to shave McGee's beard. Equal parts of the crowd hooted with laughter and booed in defiance; McGee's beard seems to be one of his most distinguishing traits among fans.

Participants from the audience were asked to approach the stage and answer literary trivia questions.

For each question answered correctly, co-host Perez shaved a section of McGee's beard. The end of the act left McGee with two small tufts of hair on his chin.

"This is incredible," said Brown. "It's like when they sheared Aslan the lion [in the Chronicles of Narnia]."

Following the controversial trim, featured poet Laura Yes Yes was invited back on stage. She performed several pieces commenting on race, sex and love.

Laura remained sassy and clever onstage, beginning pieces with lines like, "Keep telling Emily Dickinson to go on a date with Brian from Accounting" and "If you've never been eaten alive/ here's your chance to try."The crowd hummed and snapped wildly in response, the slam equivalent of thunderous applause.

After Laura's set, the San Jose Poetry Slam continued into the final round, decided by a "Haiku Death Match." This was one of the most interesting events of the night. In order to decide who would perform their final poem first, the two finalists, Kim Johnson and Jen G, were brought onstage to perform haikus, each donning on their heads some form of men's underwear, either boxers or briefs.

Rather than have the judges evaluate each poet's haikus on a number scale, the judges were handed a pair of boxers and a pair of briefs, and voted on their favorite poet by swinging their preferred poet's underwear choice in the air.

Kim Johnson won the Haiku death match and the final round. As the grand prize, Johnson will go on to represent San Jose at the 2011 National Poetry Slam, along with an array of random objects collected from the audience prior to the final round of the slam.

The night ended with a raffle drawing and McGee inviting the audience to enjoy cake and beverages after the show to celebrate his birthday and the Revue. He announced,

"Please don't leave right away,"  he announced, "We will be providing snacktivity outside!"

The Oversocial Mofo Revue is unlike any other event in the San Jose area; it is no wonder last Friday's Revue was sold out. The event is hosted once every three months. Look out for the next Oversocial Mofo Revue in March.

Contact Joanne at jsantomauro@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.