Wednesday, December 21, 2005

The Grand Slam-Results!

What a night!
this could be a huge post, but I won't do that.
So here is the basic stuff.
Good, attentive crowd. Peaked somewhere over 100 people, I didn't get a final count!
Rose could not make it, Tone pulled out, John had scheduling conflicts, and Rare was out of town, so one person was bumped up and the slam was:
Wali, Demetrius, Will, Tiffani, and Ed.
5 poets..seven rounds..yes I said it-SEVEN.
The night actually moved extremely fast due to a few things: preparation by me for all the crap I figured would happen, and two INCREDIBLE emcees.
Talisha Holmes (yes the great singer who will be with her band at the concert next week) emceed the open mic. She is actually nervous in front of crowds when not singing so it gave a neat casual feel to the night. (note to self-get a female emcee sometimes)
PURE aka Anita was the emcee for the slam. She handled it like a pro.

The big trick to this is typing everything for everyone in advance to reinforce whatever conversations you've had. And dealing with mature people doesn't hurt either.

The open mic list was good..everyone pretty much ready to see this thing called slam.
As usual, all the poets competing were nervous and going thru poems and pacing and rehearsing. One big difference than the norm? I made it mandatory for all poets to sit in the same space. Some of this was to just make it easy to find them when they were called up. Another point was to keep us together and the attitudes to a minimum. Instead, everyone was laughing and joking and chilling, but still getting ready. ("no, you should read THAT poem to score better than me.")
That type of thing.

On to the slam. It was made to resemble IWPS (the competition these people were battling for the right to go to) so it had:
one 1-minute round
one 2-minute round
one 3 minute round
one 4 -minute round
then if you made it this far, two more 3 minute rounds, then one final 3 minute round where the last two poets would go head to head in a sudden death-winner take all bout.
Whew...
Oh, and every other round, a poet got eliminated.
Jeez!
So if you did bad in one round, you had a chance to redeem yourself in the next, BUT both scores were added together, so it was hard to do. You had to pick the right poem at teh right time and have another one just as good to go to.

Needless to say, alot was done and learned last night. The crowd really loved it and cheered like crazy when the poets were done. There were drinks spilled, tears flowing, cheering, yelling,screaming, all that.

But in the end there can be only one.

Here is you fullscale score listing-
(in the order they went in last night)
ONE MINUTE ROUND

Wali 23.3
ED 26
WILL 22
DEMETRIUS 24
TIFFANI 23.3

TWO MINUTE ROUND

TIFFANI 28.8 (total 52.1)
DEMETRIUS 21.8 (total 45.8)
WILL 26.2 (total 48.2)
ED 26.5 (total 52.5)
WALI 27.1 (total 50.4)

Great job Demetrius!

THREE MINUTE ROUND

WALI 29.4
TIFFANI 27.8
ED 28.1
WILL 28.6

FOUR MINUTE ROUND

WILL 28.5 (total 57.1)
ED 29.9 (total 58)
TIFFANI 30 (total 57.8)
WALI 26.6 (total 56)

Great job Wali!

FINALS
1st round (all poems 3 minutes)
ED 27
WILL 28
TIFFANI 29.6

2nd round
TIFFANI 28.5 (total 58.1)
WILL 28 (total 56)
ED 29.8 (total 56.8)

FINAL SUDDEN DEATH ROUND

TIFFANI 9.5/9/10/9.9/10= 29.4

ED 9.5/9.5/9.8/9.9/9.7= 29

TIFFANI WON BY .4 OF A POINT!

Tiffani Smith will represent Columbus at the 2006 Individual World Poetry Slam.

Congrats to her on a job well done.

If you missed it, you missed it.
BUT!!!

The Grand Slam DVD will be available soon, so come on down to Black Pearl Poetry night and buy your copy of history! Or leave a msg here or email me for one.

Also, if you purchase Tiffani's Cd or either of Ed's Cd's off of the site here or at the poetry night you will be helping Tiffani on her trip to go and compete!

If you would like to go and check it out, then post a message here for more info on how to get there! It will be in Charlotte, NC from Feb 2-4! Hotel discounts and travel packages are available thru Black Pearl Poetry.

Now if you want to get in on the slams, they kick back in next month and some of those people will get a chance to represent Columbus at the 2006 National Poetry Slam!