Literary Deathmatch – This Ain’t Your Mama’s Book Club
Last Friday night, my plans for the evening were very simple. A couple of drinks at a local watering hole, followed by a late night visit to whichever random drive through happened to grab my attention on the way home. But a funny thing happened halfway through happy hour. A couple of friends of mine that I hadn’t seen in a few months kidnapped me and dragged me along to the Dallas Museum of Art for a Literary Deathmatch. I was unfamiliar with the concept. My initial impression was that perhaps this would involve writers having to improvise a couple of paragraphs on the spot about some random topic, such as “The Sex Life of a Radiator”, or “Dealing with Boredom and Dehydration while stranded on the Desert Island of your choice”. Yes, clearly my mind had taken a walk off the map and was off exploring some exceptionally random possibilities. And no, I was definitely not befuddled by booze. I think the last time that a couple of Malibu and cranberry juice cocktails had any sort of effect on me was when I was twelve years old – but that’s a topic for another time.
The actual format of a Literary Deathmatch (or LDM to the initiated) is as follows:
Opium’s Literary Death Match is a competitive, humor-centric reading series featuring a thrilling mix of four famous and emerging authors who perform their most electric writing before a lively audience and a panel of three all-star judges.
After each pair of readings, the judges–focused on literary merit, performance and intangibles–take turns spouting hilarious, off-the-wall commentary about each story, then select their favorite to advance to the finals.
The two finalists then compete in the Literary Death Match finale, which trades in the show’s literary sensibility for an absurd and comical climax to determine who takes home the Literary Death Match crown.
The key here is humor-centric. That was definitely an understatement. The four authors I was privileged to hear definitely brought the funny! From Katherine Center’s discussion of boobs, and Amelia Gray’s description of basil as “fagweed”, to Willy Razavi’s hilarious account of hunting nutria as an income source, and Will Clarke’s discussion of the Pentecostal Home for Flying Children – the laughs were never in short supply. The judges – Ben Fountain, Tina Parker and Owen Egerton were no slouches in the humor department either …
Unfortunately I missed the LDM finale, but rest assured – the next time the LDM is close by – I will be there!
January 18, 2010
Tags: amelia gray, ben fountain, dallas museum of art, katherine center, literary deathmatch, owen egerton, tina parker, will clarke, william razavi Posted in: Books, Events
One Response
Awesome that you were there. If all goes well, we’ll be doing a Dallas/Austin/Houston swing in April. Fingers crossed!
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