Surely, they jest — as much as
possible
Timothy Faust
Slam poet Jason Bayani was crowned winner of a
Literary Death Match in San Francisco last year.
The creative process extends well
beyond the writing at Literary Death
Match, a live game show with
authors.
By BILL WARD1, Star Tribune
Last update: February 25, 2011 - 3:52 PM
The most recent Literary Death Match in the
Twin Cities went down to the wire. Brian
Beatty bested John Jodzio by throwing a
foam baseball through cutouts of F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s mouth, Louise Erdrich’s cat and
Joe Mauer’s cap.
That the finale resembled the bottom of the
ninth inning, or maybe a Dr. Seuss vignette, is
no accident. Literary Death Match might not
live up to its name — no one has died (yet),
and literary work is merely an entry point —
but it does fit founder Todd Zuniga’s
description as “a party that has a reading
attached to it.”
During the course of a Literary Death Match,
which makes its third Twin Cities stop on
March 1, four local writers and three judges
create a madcap mash-up of performance art
and improv, witticisms and criticisms and,
perhaps most of all, beer and banter.
The first round finds the authors actually
reading their stuff, but with an emphasis on
entertainment value. They are encouraged
not only to perform “their most electric
work,” but also to punch it up with props. So
a ukulele or a talking/rapping hand on an
iPad might pop up, or a macabre tale might be
told with “blood” flowing from the author’s
mouth.
Anyone reading past the seven-minute limit
gets assaulted with Nerf guns, and then the
real ammo comes out: ribbing, roasting and
other ribald feedback from three judges with
individual focuses (literary merit,
performance and intangibles).
“I’m literary merit,” said Jeff Kamin, one of
the judges for next week’s event, “so I’ll say
something like, ‘It’s the son of Raymond
Carver meets early John Irving,’ and then
you’re free to do an improv and have some
fun with it … [and] go with a lot of non
sequiturs.”
Kamin, the jocular emcee of monthly Books
and Bars events, is a typical judge, given to
loquaciousness and levity. Moby, Tao Lin, Will
Durst and Jane Smiley have been among the
jurists, but Zuniga’s favorite was “24” actress
Mary Lynn Rajskub.
“This one guy read a hilarious story that was
obviously fiction, and she went, ‘I don’t think
that’s true,’” he said.
After the judges pick the two finalists, an
intermission finds the repartee and the
libations flowing in near-equal measures.
“I always know the second round will go
better, because people are more used to it
and know what is coming — and are just
drunker,” Zuniga said.
Drollery ensues, as the always-zany finals
might find the authors reading while chewing
marshmallows or participating in parlor
games such as the Cash Advance Money-
Grab or Stab-a-Hole-in-Nebraska. “It’s
usually something that skews toward the
city,” Zuniga said.
This round will be slightly skewed in the
Minnesota Nice direction. “They asked me to
be the anti-Simon Cowell,” Kamin said.
But unless there’s a serious course reversal
from five years’ worth of shows held
everywhere from Beijing to Dublin to Kansas
City, facetious frivolity and wiseacre whimsy
will abound. Besides, the evening’s host has a
wild card up his sleeve.
“I’ll be flying from Paris earlier that day,”
Zuniga said, “so my hosting will be, let’s say,
loopy and mildly confused.”
With or without marshmallows in his mouth.
Bill Ward • 612-673-7643
