…hardly.
Capital Slam was last night and it was CRAZY.
The judges were… very happy. They started by giving a 10 to the sac poet and by the end of the night the number 10 had been shown 39 times.
THIRTY-NINE
There were two perfect 30s (though one was knocked down by a time penalty).
Let’s start with the start. Our host, Brandon Wint, was running late so I kicked things off by introducing our first two Open Micers, who both gave us musical covers – first Charlie and then Crystal. Then Brandon took over to introduce CapSlam friends Kheim Possible and Beth-Anne Fischer (who, uh, heated things up a little bit in the Mercury Lounge. Yowza.)
We started with Urban Legend Sean O’Gorman as Sac poet and he did the letter to his nieces. I LOVE this piece. It should be played for every young girl as they get to the age where they (unfortunately) have to watch out for the predators of this world. The link on his name takes you to THAT poem so go watch it. Trust me.
Because of the… overly-excited judges 🙂 score creep meant that if you were too early in the slam you had no real chance, which is too bad for Rastabula, who drew first. This young dude is new to our scene and he also spits at the Youth Poetry Slam, so check out that as well. Next was Mack Cannon. Let me just say that I look forward to seeing this cat at the CapSlam semi-finals.
Next up was a new poet, a young guy named Inshar Khan.
Wow.
He laid down 6 minutes of mind-expanding words about bullying in school. Saying that doesn’t do it justice. Amazing. (And a killer time penalty, but nobody cared.)
Friend of CapSlam, Matt Peake was in the house to for an all-too-rare slam appearance.
At this point we had seen ONLY 6 TENS (only, ha!) but then Truth Is… ripped it wide open nailing a 29.9, and there was no looking back.
Another new (to us anyway) poet named Keisar Farah was next. I hadn’t seen him before but he clearly knows his way around a mic. He was followed by a couple of friends who were both on our stage for the second time: Bruce Narbaitz and Matt Warnholtz.
Another poet who has been away from out stage too long, Leichik, was back to give us her deep thoughts on the border between Israel and Palestine. Powerful words.
Then it happened.
Sense-Say took the mic.
In a word… BOOM.
Perfect 30.
The last two poets were both newcomers (to me, anyway), but they both had chops. Carlo A and AK-47 rocked the house to lead us into our feature.
Greg ‘Ritallin’ Frankson co-founded Capital Slam back in ’04 so we owe all of this to him. He wasn’t on stage because we owed him, though. He was there because he rocks the orthodox. Great set – one of the best I have seen from Greg… and he has done some killer sets.
As always, we need to acknowledge the support of the City of Ottawa in bringing us our feature.
We had a little shuffle for the second round as AK-47 had earned a second poem but refused it ‘due to her beliefs’. I’m not even sure what that means, but it meant we got another poem from Keisar Farah instead, so that is all good.
Carlo A went up first and apologized for being imperfectly prepared because he “didn’t think I’d get this far”. He should have more faith. He is a strong spitter.
Sense-Say was second up, hit a 29.5 which, combined with his 30, made him tough to beat.
Next was Bruce Narbaitz. We are going to have to keep watching this guy. He needs to get another slam in, but I sense semi-finals in his near future.
Fourth up was Keisar Farah. I look forward to seeing him again on our stage.
Last up was Truth Is…
She was the only one who could catch Sense-Say and she needed at least a 29.6 to do it.
She got a 30.
AND she went 3:21 for a 1 point time penalty.
So Sense-Say took the first CapSlam in March with Truth Is…, Bruce Narbaitz, Carlo A, and Keisar Farah rounding out the Top 5.
The show on March 19th features CFSW2010 Poet of Honour, Shauntay Grant, so you KNOW you won’t want to miss THAT!
The priority list for that show continues to be for people who have slammed once, so if you are on this list and want to slam, make sure you are at the Merc before 7pm (I am looking at YOU, V!) and we will get you on the stage.
AK-47
Ali Alikhani
Amal el-Mohtar
Brandon Wint
Carlo A
Charlie
Crystal Powers
David Howell
DJ Aunt Heather
Eric McIntyre
Helena B.
Hodan Ibrahim
Inshar Khan
Jai Aquarian
James Whitehead
Jeenyscha
Jenna Tenn-Yuk
Johnny D
J-Rome
Keisar Farah
Kim Nguyen
Leichik
Lital
Mark Good
Monique
Ptah
Rachel Small
Richard Parson
Robin Magder
Ronsense
Synonymous
Tommy Fitz
V
Vanessa Furlong
Rusty the Poet 