November Slam Wrap-up
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Call it the Night of the New Voices. Well, new relative to the TPS stage. The final three poets who vied for $80 and a bye into the semi’s were all new to the third-round stage — Relevant, Fraser and Vocab.
But let’s back up a bit. It was not only a night of new poets wowing the audience, but also Toronto Poetry Slam’s four-year anniversary. The fans came out in droves, so much so the Drake reached capacity by 830pm.
The first round gave us one of the strongest rounds in recent memory — David Delisca entertained us with the plight of his lost BlackBerry, Relevant bashed Facebook and social media in the most amusing way, and Aton went poignant with a touching piece about his dad. It was a Web 2.0 kinda night, because Slow Talkin like Christopher Walken also brought to the table a funny piece about a Craigslist post.
Electric Jon was the feature for the night, and he brought the energy. With his band, EJ dropped some classic pieces (”MTV is lower than a squeegee pimp!”) and debuted to Toronto some new joints that had the crowd singing along. Definitely a one of a kind poet.
The second and third rounds featured a wide variety of material, from Fraser’s take on education to Vocab’s piece on relationships to Patrick busting a hot poem about lessons offered by various role models.
When it was all said n’ done, Fraser emerged victorious, but Relevant and Vocab weren’t far behind in the scores. Also, it was a high-scoring night, a fine slam for poets to take part it in.
Check out next month’s slam on Dec. 19, featuring the Bam! Toronto Youth Slam Team. It should be a wild one!