Inviting The Audience Into My Hyperfixation

Thoughts on Blending Genres in my Solo Show

One of the biggest challenges for my last few one-person shows has been blending my poetry and stand-up comedy. Not to mention falling down the rabbit-hole of a 70+ year movie franchise in Godzilla’s Not a Dinosaur.

This is why I was drawn to Fringe festivals in the first place, because if there’s anywhere for trying weird/atypical theater shit, it’s a Fringe festival.

Blending two different (some might say opposing) genres has taught me a few things about setting your audience up for success in your show, starting the minute you walk on stage.

For most of my shows the last 3 years, I’ve been committed to cold opening with a poem because it’s what I’ve been familiar with, not necessarily because it’s the best strategy.

I was very intentional with crafting the opening poem for my show while revising Godzilla’s Not a Dinosaur.

My partner and I had been talking about the idea of creating an introductory poem for my shows for a while. It would be a poem that introduces me and tells the audience what to expect so the show is immediately off and running.

This discussion is in no small part thanks to watching Hannah Gadsby’s Douglas, where Hannah literally spends the first several minutes telling you exactly what’s going to happen in the show. It doesn’t “ruin” the show. In fact, it’s funny on its own and it still adds to the rest of the show later.

My original opening poem: LSP Love Song

I opened the original version of Godzilla with a poem about a character from Adventure Time, which not everyone is familiar with. It requires a lot of context in the poem for it to land, so it mostly only lands for fellow Adventure Time fans.

It does have some fun asides and moments where I pull in bigger themes, which is very much in My Voice™ and I think sets the tone in some ways. However, it’s a little out of left field. So, cold opening with this poem usually meant opening my show with 3-ish minutes of mostly silence and sometimes blank stares or polite smiles.

There’s a time and place for every poem, but this was not the time/place for the LSP poem. I’ve pretty much retired it for now.

My current opening poem: To Be A Woman Is To Be A Body First

I crafted this poem specifically with the intent of making it the open to my Godzilla show. It’s a piece that plays in both poetic and comedic principles, with a focus on drawing out laughter. It also touches on the themes for the entire show.

Half of the poem was actually taken from another poem that was originally later in the show. I liked the original poem, but at the time its placement made that section of the show feel very repetitive.

By pulling it out, and sort of “frankensteining” it with another poem concept I had, I created this piece:

I think it’s an effective opening. And it has served as a good preview for my show at Fringe preview events too.

Other Thoughts On How I Open My Show

How you open a show has a big impact on how the audience is going to respond. A focus for my shows has been introducing how to respond to poetry vs comedy.

Most of us get how comedy works. However, in my experience, most people haven’t been to a poetry show and aren’t familiar with being allowed to respond.

Because of this, I take time in the beginning of my show to talk the audience through ways we can react to poetry on stage, taken mostly from how I used to introduce slams in KC as the program director. You can snap, clap, hoot, holler and “make a respectful noise.”

I’ve gone back and forth on whether I should wait until after the first poem to do this or if it makes more sense to do it after. I think both could work.

My next project is currently leaning towards just comedy, but it has been fun working in a genre-blended space and Godzilla is always going to hold a kaiju-sized special place in my heart.

Where You Can Find Me Next

I’m a little booked and busy the next few weeks.

Godzilla’s Not a Dinosaur is touring!

KC Fringe - July 18 through 24

Omaha Fringe - August 7 through 10

St Lou Fringe Fest - August 13 to 17

Additional Events:

Queer Narratives Festival - August 2nd (comedy)

Improv Springboard Fringe Show - July 25 (comedy)

UpLift variety show - July 26th (comedy)

Front Porch Poetry Reading - July 30th (poetry)

More details will be on my Instagram as I have them!