What is the purpose of WOL gigs?

Is it

A. To allow everyone, known and unknown, an equal chance to have their voices heard 'aloud' ?

B. Merely to provide a platform which a select few always hog for hugely disproportionate amounts of time ?

The result of B is inevitable; the unknown will remain unknown, and the crap will remain crap because they derive no encouragement from attending such events.

Hi Bill

Well from where I am looking from, WOL nights are definately an equal opportunity event.

Equal that is for the people who turn up on the night. If these people are regulars then yes they will perform more often.

It is the job of the compere to encourage and ask around (especially any new faces) and make sure everyone who wants to read, can and everyone gets a fair crack.

In my experience, both as compere and reader this is almost always the case. On the odd exception it has been the odd person that has, for example launched into a 10 minute essay when only short poem were asked for. It is up to the compere to be strong and step in under these circumtances, but it can be a difficult job at times.

Do you or anyone else think that this is not the case or that things can be improved? and if so how

Winston

Following on from your comments Winston/Bill I cannot ever understand how a compare or for that matter poets ever stray WAY past the line of approximate time allowance.

A word count of each poem, will give you a total which you will add to a corner of your printed page or commit to memory if your a smart ass, each word equates to a second every 60 words one minute, 30 seconds for an introduction.

Thus an allowance of 5 Mins would give a poet 270 words.

This way enables poets to delivery and preform with feeling and become less unhurried and professional and much more pleasing to the ear.

The compare is the key.

He or She will be aware of the Divas and should plan accordingly, The Divas all get their opportunities to expose their personality and glowing talent at headliner gigs, whilst the once a month artiste gets 4mins.

Once again the compare is the fulcrum of success and failure on these occassions.

The lovely and talented (Miss Whip Lash) Rosie has the best method of dealing with over runners...she beats the shit out of them!

Regards
Gus
PS I hope I haven't gone on too much. waffle...waffle ...waffle

At the Bards of New Brighton open-floor evenings (second Monday of EVERY month, 8pm, Magazine pub, New Brighton) , ALL poets are urged to keep their introductory waffle and ramblings to a minimum. The reason?
No-one wants to listen to: "Hi everybody, I'm Cyril / Belinda Arsemustard, originally from Frinton-on-Sea. I wrote this first poem when I was going through a particularly tough time emotionally and living in a garret in Stoke-on-Trent, which, despite rumours to the contrary is quite a nice city really... Zzzz, zzzz, pass me my fecking oxygen mask...") .
If people cut their introductions right down then we all get to hear MORE of eveybody's art (poems / monolgues) and less of the tedious ums and errs, and I'm really shy sort of stuff.
At each Bards night virtually everyone gets to read from their stuff at least three times. Everyone leaves happy. And no-one gets a nark on because they haven't been given / got there early enough to book a slot - as happens so often in the more macrobiotic of the Liverpool poetry groups, for instance.

Hi Gus -

Agree with all you said there, I even sometime talk through my stuff just to check and can then say to a compere, I have something thats 5 1/2 mins long if thats ok, and if not something else shorter.

Steve -

Roughtly agree that intros should be short although sometimes they are vital to the context of the poem. Certainly not the long blathering ones you sometimes get. Incidentally I know Belinda Arsemustard and am inclined to agree with your views.

Another problem is start time and I think it has been raised here before and i another sore point of mine and another comperes difficulty.

Winston

Hello, all, been reading your posts. I who complain have been guilty of rambling intros. I think more attention should be paid to fairer / stricter time allocation.
There, there, there, Mr. Grumpy's feeling better now, bottom lip back in, dummy in, teddy back in pram, nuff said!

Isn't it Belinda Arsemustard who comperes Bards?

Anyway it is a good night which I enjoy and I like a lot of others too.

Surely this issue is simple. If you have rules for your gig tell people what they are and enforce them. People can choose to go to the gigs whose rules suit them.

Following Steve's shameless advertising all I can say is come to Wirral Words at The Scouse House on Tuesday 24 March. The rules are agree with me or I'll kick your arse.

Malpoet
(Southern Jesse and posh chinny winny poet.)

Yeah, variety of styles is good, and if there is a system / list / time limit for poets, stick to it.
I think the Scouse House is a very good night, and Malpoet comperes it with great gusto. He also does a good read-in as my "human girlfriend" in a routine about a sexed-up Dalek.
Tomorrow (Thu 19 March) I am going to the Wirral Ode Show at the Stork in Birkenhead - run by the excellent Jason. It is still very much going, by the way ... those who were wondering at WOL.
With monthly open-floor sessions at the Scouse House (Wirral Words), the Ode Show in B'head, and the Bards just 4 miles up the road in glorious New Brighton, poetry is alive and well in our little cheeky arse-end of the world.
Those who are more accustomed to the Manc-Wiggin-Bolton-Middleton circuit might like to come up and see us again soon. They'd be most welcome. Malpoet has his own golden barge, and he would glady ferry you up the Mersey from, say, Irlam.