Online Spoken Word Performance Coaching

Spoken Word Artists & Poetry Slam Competitors!

One of my favorite things to do is offer up coaching and advice to poetry performers preparing work for the stage, especially with regard to poetry slam competitions. My experience in poetic competition is unique and storied. I thought – since I am on a “very long hiatus” from competing for titles and monetary gain – why not help others in their pursuits?”

I know that I cannot be in every town at once, and there is nothing like the benefits of one-on-one coaching of spoken word performance, so I am offering a simple avenue to my services via the internet. If you have Skype and are in need of performance advice and critique from someone like me (or me specifically,) than this might be for you.

As you can see in this PayPal drop-down menu I have broken it up into three groups (if you cannot see the form, go here: http://www.mikemcgee.net/spoken-workshop

Coaching Rates

One-Hour Personal Performance Poetry Coaching By Mike McGee $100.00 Half-Hour Personal Performance Poetry Coaching By Mike McGee $40.00 2-Drafts of Poetry Editing By Mike McGee $25.00

Email to send instructions?

One-Hour Personal Performance Poetry Coaching By Mike McGee $100.00
On Skype, I will watch, critique and guide up to two (2) poems (or one group poem.) We can discuss anything about poetry slam, competitive strategy and the performances in question. I may – and usually do – advise toward some written editing of the poems.

Can be scheduled as two 30-minute sessions. Scheduling dates based on availability between 8:00am and midnight, Pacific Time.

When ordered, I will contact you with instructions and questions about scheduling. I will also request an electronic text copy of the poem(s).

Half-Hour Personal Performance Poetry Coaching By Mike McGee $40.00
On Skype, I will watch, critique and guide one (1) poem (NO group poems.) We can discuss anything about poetry slam, competitive strategy and the performances in question. I may – and usually do – advise toward some written editing of the poems.

Can be scheduled as two 30-minute sessions. Scheduling dates based on availability between 8:00am and midnight, Pacific Time.

When ordered, I will contact you with instructions and questions about scheduling. I will also request an electronic text copy of the poem(s).

Two Drafts of Poetry Editing By Mike McGee
I will read, edit, advise any one (1) poem, especially written for the stage. I will offer two rounds of edits and recommendations by email. You send me your poem, I edit it and send it back. You make edits, and accept or reject my edits, and send it back to me. I do one more round of editing to the poem and return it to you. We can discuss the poem over email.

BE SURE TO:
…have a solid internet connection
…commit to the work you will do
…schedule your time wisely with no interruptions
…have a goal in mind with your work
…be honest with me about your results
…use our time wisely during the workshop period (we can catch up another time)
…take notes

Once the workshops have been completed, there will be no refunds.

Purchase of personal workshop expires when we do.

Any questions? Gmail me: ilikemike

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 8 June, 2011 at 12:49 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged online, performance, poetry, skype, workshop. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

On Friends and Winter

“I will walk into the sunshine with you or you will not be my friend. I will instruct you and you will instruct me. I will learn things from you and you will learn things from me. Otherwise you can’t be my friend.” –Robert Guillaume

I found this quote in a newspaper in Texas in February 2004. It was in a section of the paper celebrating black history month. It has resonated with me for years and accompanied my signature on just about every Gmail I’ve sent out since 2004. Buddy Wakefield once told me it was the most apropos quote from someone like me. It is featured and credited in my first book. It comes from the book A Wealth of Wisdom from Simon & Schuster.

This quote has been hitting me hard lately. I realized that I make friends like McDonald’s makes kids fat. Sometimes I wonder what my impact is as a friend vs. those that see themselves as fans. I seem to skip the acquaintance phase of a relationship and call everyone my friend. I really do believe that strangers are merely friends I haven’t had the pleasure to meet yet.

I have been mailing more postcards and correspondence of late as well. I am really trying to connect on deeper, more tangible levels. I have re-re-reconsidered my use of Facebook and Twitter as these distant, disconnected forms of communication. More like email with pictures. I wish my website was enough to keep people connected and informed when I cannot be in their presence.

Here I sit at the Java Zone in Oberlin, Ohio, after a wonderful Nite Kite Poetry Revival show with Timmy Straw (amazing songwriter!), Anis Mojgani and Buddy Wakefield, and I realize more and more that I love the road and I love home. The two are not mutually compatible. This tour feels like the end of an era for everyone in the van. Each one of us has something to go back to after this. We’ve put so much on hold to be out here. This is the last tow for this specific group of bards and silly minstrels. While it is sad it is also very interesting to sit back and watch with wonder who will take the mantle. Who’s next to try on these streets to see how they fit? Who’s coming to the microphone next to tell it like it is or could be? Who wants to jump in a vehicle and go? Who’s willing to risk everything and put it out there in front of a group of strangers? It’s pretty easy when you give the love you get.

“Puddin’” and “Like” and “Open Letter to Neil Armstrong” are fun to perform, but they need a little break. I want to hear and feel more quality work. I want to write and perform more quality work.

My goal for the winter is to write. I’ve started the process and have gotten myself into a pattern of writing, even from the road. I will publish more work in journals and periodical literary publications. I have essays and thoughts to put to paper. I also have Scrabble™ tournaments to enter… I have 1,000 pages to write by September 2011. I have yoga and quality eating to do. It will be the busiest hibernation I’ve ever willingly set forth. I will grow the fuck up. I will be historically relevant and helpful. I will open my eyes a little more each year before I die. I will lose weight and climb trees. I will visit Worcester every year and beat someone at poker in MacMillan’s basement. I will visit Vancouver every year and marvel at what a wonderful home it has been to me over the years. I will visit Chicago and wonder why I don’t live there yet. I will visit Albuquerque and feel like an hermano to every poet there. I come back to Oberlin. I will. I will. I will. I give my word. This town is beautiful.

Anis, Buddy and I all wondered what Oberlin would be like. None of us had ever been here. We prepared for a sleepy town of people who do not know spoken word. We were blessed with a raucous crowd of rabid spoken word aficionados, plus the likes of fellow poets Blaire Miller Bommer, Keisha Foster, Taylor Johnson, and Dain Michael Down. After a standing ovation and dozens of hugs, plus some crying and a whole lot of love, we went to a candy store and acted like kids.

I will tour again in the spring. I will not tour again with more than two other people. Three should be maximum membership to any spoken word group. I assure this is a wise assessment from experience and not just my own. I will not tour for more than a month at a time, except for Europe.

While sitting here and writing, a lovely young lady approached me to say that I was “really, very funny last night.” That is a splendid compliment and confirmation. I have found the write path.

I am a lucky man. I am a lucky man. I am a lucky man.

I love my friends. I love you. Now get a long.

Oh, and I can’t wait to get voracious on this: http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780520267190-0

Also, I have not forgotten about the Gabrielle Bouliane Award or my Short Ones For the Shitter chapbook compilation, I have just had a few too many financial setbacks for the time being. Get eff’d September 2010!

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 7 October, 2010 at 10:59 AM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged 2010, advice, anis mojgani, buddy wakefield, friends, touring, winter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Rebooting My Life

EDIT 1:31pm PST: On August 29, 2009, I officiated the marriage of Audra and John Scholtes. Today I welcome their son John Allen to the world. Congrats, family!
————–
There is something so welcoming to a writer about waking up to the temperateness of California at the close of a mild summer. How it calls me outside before the West Coast is ready to start another Monday. Maybe it is a calm before a storm. I have shelter. I have a coat. I have people. I will be fine.

It is a rare instance when I am wakened by my bladder while it is still dark out. It too is welcome.

McBLADDER: McGee, I am full and it is time to write.
McGEE: How dare you. I have a *go-kart to rebuild with my ex-landlord. Anyway, you’re a bladder! What writing is there for you!?
McBLADDER: Hush now. I can make life very difficult for you.
McGEE: Oh, you have, my friend! Oh have you!

It seems to be just as rare for me to fall asleep to the conception of a goal and to feel that goal double-bold in the morning. To keep wanting to do what I told myself to do the night before. To do more of what I started when I was a boy. To write like my life and, moreover, our lives depended on it.

This is the beginning of scratch. Rebooting with little-to-no capital to start with other than my wits and an unparalleled support base. I am proof that being a care-free hobo-poet only expands your reach and name. I never set out to be rich. I don’t know that I ever can be. I really do not care if I ever will be. The more money I have = the more meals I buy for people. This must be my karmic balance to the pantries I’ve raided throughout the world. I despise buying things I don’t need and I do it less and less each year. For my home in Worcester I bought a food processor and rarely used it. Stupid. I bought a website product I will never use. Idiotic. My wardrobe consists of mostly shorts and t-shirts. I despise buying clothes and specifically loathe clothes with any sort of corporate advertising. One can fit more complete outfits in a suitcase when one’s wardrobe is mostly garments of little fabric. In 2007 and 2008, I spent most of my earnings on airlines, restaurants and diapers. Sounds like a fat, jet-setting baby. I must have been. I have the intent to rail against excess, but that is tempered by the hypocritical excesses I dip into from time to time. I am embarrassed by the sheer size of the box I left in Worcester, full of bathroom amenities and products for use by males when bathing and after. These items now fill a zip-loc sandwich bag.

I am on the most interesting path I have ever set foot. This is redemption for me, the writer. An emancipation from the talker I’ve become. There comes a time when a man has to say nothing for a while and simply write it down. I am the luckiest man I know. My brain is incredible. I have been very wise to hang onto it.

And even though we ain’t got money…

When I returned to California in August, I knew that I was embarking on one of the more difficult journeys of my life. Returning to one of the most expensive states in the country, but still my beloved. Returning to a family struggling to make ends meet. Returning to Silicon Valley where art is born, becomes a teenager, then runs away to San Francisco or the East Bay, visits very rarely and never calls home. Returning to a region that hasn’t been very kind in the departments of love and relationships. I think I’ve not been as patient as I claim to women. I think I assumed I was awesome and that the right woman would see that. I now have evidence that they have seen it, told me about it, and I was still oblivious to it.

Freeze/Don’t move/You’ve been chosen as an extra in the/movie adaptation of the sequel to your life

Art is not only alive and well in San José and Silicon Valley, but it abounds and all of the artists I know here are enthusiastic about the changes in this city. There are open mics and showcases of performers all over the south bay. Music is alive and aloved throughout “Tecca.” Audiences throughout downtown San José, in Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell are coming out in numbers I have never before witnessed. They are made up of engineers, analysts, and builders from Cisco, Google, Yahoo!, Adobe, LinkedIn, Facebook, eBay, HP, Apple and more. The people seeking artistic outlets in Silicon Valley are also artists looking to be inspired without having to make the 45-mile drive to the greater Bay Area. When I left downtown San José seven years ago to see these United States and to fall in love with Canada, my city was a ghost town that left little reason to stay. It simply could not compete with my wanderlust. Timing is gorgeous. Now I believe the opposite may be true. I dare this burning wanderlust to drag me away from my city. San José is mine and I will always love it. I am so pleased it has been figuring itself out.

Seven years on the road and nearly half a million miles later I am wiser than I expected to be. I left on September 10, 2003 headed for Los Angeles without an escape route, with only a dozen or so shows booked, on a tour that never really ended. I submit as fact: that tour is over now. I am no longer on the road. It makes so much sense that I had to move to Worcester (New England’s answer to San José in so many ways) to learn how to be home. To have Tony Brown and Bill MacMillan at hugs reach. To have Melinda Lee in the room next to mine, so many hours on that wondrous porch! To have Alex Charalambides a phone call away, ready for pho at the drop of a hint. Real talk and cheap tacos with Bobby Gibbs. That knowing look from Sou MacMillan that says, Yep, I get you. You’re family. Myow-myow. Game Nights in The Basement. It all adds up to an experience that readied me for this next chapter in my life. I miss them and love them and they know this and they all understand my needs and wants. It was the only way I could leave them and the best way to end a tour that was probably a year too long as it stands.

To have truly ended my seven year itch with The Oversocial Mofo Revue – a show that was a culmination of every live show I had seen in that time – on September 10, 2010 was apropos.

Day to day/Where do you want to be?

This in no way counters one of my most absolute truths: Everyone should travel. No exclusions. The one exception to this rule is that any of the Everyones that claim to be artists – especially those of any solid, honorable repute – should travel and bring a whole lot of their art with them to share with the people they meet. Go and learn and meet and love and despise things. Just be sure to be there. Like, actually. Be there times 3. Don’t expect to make any money. See the world. Laugh and cry because you’ll need it.

She thinks she missed the train to Mars…

You have not. You cannot. You are the conductor. Set that schedule and abide. Not seven years. Not even one. Two weeks or a month should suffice. Keep your job just in case or be ready for a new one when you return. Go, because you have to. Because the view from your window hasn’t changed in years. Because it will destroy you to wonder any longer. If you set out for seven, I’m sure we’ll run into each other on The Road at some point. But no matter what, be sure to stop by San José in your travels. It’s full of good pho, salsa, computers and me.

I recently saw a crazy man flailing and dancing, singing along to something as I passed him on the street. One of those moments when a guy like that is making his way toward you and his presence causes you reconsider your destination. You have to pass him to get where you’re going and it could go poorly. He could make eye contact and start talking crazy to you or just punch you for being a two-legged moose that looked at him wrong. Maybe he’ll accuse me of stealing his beard or god. But, as I got closer, I saw the headphones hanging from his ears and the iPod in his hand. He wasn’t insane, he was just crazy for music and unafraid of showing it to the people of downtown San José. I think that is probably a good outlook to have in life. I find myself dancing way more often now.

I am also on a mission to produce 1,000 pages of writing by September of next year. Stories, poetry, screenplays… 1,000 pages. 1,000 pages. 1,000 pages. Maybe more. More posts here for sure.

*for my fellow Hedberg fans.
———
Word to the nerd.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 20 September, 2010 at 4:20 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged rebirth, reboot, San-Jose-California, touring, Travel, Worcester-Massachusetts. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Trials, Tribulations and Poetry Slam

Being back in the Bay Area for a few weeks now has been one of the most trying experiments I’ve ever planned. There’s been an outpouring of confirmations in very small doses as to why I have returned.

This is nothing less than rebirth, restructuring and reassessment. Before I left Worcester, Massachusetts, I new I’d be doing a lot of starting over. I wanted to free myself of the literal weight of possessions, cut down as much of my cost of living as possible and reacquaint myself with West Coast life, art and growth. I figured I’d vagabond around the Bay Area through August. Settle a bit in September. Tour a bit in the fall. Write and stay local in the winter. I really wanted to re-immerse myself on the west coast, and ultimately reside in Portland, Oregon or Silicon Valley. I’ve hardly slept in one place more than two nights in a row since I’ve returned. Many floors and couches and marvelously generous people. Namely my sisters and David Perez.

Earlier this month, Write Bloody did a push to raise money to fulfill our new distributor’s book request. They asked all the authors to order at least the minimum 50 books to aid in the goal. I ordered one box of 50 of my In Search of Midnight books right before I moved. That set me back a bit, but a box of books is a good investment for a touring poet. The return on it is more than double, not bad for a handy, quality piece of merchandise to sell on the road. However, not touring at this point, while trying to put on a great show, has been financially overwhelming. If I were to ask anything of anyone to help right now, it would be to help push my book, and/or consider buying one or two as a gift for the holidays for someone who needs poetry in their lives. There is a PayPal button on the right side of my website under the picture of my book. I will gladly sign the book as per your request before shipping it out personally.

I reorganized my storage unit, a very small 5′ by 5′ space I’ve rented since 2002. It’s a reliable $49 a month closet. I realized that most of what’s in there is quasi-sentimental and I can probably get rid of half of it. The other half is a 25-year collection of sports cards that I should sell. Giving away most of my possessions before moving was so liberating. Finding that I still have more stuff to rid from my life is disconcerting. I learned at a young age to hoard possessions; to build a prison of crap around me. I now firmly believe that items that don’t propel me toward the fulfillment of my want and needs with people are almost useless and worth passing along to others. I feel this very strongly with books and have recently had a number of conversations with people about this concept. Books should be shared. Seeing shelves of dusty books in people’s homes make me sad, specifically those collections of books that are merely badges of assumed wisdom.

”Look at this collection of wisdom I’ve amassed. I hope it impresses you. I haven’t read most of them, but they’re mine and I intend to read them when I have the time.”

People who argue that they want to be able to go back to the books are optimistic but not being reasonable most of the time. People who don’t lend out books they’ve already read out of fear they won’t be returned to them just sadden me. Just ask yourself, ‘Will I actually read this again?’ If the answer is no, donate them to a library where you can check it out next time you need it.

THE FIVE REASONS I MOVED OUT HERE
1. Family/Friends – They don’t need me out here. They just want me out here. So many of my family members are staying at my sister Katie’s house with her husband and kids it’s not exactly the best option for crashing. My mom and my brother aren’t talking and it’s more annoying than sad at this point. My family will not let me be homeless and my relationship with them is as strong as ever. It’s just internal family drama. A large number of friends have offered to let me crash in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco, but Reason #4 below has kept me in San José and the surrounding Silicon Valley. I love my family.

2. My one-man show in San Francisco – I’ve run it three times now at a black box theater in San Francisco and have one show left this Sunday. Aside from crafting a pretty solid show while getting to work and hang out with Anthony Miller again – which has been awesome – the show’s been a bust. The theater, which is fantastic, seats 99 people. Out of three shows, maybe 26 people total have attended. I will make no money for this show and neither will Anthony. He works for the theater, so I am not worried about him. $10 to $20 a ticket on a Sunday night to listen to a dude talk for two hours… Not appealing to San Franciscans, I guess. It’s been a good excuse to get out of San José on Sundays.

3. San José State University booked me for the end of September to perform and run a workshop for a substantial amount of money. This is my financial foothold to re-establish a home base in the Bay Area. Or at least it was until yesterday. When I hadn’t heard anything from them in a while, I contacted them and got a text message back saying, “Yah, things aren’t really great right now. Just know I tried my best.” A “four months worth of rent and food” gig destroyed by text message. The one-man show was supposed to keep me afloat until the SJSU gig and then I’d be all set. Huge change up on this one. Reason #2 and #3 makes being here much more financially difficult than I had planned and fills me with the notion that what I do for a living isn’t needed right now.

4. San José Poetry Slam – I told SJ Slammaster Kat Dietrich a few years ago to contact me if she couldn’t handle running the slam anymore. I got that message in May. She wanted to stay involved, but putting on the show every month was becoming a huge strain for her. I contacted David Perez and we began designing a variety show that would include a new version of the SJ poetry slam. We haven’t stopped working on it since I got here. Staying up until dawn, planning every moment of the audience’s experience. We came up with a “low residency” show that makes it possible for people who aren’t always in town to organize and establish a quality show in what I call a “small art market.” San José is exactly that sort of market – a city that hasn’t generally thrived on art, nor has it supported it to capacity in the last few years. Since 2002 poetry slam in SJ has been at just barely a pulse because this city requires a huge amount of promotion to compete with the artsier scenes of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. I wanted to hit the art core of downtown San José so I talked to Brian and Cherie at Gallery Anno Domini about becoming our venue. They’ve been the at the center of art here for ten years and have supported so many artists throughout every genre. They agreed immediately. I laid out my design for a new slam format to David and Kat. My goal was to take San José out of its underdog shadow status and push poets to dig deeper and write more of what they don’t have. To break from old habits on and off stage. David and I separated the show from the slam organization. Kat Dietrich remains slammaster and is building a committee to handle fundraising, team building and community outreach. David and I created The Oversocial Mofo Revue, the variety show that incorporates the new San José Poetry Slam, interspersing it throughout a show that includes three main acts: poetry, music and something uncommon. We give the audience more to do, and we do all of this in roughly two hours. I say roughly, but admittedly, I have become a stickler for shorter shows with more entertainment. If things go as David and I have painstakingly scripted them, the show should run about 2:08. I also wanted to put on a slam competition that intimidated me as a competitor. Two round slams of three minute poetry are dying all over the country. I am surprised when I hear of new poetry readings and poetry slams forming that aren’t trying to change up the the status quo or challenge the poets while engaging the audience. The San José Poetry Slam is looking to become one of the most difficult poetry competitions I’ve ever seen.

5. HARD WORK – I have missed the west coast so much. This area and Reasons #1 and #4 have been my rock to keep me busy. Busy is my nature, especially since my last job in 2003. I am not afraid of being employed by someone else again. It’s been so long, I often romanticize about having a steady paycheck. No employer will offer me a salary that rivals my income from touring in 2007 and 2008. Those were very good years financially, but mismanagement and bad choices have left me in debt for the first time in my life. I have no credit because I’ve never had a credit card. I don’t want one. I am concentrated on making what I can now while watching my bank account slowly drain away. It’s fine, this is exactly where I was when I set out on my first U.S. poetry tour EXACTLY seven years ago this month. The only difference here is that I get it, I know how it works, and I know what needs fixed, changed and updated.

WHERE MY MIND, HANDS & HEART ARE AT
What I am doing is having the words “WORK HARD” mentally tattooed on my brain knuckles while vomiting up all the words I still haven’t said yet. I want to establish a sweet show in San José and still have the freedom to vagabond. I have so much writing in store for me and I am very excited about it. I know I have a lot of knowledge people will need down the road in this head and heart of mine. There is a whole continent of people here that need what me and others in this field have to offer. Maybe poetry is not the most consistent work available, but a guy like me needs to work in non-profits, pizza parlors, agriculture, hard labor, bars and cafes from time to time to remember where we came from and that there will always be more people doing the tough shit than what I want to do. I have to remind myself that I am a special motherfucker who is going to die someday and that living is a beautiful tragedy I am an honored to have gotten the chance to witness. I cannot stay soft. I must bring myself to the brink of perfection by all means. I must be a joy to myself and all others around me. I know love – I know it very well – and I must continue this duty of showing it to all who deserve it. I must also seek it out from others when I deserve it.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 25 August, 2010 at 6:20 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged home, money, problems, San-Jose-California. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Back In The Bay Area

Made it home to Silicon Valley. Now for a lot of bouncing around the Bay Area as I vagabond my life for a while through the run of my show in San Francisco.

This show is a real departure for me. I am stoked to be doing my thing in theaters. It’s the right venue for talking.

Click here for the Facebook event page of my show run through August.

Click here for half priced tickets.

My one man show opens this Sunday, August 8, 2010 – EXACTLY seven years to the day of winning the NPS Indie Grand Championship in Chicago. Weird.

I have been self-employed for seven years. I am a whole new person. This version of me has never had a job.

RESIDENCE
The weirdest part about being back in the Bay is realizing just how settled I was at home in Worcester. The only key I own is for the lock on my storage unit in San José, which I’ve been renting since September 2002. I just put a few things in there yesterday and will be living out of a suitcase indefinitely. I may ask for a couch, floor or porch to crash on. I am f’n back.

I am determined to adjust my life to re-building a poetry scene here in San José, while designing new tours and making sure my family is in good spirits and health, along with my own spirits and health.

This is the smart list; borrowed from Derrick Brown:
Winter: Chill, stay warm and focus on local community.
Spring: Tour incessantly.
Summer: Stay cool, tour until it’s hot, then focus on community.
Autumn: Tour incessantly.

I am in a good place, but it’s a new place. I am full of ideas and oomph. I want people and poets to invest in this oomph. Give me your time and skill and I will give you mine. You have my word.

I miss Worcester. Most importantly, I miss the people of New England that invested in me and gave me their time. I hope they feel I returned the same and more. I hope they know they have given me one of the best homes I’ve ever had. I hope they realize how beautiful they are and keep investing in all the wonderful people that come through. Don’t invest in the wack, Worcester. Cut the fat.

I will be back. I still need you, Wormtown. I do, I do. Considering how much a part of Worcester I became, even with all of my coming and going, I am confident that anyone can immerse themselves into any community they believe in. I believe in you, Woo. I do.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 4 August, 2010 at 6:32 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged Bay Area, california, home, poetry scenes, San-Jose-California, silicon valley, Worcester-Massachusetts. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Go West, Fat Man!

Hey-O, weblings.

Went to Minneapolis this past weekend for a coaching-workshop retreat with Team Minneapolis. It went very well and I have returned with a heart full of love for Wonder Dave, Cynthia French, Miles Walser, Ezra Stead, Allison Broeren and her parents, partner (Marlowe) and puppy (The Professor), who, I might add, is too eff’n cute.

They are my rootin’ team for 2010; my “Team Heart.” I love them and I want them to do very well. They are all heart and humor. Such lovely, lovely people.

PLANS FOR HEADING WEST
My schedule is lax for most of July.

–a feature at Simone Beaubien’s “Boston” Kitchen Session on 7/16
–”Kitchen Session #18 – New York Invades Worcester” 7/24

Then my move back to the Bay Area, which coincides with the National Poetry Slam, leading up to my one-man show in San Francisco throughout the month of August: In Search of Midnight.

Now, a caravan of poets is heading to St. Paul, Minnesota from New England. Due to finances and such, I am very much considering joining their trek in order to:

–have one last adventure with NH, MA, ME and RI poets.
–save a bit of cash on a coast-to-coast flight.
–spend a day or two at NPS.

I am really trying to find the best flight possible from Minnesota to the Bay Area, but August is just about the worst possible travel month, aside from the November/December holidays.

If I can make it work and affordable, I will go to NPS for the first two days or so, but I really have to be in San Francisco by August 4 or 5.

Conundrum. Thanks for listening.
———
Word to the nerd.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 13 July, 2010 at 5:50 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged August 2010, minnesota, moving west, national poetry slam, st paul. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Humor Collection Deadline Is Tomorrow Night

Writers: You now have a little over 24 hours to get me your poems for consideration of this—> http://tinyurl.com/2wyt8zu

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 1 July, 2010 at 3:11 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged funny, humor collection, poetry, short ones for the shitter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Submission Deadline For My Humor Collection Approaches

Hey, world. I love you.

I’ve extended the submission deadline for my Short Ones For The Shitter Project by three days. You now have until this Friday, July 2, 2010 to submit two of any sort of short and funny works for consideration.

NOT JUST POEMS! SUBMIT ANY TYPE OF SHORT WORK THAT MAKES PEOPLE LAUGH! LISTS, BIOS, PALINDROMES, POETRY, ORIGINAL JOKES, ANECDOTES, STORIES! AS LONG AS THEY ARE YOUR ORIGINAL CREATION.

I’ve received a lot of submissions and have not read a single one of them yet. If you have submitted and your works are repulsive, please consider re-submitting new works. I will recommend to the judges to pass on bathroom humor in favor of witty and intelligent humor for the bathroom. The humorous and provoking, not disgusting. I just really want to avoid too many references to bodily waste and function. This is intended to be a book for the bathroom, not about it. I may even change the name of the collection based on the quality of work that comes in.

CLICK HERE FOR MY S.O.F.T.S. SUBMISSION INFORMATION

So click on the link above, or share it with ANY WRITER you think is hilarious.

Let’s do this!
———
Word to teh nerd.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 28 June, 2010 at 3:57 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged humor anthology, poetry collection, short ones for the shitter, softs. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Slumberfest 2010 Live Stream

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 25 June, 2010 at 7:28 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged live stream, slumberfest. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Slumberfest Starts Tonight in San Jose

Top 10 Ways to Rock 25 Hours of Uninterrupted Performance:

10. Come ready to perform something– anything.

9. Staple your eyelids open.

8. Bring a donation. The event is free of charge. But it is not free in that "five-finger-discount" or "bro-deal" sort of way. Giving a little something will help ensure more Slumberfests in the years to come.

7. Don’t be the buzz kill (i.e. don’t come so blitzed that you cause a ruckus that makes men with blue uniforms and boom sticks ask David Perez difficult questions).

6. Sleep well the night before.

5. Show your hidden talent. Give us something we don’t already know you can do.

4. Bring a blanket and pillow. We think we have enough to go around but why take a chance.

3. Food might be good. We provide free snacks and coffee but we’re not trying to buy everyone burritos. There aren’t too many eateries around the venue. Plan accordingly.

2. Bring a friend or ten.

and the number 1 way to Rock 25 Hours of Uninterrupted Performance…

……I guess I only have 9.

See you soon,
The Fest

Questions:
408.636.3112

Location:
190 Martha Street, Studio H San Jose, CA 95113
(parking lot is through the
driveway between 4th and 5th)

Time:
8pm Fri. 6/25 – 9pm Sat. 6/26

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on at 10:26 AM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged california, open mic, San-Jose-California, slumber party, summer slumberfest. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.