My performance of "The Epic Adventures of Kill, Grill, and Chill", which took place on August 12, 2015 at the Heartland Cafe in Rogers Park, Chicago.
For approximate words in this piece, click here!
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Open Mic Nite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Open Mic Nite. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Open Mic Nite Performance Of "The Warrior's Song"
My performance of "The Warrior's Song", which took place on July 8, 2015 at the Heartland Cafe in Rogers Park, Chicago.
For approximate words in this piece, click here!
Enjoy!
For approximate words in this piece, click here!
Enjoy!
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Open Mic Nite Performance Of "Play that Chelsea Music"
My poem about the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup (again) in a nutshell :D This lovely poem was performed at the Justin Pauly Art Studio on June 26, 2015 in River North, Chicago at the "Elevator Sessions" open mic. Enjoy!
The words to the poem can be found here!
The words to the poem can be found here!
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Open Mic Nite Performance of "Conquer the Crossroads"
This is the first time I've decided to perform my song lyrics ever (as a lyrical poem) and it's basically about my feelings of reaching a junction in life... performed at the Elevator Sessions open mic at the Justin Pauly Art Studio in River North, Chicago. I recorded this on January 23, 2015 and the link is: http://dbzmaron.blogspot.com/2014/09/conquer-crossroads.html -- Enjoy!!!
Friday, November 28, 2014
Open Mic Nite Performance of "What are Words"
This is my poetic explanation of what words are, performed at the Elevator Sessions open mic at the Justin Pauly Art Studio in River North, Chicago. I recorded this on October 24, 2014 and the link is: http://dbzmaron.blogspot.com/2014/02/what-are-words.html -- Enjoy!!!
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Open Mic Nite Performance Of "The Stars Have Aligned"
This lovely poem was performed on 11-3-14 at the Weeds bar (and Weeds Open Mic Nite) in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Here, you can see me performing what I wrote for my boyfriend who's been nothing but a darling to me (first love poem yay!) Enjoy!
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Open Mic Nite Performance Of "Stop Doubting Yourself"
This handy little poem is basically me advocating for people to stop doubting themselves.
I deviated a bit from the original script due to working on getting more comfortable not having a paper with me, but the original words of wisdom are here: http://dbzmaron.blogspot.com/2014/07/stop-doubting-yourself.html
This was taken at Wicker Mic in Wicker Park, Chicago on 8-29-14!
Enjoy!
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Open Mic Nite Performance Of "Progression"
I went to the Heartland Cafe again in Rogers Park, Chicago and performed "Progression" on 5-21-14! I'm basically describing what it feels like to be someone who is just dying to make progress in life and doesn't want to be held back by anything or anyone!
For exact words to this poem, check out: http://dbzmaron.blogspot.com/2014/04/progression.html
Pardon my lack of memorization. Enjoy!
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Chicago Open Mic Nite Reviews
Last Updated: May 15, 2014
***NOTE: Before attending open mic nites, make sure to CALL BEFORE YOU HAUL (or communicate somehow)!
I am on a quest to find the hottest and most legit open mic nites in Chicago. I will attend as many as I can and post a review after each place I visit or call, and if I attend, I will list whether or not I decided to perform.
Places I've Attended
Place: Heartland Cafe
Address: 7000 N. Glenwood Ave, Chicago, IL 60626 (Rogers Park, right off the Morse Red Line)
Phone Number: 773-465-8005
Frequency of Events: Weekly on Wednesdays, signup starts at 9, the event starts at 10 and generally runs until around 1:30am
Rating: 5/5
Reason: This was actually the very first open mic nite I ever attended and so far, it's definitely my favorite. I called prior to driving all the way over there because I lived in Bucktown at the time and the man who picked up seemed very friendly and even let me sign up over the phone. He was like "come on in" and I was like "of course!" After getting there a little bit after it started, I walked up to the man to make sure I was signed up, he gave me a lowdown of everything, and said that I get about 5 minutes to perform (but they're not super strict about it). When it was my turn to perform, I was a little nervous, but when I got up there, the MC was like "…for the very first time", which is pretty cute. I did my thing (spoken word poetry) and the crowd seemed pretty engaged and polite, as they did with everyone. Some people brought stuff to sell too. There was also a featured performer, who did an excellent job. The level of talent was there, all categories are welcome (poetry, comedy, music, monologue/skit that's funny, etc.), and there's even a piano if you need one! The bar staff is friendly, drinks not too expensive, food is pretty tasty, bathroom is clean (and single stall), and the open mic nite is in a separate area from the bar, which is pretty neat! There's also a 3 dollar cover and you have to be 18 to get in and 21 to drink. If you're looking for a pretty solid open mic nite that caters to all performance categories, this is definitely a nice place on the north side!
Perform? Yes
Also, here's the facebook page to this lovely place: https://www.facebook.com/pages/In-One-Ear/210844945622380
------------------------------
Place: Friendly Tap
Address: 6733 Roosevelt Rd, Berwyn, IL 60402
Phone Number: 708-484-9794
Frequency of Events: Weekly on Wednesdays from about 8:30pm until close (1am)
Rating: 2.7/5
Reason: Right before I made the long haul over there, I gave this place a call. The lady who answered the phone seemed really nice, I felt a pretty welcoming vibe, made sure to see if they were open to all performance genres since I perform poetry (with a piano player by my side sometimes with one of those times being now), which "they said they were mostly music, but have had all sorts of acts come and perform". I was pretty cool with that… until I walked into the bar. Of course my friend and I both have to use the bathroom. While the women's bathroom didn't have any jarring problems to me, apparently the men's bathroom was teeny, in a corner, and the sink was outside the bathroom stall… that's weird. When I sign up to perform, some super nice guy greets me and hands me the signup sheet, and I write my name down. As I'm about to want to start settling in, my friend felt significantly more awkward than I did (probably because I'm an extrovert and he's not). Neither one of us started a conversation with any of the other bar attendees. The people who were on stage when we got there seemed to be doing a nice long set of music, which was pretty ok at best. To top it off, the people on stage were middle aged men, which isn't even my type of bar scene anyways or ideal open mic performance to watch. The more I stood around, the more I felt the vibes of "this isn't the right crowd to perform in front of". I have come to learn that there are "open mic nite" crowds and then there are "bar crowds". I found the latter at this place, but whenever I find a bar crowd, I generally end up feeling like my performance would be very out of place. Probably the last straw was that the piano was in a very poor location… and not even on the stage. My friend (who was the piano player), ended up feeling more awkward and wanted to dip. I unfortunately have no remarks about the bar because I never even hit them up for a drink. As we were walking out, one of the men running the open mic nite wanted to know why we were leaving. I just made up some BS reason because I'm not going to blatantly say we felt awkward, and then we left. All of this happened within about a 20-30minute time frame. Moral of the story is that the bar area looked kind of meh and don't try to perform poetry for a bar crowd where people go up on stage and jam music for awhile. I'd like to maybe check the bar out again at some point, but I don't think I'd go back to the open mic nite. I'm also not in Berwyn too frequently either, but it's not a huge deal!
Perform? Nope. I signed up and bailed shortly after due to feeling uncomfortable around that audience
------------------------------
Place: The Elevator Sessions at the Justin Pauly Art Studio (Shivalya Hindu Cultural Center building)
Address: 318 W. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone Number (Facebook Page): No idea, but people were pretty prompt about responding to a post I made on the Facebook event page, which the Facebook group is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1475335516057027/1485152495075329/?notif_t=like
Frequency of Events: The fourth Friday of every month. Facebook says it starts at 8, I got there at around 9pm or so, most of the people hadn't performed yet, and the list signups were fluid and there likely won't be an issue with being able to get on the list. It ended at around 10:30pm
Rating: 5/5
Reason: Coming out of 3 months having not been able to perform due to being busy and having pretty bad luck with open mics, I was still persistent about wanting to perform. I randomly found this open mic on Facebook and spontaneously decided to go a few hours prior to the event actually happening. Besides for the fact that I need to stop losing my car, I had no issue parking and it wasn't difficult to find. Being new to the poetry scene, with my very first performance being in January (and it's August now), I'm just looking for the most fun places to perform where I get to entertain a decent sized crowd. But then I stumble upon this lovely gem. When I walk in, there are maybe about 10 people in the room… right away, I KNEW it was going to be quite the intimate show. I had never been to one like that for any type of art, so I knew that I was in for quite the ride. I also had no issue signing up on the list (thank you for that, because I've been to places where there's issues). Thank you for the little tasty drink too by the way. When the first person performs… inside of an elevator shaft with some blue painting and an elephant head kindly propped on the back of the elevator, we were to use it as our stage. Inside of this random elevator shaft, I am immediately blown away by the pure raw emotions that is brimming from these artists. I feel like I was surrounded by such powerful people that I was literally moved to tears by the words that came from these people's hearts… says the person who has never cried from a movie… glad I was wearing a scarf! Thank you also to Andy Karol, the oh so lovely feature, my eyes turned into a waterfall due to how much I can totally relate to everything! When it was my turn, I have to admit, I was more nervous than I usually am for these types of performances because I'm used to performing and speaking in front of large crowds, but in front of a small group, it's not as comfortable to me, as well as being a new experience. I did it, especially because I'm on a quest to "fight all fears" as I would say. I would definitely come back to this place. Everyone was friendly and inviting and I actually felt intellectually challenged by these people… especially after coming off of a path of hanging with people who I felt were killing my brain cells and wasting my precious knowledge. I hope more people show up to this, because of the super open atmosphere. Thank you to these lovely poets, I have been able to realize that with my current struggles, I am definitely not alone in my feelings and I am humbled to be surrounded by such wonderful artists. I can't wait to get more involved in this poetry scene and thank you for restoring my faith in open mic nites! I guess it was meant to be that my attempt to setup this volunteer event that I was supposed to be at tonight fell through… because I wouldn't have been free tonight!
Perform? Yes!!!!!
More awesomeness coming soon!
***NOTE: Before attending open mic nites, make sure to CALL BEFORE YOU HAUL (or communicate somehow)!
I am on a quest to find the hottest and most legit open mic nites in Chicago. I will attend as many as I can and post a review after each place I visit or call, and if I attend, I will list whether or not I decided to perform.
Places I've Attended
Place: Heartland Cafe
Address: 7000 N. Glenwood Ave, Chicago, IL 60626 (Rogers Park, right off the Morse Red Line)
Phone Number: 773-465-8005
Frequency of Events: Weekly on Wednesdays, signup starts at 9, the event starts at 10 and generally runs until around 1:30am
Rating: 5/5
Reason: This was actually the very first open mic nite I ever attended and so far, it's definitely my favorite. I called prior to driving all the way over there because I lived in Bucktown at the time and the man who picked up seemed very friendly and even let me sign up over the phone. He was like "come on in" and I was like "of course!" After getting there a little bit after it started, I walked up to the man to make sure I was signed up, he gave me a lowdown of everything, and said that I get about 5 minutes to perform (but they're not super strict about it). When it was my turn to perform, I was a little nervous, but when I got up there, the MC was like "…for the very first time", which is pretty cute. I did my thing (spoken word poetry) and the crowd seemed pretty engaged and polite, as they did with everyone. Some people brought stuff to sell too. There was also a featured performer, who did an excellent job. The level of talent was there, all categories are welcome (poetry, comedy, music, monologue/skit that's funny, etc.), and there's even a piano if you need one! The bar staff is friendly, drinks not too expensive, food is pretty tasty, bathroom is clean (and single stall), and the open mic nite is in a separate area from the bar, which is pretty neat! There's also a 3 dollar cover and you have to be 18 to get in and 21 to drink. If you're looking for a pretty solid open mic nite that caters to all performance categories, this is definitely a nice place on the north side!
Perform? Yes
Also, here's the facebook page to this lovely place: https://www.facebook.com/pages/In-One-Ear/210844945622380
------------------------------
Place: Friendly Tap
Address: 6733 Roosevelt Rd, Berwyn, IL 60402
Phone Number: 708-484-9794
Frequency of Events: Weekly on Wednesdays from about 8:30pm until close (1am)
Rating: 2.7/5
Reason: Right before I made the long haul over there, I gave this place a call. The lady who answered the phone seemed really nice, I felt a pretty welcoming vibe, made sure to see if they were open to all performance genres since I perform poetry (with a piano player by my side sometimes with one of those times being now), which "they said they were mostly music, but have had all sorts of acts come and perform". I was pretty cool with that… until I walked into the bar. Of course my friend and I both have to use the bathroom. While the women's bathroom didn't have any jarring problems to me, apparently the men's bathroom was teeny, in a corner, and the sink was outside the bathroom stall… that's weird. When I sign up to perform, some super nice guy greets me and hands me the signup sheet, and I write my name down. As I'm about to want to start settling in, my friend felt significantly more awkward than I did (probably because I'm an extrovert and he's not). Neither one of us started a conversation with any of the other bar attendees. The people who were on stage when we got there seemed to be doing a nice long set of music, which was pretty ok at best. To top it off, the people on stage were middle aged men, which isn't even my type of bar scene anyways or ideal open mic performance to watch. The more I stood around, the more I felt the vibes of "this isn't the right crowd to perform in front of". I have come to learn that there are "open mic nite" crowds and then there are "bar crowds". I found the latter at this place, but whenever I find a bar crowd, I generally end up feeling like my performance would be very out of place. Probably the last straw was that the piano was in a very poor location… and not even on the stage. My friend (who was the piano player), ended up feeling more awkward and wanted to dip. I unfortunately have no remarks about the bar because I never even hit them up for a drink. As we were walking out, one of the men running the open mic nite wanted to know why we were leaving. I just made up some BS reason because I'm not going to blatantly say we felt awkward, and then we left. All of this happened within about a 20-30minute time frame. Moral of the story is that the bar area looked kind of meh and don't try to perform poetry for a bar crowd where people go up on stage and jam music for awhile. I'd like to maybe check the bar out again at some point, but I don't think I'd go back to the open mic nite. I'm also not in Berwyn too frequently either, but it's not a huge deal!
Perform? Nope. I signed up and bailed shortly after due to feeling uncomfortable around that audience
------------------------------
Place: The Elevator Sessions at the Justin Pauly Art Studio (Shivalya Hindu Cultural Center building)
Address: 318 W. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone Number (Facebook Page): No idea, but people were pretty prompt about responding to a post I made on the Facebook event page, which the Facebook group is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1475335516057027/1485152495075329/?notif_t=like
Frequency of Events: The fourth Friday of every month. Facebook says it starts at 8, I got there at around 9pm or so, most of the people hadn't performed yet, and the list signups were fluid and there likely won't be an issue with being able to get on the list. It ended at around 10:30pm
Rating: 5/5
Reason: Coming out of 3 months having not been able to perform due to being busy and having pretty bad luck with open mics, I was still persistent about wanting to perform. I randomly found this open mic on Facebook and spontaneously decided to go a few hours prior to the event actually happening. Besides for the fact that I need to stop losing my car, I had no issue parking and it wasn't difficult to find. Being new to the poetry scene, with my very first performance being in January (and it's August now), I'm just looking for the most fun places to perform where I get to entertain a decent sized crowd. But then I stumble upon this lovely gem. When I walk in, there are maybe about 10 people in the room… right away, I KNEW it was going to be quite the intimate show. I had never been to one like that for any type of art, so I knew that I was in for quite the ride. I also had no issue signing up on the list (thank you for that, because I've been to places where there's issues). Thank you for the little tasty drink too by the way. When the first person performs… inside of an elevator shaft with some blue painting and an elephant head kindly propped on the back of the elevator, we were to use it as our stage. Inside of this random elevator shaft, I am immediately blown away by the pure raw emotions that is brimming from these artists. I feel like I was surrounded by such powerful people that I was literally moved to tears by the words that came from these people's hearts… says the person who has never cried from a movie… glad I was wearing a scarf! Thank you also to Andy Karol, the oh so lovely feature, my eyes turned into a waterfall due to how much I can totally relate to everything! When it was my turn, I have to admit, I was more nervous than I usually am for these types of performances because I'm used to performing and speaking in front of large crowds, but in front of a small group, it's not as comfortable to me, as well as being a new experience. I did it, especially because I'm on a quest to "fight all fears" as I would say. I would definitely come back to this place. Everyone was friendly and inviting and I actually felt intellectually challenged by these people… especially after coming off of a path of hanging with people who I felt were killing my brain cells and wasting my precious knowledge. I hope more people show up to this, because of the super open atmosphere. Thank you to these lovely poets, I have been able to realize that with my current struggles, I am definitely not alone in my feelings and I am humbled to be surrounded by such wonderful artists. I can't wait to get more involved in this poetry scene and thank you for restoring my faith in open mic nites! I guess it was meant to be that my attempt to setup this volunteer event that I was supposed to be at tonight fell through… because I wouldn't have been free tonight!
Perform? Yes!!!!!
More awesomeness coming soon!
Friday, April 18, 2014
Open Mic Nite Performance Of "Epic Progression to the Chinese Buffet"
That one moment when you call a venue (bar) ahead of time and they tell you it's a variety show and then you're the only poet... What do you do? Come prepared with both "Epic Chinese Buffet Adventures" AND "Progression" while deciding to mostly just improv it with both pieces on hand. I begin my trying to do standup (some rendition of "Epic Chinese Buffet Adventures") and eventually decide to transition into my poem, "Progression". Did I mention Sonic the Hedgehog and that I lost the game? Enjoy!
This was done at Bar Bar Black Sheep in Wicker Park, Chicago on 4-15-14!
For exact words to what both of these are supposed to say:
http://dbzmaron.blogspot.com/2014/04/progression.html
http://dbzmaron.blogspot.com/2014/03/epic-chinese-buffet-adventures.html
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