Performance Poetry Review: wallybsomebody

This is a video of Wally B Somebody performing at the Southern Fried Poetry Slam. There are a lot of reasons that this piece works very well as a piece of performance poetry. Truly, I am not sure it would work as written poetry even half as well. First, there is the booming emotion with which Wally shares his piece. You can feel the anger and disillusionment in his words, but also in his tone, his gestures, the way he paces. It makes the emotion larger than life, and it leaves no questions about how the author feels or his intent.

Next, I think this pieces works because Wally is a performer. He uses pauses, inflection, drawn out words and humor to his advantage. He draws his audience in and helps them feel his words, making them laugh, gasp and groan on cue. I also think his choice of subject, poetry slams, is relevant to his audience. This makes it easier to generate the reactions he wants.

I admire how Wally seems to know himself so well, and be willing to talk about how he feels he has failed himself. I like how he talks about the process of writing, memorizing, etc., and you can hear the self-deprecation radiating from him onstage.
What doesn’t work in this poem, for me, is that while Wally is impressive with his energetic, tongue-twisting flow, it sometimes overwhelms me and makes me lose his point. Also, while I admire the energy and passion he displays, the performance is, at times, bombastic. Oh, poor you that you are so successful at performing poetry. Boo hoo!

As I mentioned previously, I do think that this works more as a written performance, rather than a poem, but it does have poetic elements. There is a definitely rhythm/rhyme to the poem, and it takes more poetic approaches to thoughts (short, staccato thoughts, not like prose). I like some of his vocabulary, and find it poetic, such as calling himself an alchemist. And the way the poem takes such raw emotions and tries to give them context to me, is an important aspect of poetry (versus ranting or diary keeping).