Humor and poetry with CB (1 Viewer)

cirerita

Founding member
Humor? Yeah, he could be funny and witty, but I really didn't know he was a comedian!


humor.jpg
 
sounds to me like someone who figured that poetry was not a big enough draw, so trick them into thinking it was a comedy act.

That was probably the era of henry rollins-style poetry/comedy/spoken word...

Bill
 
He read at the Golden Bear several times. I don't think they needed to trick anyone into showing up by 1975, which is probably the year this ad was published.

I don't see how that's an inaccurate description, really. By the time he had established his reading schtick, it was part comedy. He may have hated the chaos and heckling, but he did not discourage it. He knew it was part of the draw for his readings - that there was a chance that they would be out of control. And he certainly read poems that were meant to make people laugh.

I guess what I'm saying is his first few readings in the first couple years may have been solemn poetic affairs, but they quickly distinguished themselves as entertainment. A weird and unique form of entertainment, but still entertainment. Don't forget he opened for Steve Martin at the Troubadour. I don't think a club would put a "serious" poet on before a comedian, unless they were trying to get the audience to leave.

Or it could just be the booker a the club had a sense of humor and the ad is tongue in cheek.
 
I don't think the description is completely inaccurate, but I'd say it's misleading, especially if you say "humor & poetry", as if the poetry was secondary. I don't know, maybe it was secondary to most audiences then.
 
I think it was secondary to most of his audience by then. Which is probably one of the things about the readings that frustrated him. He encouraged disruption, but at the same time he wanted them to listen when it was time to listen. Thing is, with a live audience, you can't get them wound up and then expect them to behave. Anyone who's ever stood on a stage can tell you that.

You can hear in most of the recordings of the readings that if you were there just to listen to poetry you probably would have been frustrated by the atmosphere (and usually by Bukowski himself).

But as punk rock, the readings were ahead of their time. ;)
 
I guess the ad is not entirely misleading, although Bukowski probably did'nt have anything to do with it.
There sure was a lot of humor in much of his poetry. Maybe the ad should've read, "Humorous Poetry", instead. :p
 
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Reminds me of when I read somewhere about Buk opening for Steve Martin, would have loved to see how they advertised that one. Anyone have a copy of it by any chance?
 

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