2008 Woodie Awards
Intelligent Humor In The Like-Free Zone
ACE delivers humorous slam poet, Taylor Mali, to the Downunder.
Natalie Wyatt
Issue date: 4/22/05 Section: Life & Times
Taylor Mali, the spoken-word artist and "golden-tongued, Armani clad villain" of Def Poetry Slam and like competitions everywhere, was here at Rollins College to give us a good show last Wednesday, April 6. Brought to us by our wonderful ACE squad, he filled Dave's Down Under with both people and laughter.
"Mali has a smug arrogance similar to Dennis Miller's, but his loquacious logic reveals Miller for the intellectual flyweight he is," Rrves the Detroit Free Press about Mali's performance.
Starting at 7PM the stage was set for an open mic to all Rollins students. I would have to say that a significant number of people walked to the stage to share with the audience something that they had written. Two outstanding artists were Kendra, a Rollins College student with a wonderful wit and charm about her poetry, and Ilam Rolyat, who was really just Taylor Mali warming up.
When asked how he decided to leave his work as a teacher to become a slam poet Mali answered, "As Horace said 2,000 years ago, the task of the poet is to instruct and entertain. I see no difference between teaching and performing poetry."
So, what does a former teacher write about for poetry? Well, as you might expect a lot of his poems have to do with his own experiences with the classes he headed and the children he taught. A crowd favorite was certainly "Like Lily Like Wilson" coming through to Rollins students and sorority girls possibly more than anyone else.
"I'm writing the poem that will change the world, and it's Lilly Wilson at my office door. Lilly Wilson, the recovering 'like' addict, the worst I've ever seen. So, like, bad the whole eighth grade starting calling her Like Lily Like Wilson Like until I declared my classroom a Like-Free Zone, and she could not speak for days."
With no holds barred Taylor Mali spoke about everything from children's illnesses to making love (that playing with yourself is like Tevo, nothing wrong with that), how love is like owning a dog, about spell check errors, and about what kind of woman he wants.
In the "Impotence of Proofreading" Mali says, "Has this ever happened to you?
"You work very horde on a paper for English clash And then get a very glow raid (like a D or even a D=)and all because you are the word¹s liverwurst spoiler. Proofreading your peppers is a matter of the the utmost impotence."
The crowd could not stop laughing at his intelligent and hilarious use of a problem that nearly everyone has had at least once.
If you would like to know more about Taylor Mali, you can go to his website at www.taylormali.com. From there you can look at a sample of poems and even buy his book or CD, among other things.
"Mali has a smug arrogance similar to Dennis Miller's, but his loquacious logic reveals Miller for the intellectual flyweight he is," Rrves the Detroit Free Press about Mali's performance.
Starting at 7PM the stage was set for an open mic to all Rollins students. I would have to say that a significant number of people walked to the stage to share with the audience something that they had written. Two outstanding artists were Kendra, a Rollins College student with a wonderful wit and charm about her poetry, and Ilam Rolyat, who was really just Taylor Mali warming up.
When asked how he decided to leave his work as a teacher to become a slam poet Mali answered, "As Horace said 2,000 years ago, the task of the poet is to instruct and entertain. I see no difference between teaching and performing poetry."
So, what does a former teacher write about for poetry? Well, as you might expect a lot of his poems have to do with his own experiences with the classes he headed and the children he taught. A crowd favorite was certainly "Like Lily Like Wilson" coming through to Rollins students and sorority girls possibly more than anyone else.
"I'm writing the poem that will change the world, and it's Lilly Wilson at my office door. Lilly Wilson, the recovering 'like' addict, the worst I've ever seen. So, like, bad the whole eighth grade starting calling her Like Lily Like Wilson Like until I declared my classroom a Like-Free Zone, and she could not speak for days."
With no holds barred Taylor Mali spoke about everything from children's illnesses to making love (that playing with yourself is like Tevo, nothing wrong with that), how love is like owning a dog, about spell check errors, and about what kind of woman he wants.
In the "Impotence of Proofreading" Mali says, "Has this ever happened to you?
"You work very horde on a paper for English clash And then get a very glow raid (like a D or even a D=)and all because you are the word¹s liverwurst spoiler. Proofreading your peppers is a matter of the the utmost impotence."
The crowd could not stop laughing at his intelligent and hilarious use of a problem that nearly everyone has had at least once.
If you would like to know more about Taylor Mali, you can go to his website at www.taylormali.com. From there you can look at a sample of poems and even buy his book or CD, among other things.