Edinburgh, Ep. 6

March 12, 2013 — In our first UK show since our game-changing TV pilot shoot, Literary Death Match returned to brilliant Edinburgh (and specifically: Voodoo Rooms) for a lights-out night of never-ending wonderment that saw R A Martens outduel Andrew C. Ferguson in a hotly contested battle of Play Your Literary Cards Right that went to sudden death before Martens was crowned champ. 

But before any literary all-star playing cards were on display, the night kicked off with a George Anderson shining bright out of the gate, with a poem before delivering a short story that featured Dean Martin-like crooning of the song Volare. Then up stepped Andrew C. Ferguson (stalwart of the Writers’ Bloc spoken word group) who kept things on page, with a story about going too far that had the crowd tittering and frightened all at once. 

The mic was then handed over to the trio of wonderful judges, including literary editor of The List magazine, Kirsty Logan; journalist/novelist (read his all-new Gone Again) Doug Johnstone; and stand-up comedian extraordinaire Susan Morrison. The trio lauded Anderson's singing, and praised Ferguson's grotesqueries, and after a long deliberation decided it was Ferguson who woudl advance as the night's first finalist. 

Then, after LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga showed off LDM TV's sizzle reel (pitching to a network near you!), followed by a boozy intermission, Round 2 kicked off in gran fashion, with Zoe Venditozzi (author of the debut novel Anywhere’s Better Than Here) who reeled off a robotically-spoken gem about ideal body weight + being an abject failure. Finally, R A Martens stepped up to deliver a brilliantly-written Men are from Venus, Women are From Mars riff. 

Again the judges were handed over the mic, with Martens being deemed, finally, "RA!" by the judges, as they named her the second round finalist. 

Then came the Play Your Literary Cards Right finale, in which LDM Edinburgh producer Vikki Reilly played the role of Dolly Dealer, giving volunteers playing cards featuring past LDMers on them. After racing out to a 5-2 lead, Martens caught up to make things 5-5 with Ferguson up. With a call for drama from the crowd, he "higher" on a 10 (Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan) and it was lower, leading to a one-card playoff. Martens pulled a 9 — Jon Ronson — and Ferguson was undone by a Election and Little Children author Tom Perrotta a 7, winning Martens the Literary Death Match Edinburgh, Ep. 6 crown, and literary immortality to go with it! 

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