Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 6:38PM Sequins, audience members getting high on stage, and a supersized game of local-lit card shark made for Literary Death Match SF, Ep. 22. LDM regulars as well as Litquake X attendees filled Verdi Club to witness the literary merit, performance, and intangibility of four readers before James Nestor took home the gold for his drug-related genius and card-guessing skills.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 6:33AM The Literary Death Match descended on Paris' Le Reservoir with a brilliant result, as Mohamed Razane was a more successful knifesmith than Max Monnehay in a shockingly close game of Stab a Hole in Liechtenstein. In front of a confused crowd of 165, Razane was awarded the Literary Death Match medal, and a secure place in the event's storied history.
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 6:32AM Literary Death Match NYC at Bowery Poetry Club put the needle on the lit record for its 18th episode, with the inaugural music-themed LDM. Opened with a stellar, nostalgia inducing set by the Mountain Goats' member (and Intangibles judge) Franklin Bruno. Todd Zuniga's replacement host, Liam Gallagher, failed to show citing a sore throat (sources have him scarfing down some fish and chips outside of Shoreditch earlier that afternoon).
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 9:33AM Last night was a historic one for the Literary Death Match: London, Ep. 2 marked our 50th-ever episode (wow!), and featured the youngest champion in the series' history, as 17-year-old Ashna Sarkar out-scribbled co-finalist Tom Chivers in a wild, hotly-contested Sharpie-based finale of Sketch-a-Judge™ to snare London's second Literary Death Match crown.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 10:20PM September 15, 2009—Raleigh’s Literary Death Match debut was a night full of “treasured masturbatory fantasies,” unicorns and rock n’ roll as Jodi Lynn Villers captured the crown through a highly imaginative interpretation of the cafeteria scene in Mean Girls ("Would you like me to assign someone to butter your muffin?"). Co-finalist Scott McClanahan also delivered a riveting performance of the gym scene in Clueless ("I doubt I’ve even worked off the calories in a stick of Care Free Gum"), but Villers’ combination of southern charm and naughty hockey fantasies had stolen too many hearts that evening as the audience screamed for the winner.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 7:00PM September's Literary Death Match SF marked was a night to remember at Elbo Room, as Tracy Clark-Flory—pitted against finalist Genie Grotto—took home the LDM crown in a ferociously heated game of Literary Beer Pong.
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 12:00PM Literary Death Match NYC’s seventeenth episode had the air of a good stand-up comedy show. Each segment showcased another distinct voice and performance, each as often profound as uproarious. If its comedy club atmosphere was incidental—coincidently, three of the four readers performed without notes, which is unusual at LDMs—it was befitting for a reading series conceived by Opium.
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 9:30PM The Battle of the Independent Bookstores was, indeed, a battle for the ages. Episode 20 kicked off with two handsome readers: Jade Brooks (City Lights), who “out-booted” co-host Alana Conner with a pair of mighty tough hiking boots and Derek Powazek (The Booksmith). Powazek took the stage first and left the audience somewhere between laughter and tears with a tale of a sexy tour guide in the Warsaw Ghetto. Brooks was equally dazzling with prose poetry that Performance Judge Andrew Lam likened to a beautiful painting. A tough call but beautiful Literary Merit Judge Beth Spotswood announced that Derek would advance to second round.
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 2:58PM August 13, 2009—The Emerald City debut of the Literary Death Match at Rendezvous' Jewel Box Theater was an instant classic, as the two remaining gladiators—Ryan Boudinot (representing Monkeybicycle) and HTMLGiant's Matthew Simmons—knifed it out in a LDM original: Stab a Hole in Nebraska!™. In the end, Simmons' blade-sized penetration through northeast Arkansas was closer to Omaha than Boudinot's "knife punch" through Nevada, making Simmons the first-ever northeastern Literary Death Match champ!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 11:00AM The Literary Death Match's mile-high return was a smash hit of literary and farcical proportions, as Lighthouse Writers fantastic combatant Nick Francoise narrowly won over an equally stellar Jessy Randall (representing Ghost Road) in a daring duel of hula-hooping while reading Allen Ginsberg's "The Howl." The full story (aka: hilarious details) is below in the final paragraph, but know—for now—that Francoise was the winner.
