Boston, Ep. 10
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 1:23PM November 14, 2012 — It was a chilly night outside, but inside Club OBERON's wonderful walls, Literary Death Match Boston turned 10 episodes young, with a brilliant event that saw Team Katherine Hill outduel Team Chris Braiotta in a Literary Pictionary battle by a score of 3-1 to win her the LDM Boston, Ep. 10 crown.
But before the finale was even a thought, the night kicked off with Luke O'Neil (journalist and author of Boston's Best Dive Bars) opening with a hilarious piece about musical clichés used by music writers "trying to work out their atrophied creative writing muscles." Next up was Hill, who read — for the first time ever! — a stirring excerpt from her novel, The Violet Hour.
The mic was then handed to the night's trio of all-star judges: Eugenia Williamson (writer, critic and The Baffler contributing editor), comedian and actor Mike Dorval, and master of whimsy, comedian Jenny Zigrino. They traded lightning-quick quips about each of the writers — commenting on everything from O'Neil's muscles to Hill's lens-free sparkly-glasses. And after a long and thought-out deliberation, they announced that it would be Hill who would advance as the night's first finalist.
After a boozy intermission, Round 2 commenced with Braiotta reading off a sparklingly hilarious piece about Werner Herzog's jungle cruise ride at Disneyland, accent and all, that featured such gems as "his conquistadors helmet breaks the nougat-colored water." Finally, it was the fantastic Shuchi Saraswat, who read a captivating excerpt from her novel-in-progress that had the crowd on the edge of their chairs.
Again, the mic went to the judges, and again the three pulled the finest threads from each tale-teller, spinning them into wit-filled commentary, before finally deciding it would be Braiotta that would stand as the night's second finalist.
Then came a wild finale, as LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga took center stage, inviting audience members to come up and draw selections from Time's Best 100 Novels of All-Time. Team Hill (she was aided by her husband) shot out to an early lead, with Hill's beau shouting "1984!" when only senseless lines had been drawn. Team Braiotta fired back for a score to cut Hill's lead in half, but sudden death wasn't in the cards, as Team Hill scored the final blow to take the match 3-1, winning not only the Literary Death Match Boston, Ep. 10 crown, but literary immortality to go with it.
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Reader Comments (1)
That is a good event.