Boston, Ep. 14

February 18, 2014 — On an icy night in Boston, a literary dust-up for the ages heated things way up at Laugh Boston as Emma Rosenberg outdueled Matthew Dicks in a One Star Wonder finale by a closer-than-it-seemed 49-21 final, winning Rosenberg the LDM Boston, Ep. 14 crown. 

But before the finale shots were fired, the night kicked off with Rosenberg wowed with a short story about a man in his seventies who discovers the Internet. Next up was Adam Stumacher (Raymond Carver Short Story Award winner who's appeared in Best New American Voices) who thrilled with an excerpt from his story "The Spice Road," a twisted romance between a disaffected suburbanite and a traumatized Israeli soldier.

The mic was then turned over to the trio of all-star judges: Ibby Caputo, reporter for Boston Public Radio, and feat. on The World and All Things Considered; Jeremy Brothers, Artistic Director at/co-creator of Improv Asylum's Vanity Project; Ken Reid, nominated by Boston Phoenix as Best Comedian in Boston for 2010 and 2012. The three heaped praise on both readers while treating the audience to witticisms en masse before declaring it would be Rosenberg as the night's first finalist. 

Then came Round 2. First up was the wonderful Obehi Janice (actress, writer, producer, and creator of Fufu & Oreos) who recounted a memorable Christening from her childhood. She was followed by Matthew Dicks (author of Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Unexpectedly, Milo and the rock opera The Clowns) who masterfully read a section from his memoir about a prom date gone way bad. 

Again the mics were handed over to the judges, who again titillated the audience with smartly-worded support mixed with quips aplenty. Then, after a huddle decided it would be Dicks who would be the night's second finalist. 

Then up stepped LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga, who announced the night's finale: One Star Wonder, in which he read off 1-star Amazon book reviews written about classic books. The finalists, teamed with volunteers from the crowd, traded points, and while Team Dicks drew within one answer of champion-hood, it was Team Rosenberg who jabbed the buzzer first, nailed the final answer, and won her the LDM Boston, Ep. 14 medal, winning literary immortality to go with it.

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