LA, Ep. 24
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 8:23AM September 24, 2013 — To conclude our world-bopping monster tour, LDM returned home to Busby's East for a banter-fueled and word-wonderful night of bliss, that saw Team Antonio Sacre outlast Team Joshua Wolf Shenk by a score of 44-14 in an exhilirating, closer-than-the-score-indicates game of "Lone Star Lit" to win Sacre the LDM LA, Ep. 24 crown.
But before the finale was even a consideration, the brilliant night kicked off with Wolf Shenk (author of Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President) reading an excerpt from his upcoming book about creative partnerships that had the audience in throes of fascination. Next up was journalist and actor Randi Newton who read an excerpt from her upcoming book about living with an older woman...who was 83 years old.
The mic was then passed to the trio of all-star judges: matchmaker and author Tracy McMillan (Why You're Not Married...Yet); Frankie Shaw, actress from ABC's Mixology and Blue Mountain State; and stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani, star of Comedy Central's Beta Male special. The three blazed lit-humor judging trails by praising Shenk's sharp prose and stylish shoes, while Newton's nurturing manner was lauded, though Nanjiani did scold her for not allowing her boyfriend to sleep with the 83-year-old roommate.
Then the trio huddled, and after a long and difficult deliberation, they announced that it would be Wolf Shenk who would advance as the night's first finalist.
After a booze-fueled intermission, Round 2 commenced with performer/storyteller Sacre (author of My Name is Cool) wowed with a masterfully performed piece about fact and fiction — "This is the night I get discovered," Sacre said, "and burn myself into the zeitgeist." Finally, it was Marisa Matarazzo who charged up the audience with a powerfully performed excerpt from her book Drenched: Stories of Love and Other Deliriums, about a sex phone operator.
Again the judges were center-stage, with McMillan buzzing over Matarazzo's fearless performance, while the ever-charming Shaw tried not to talk about sex in terms of Sacre's performance, but couldn't resist, and finally Nanjiani sent the crowd into breathlessness with a tale about working at a sex shop and having to haul around a torso who's head was attached by a string.
For the second time of the night the judges were faced with another painful decision, and emerged from their huddle to announce that Sacre was the winner of the night's second round.
Then up stepped LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga who announced that the night's finale would be Lone Star Lit, where he read off 1-star Amazon review about Time's 100 Best Books of All-Time, and the two finalists and their crowd-volunteer teammates had to shout out which book they were talking about. After Team Sacre raced out to a quick lead, Team Wolf Shenk fired manically back, but with the score 29-14 and a 15-point question/review separating them, it was Team Sacre who shouted out the correct answer, winning Antonio Sacre the Literary Death Match LA, Ep. 24 medal, and literary immortality to go with it.
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Reader Comments (1)
Really enjoyed my first Literary Death Match last night at Busby's East. Kumail Nanjiani was hilarious, and the evening's winner wrote a really dramatic, riveting piece.