San Antonio, Ep. 1

April 5, 2014 — On a magical Lone Star State night, Literary Death Match is teamed with the San Antonio Book Festival for a night of literature, laughs, lore-making at the glorious Charline McCombs Empire Theatre. The brilliant night ended with Antonio Sacre outdueling Owen Egerton by a score of 46-45 in a Lone Star Lit finale that won Sacre the LDM San Antonio, Ep. 1 crown. 

But before the finale was even a thought, the night kicked off with Egerton (screenwriter, performer and author of How Best to Avoid Dying) who reeled off a hilarious opener about teenagers at a church lock-in that had the crowd in stitches. Next up, Roxana Robinson, author of four New York Times Notable Books, read a quietly haunting piece from her award-winning novel Sparta, about a soldier's flight home. 

The mic was then handed over to the night's trio of all-star judges: Jake Silverstein, Editor-in-Chief of Texas Monthly; María Cristina Marrero, Editor-in-Chief of Siempre Mujer Magazine; and Molly Cox, chief of engagement for San Antonio’s SA2020 and 2013 Emcee for TEDxSanAntonio. The trio quipped and witticized in response to each author's work before making the night's first impossible decision by naming Egerton the Round 1 finalist. 

Then, following a booze and band-filled intermission, Round 2 kicked off in electric fashion, with Malín Alegría, author of Border Town #4: No Second Chances, going off book, then on, then back off, which thrilled the captivated audience. Finally, it was Antonio Sacre, performer and author of My Name is Cool: Stories from a Cuban-Irish-American Storyteller who had the audience in quivering throes with his awe-striking pieces in which he related being a performer to being a stripper. 

Again the judges were center stage, and delivered heaps of praise mixed with teensy, good-willed jabs, before making impossible decision #2, and declaring it would be Sacre who would be the night's second finalist. 

Then up stepped LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga to announce the night's finale: Lone Star Lit, 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 with everything to play for on the final question, it was Team Sacre who slapped the xylophone/buzzer first, nailing the final answer, winning him the LDM San Antonio, Ep. 1 medal and literary immortality to go with it.

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Follow LDM on Twitter @litdeathmatch; "Like" us on Facebook.

Follow LDM on Twitter @litdeathmatch; "Like" us on Facebook.