San Antonio, Ep. 3

April 2, 2016 — For our annual spring classic, Literary Death Match once again joined forces with the San Antonio Book Festival for a wild night of lit, wit and weirdness at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre that ended with a tense Literary Spelling Bee III that saw Jamie Brickhouse outduel David Crabb in sudden death to win Brickhouse the LDM San Antonio, Ep. 3 crown.

But before the finale was even a thought, the night kicked off with Joaquin Zihuatanejo, a poet, spoken word artist featured on Def Poetry Jam and award-winning teacher, who reeled off a brilliant pair of poems before the packed crowd. Next up was Crabb, performer, presenter for The Moth StorySlam, and author of New York Times Critics' Pick Bad Kid, who read a hilarious piece about his mother asking if he was gay, while his mother looked on from the audience.

Then the mic was handed over to the trio of star judges: Coleen Grissom, professor at Trinity University, author of The World According to Coleen; Sandra Valls, Alma Award-nominated comedian, actor and singer; and Zach Anner, author of If At Birth You Don't Succeed and host of Rollin' with Zach on OWN. The three ripped of a brilliant series of wisecracks, and plenty of praise, before huddling up and declaring the night's first finalist: hometown hero Crabb.

Then came Round 2, led off by Brickhouse, author of Dangerous When Wet, an Amazon Best Book of 2015, Moth StorySlam winner, who told the tale of losing a very special jacket. Finally it was wunderkind Sara Benincasa, comedian, performer and author of DC Trip, who read the title essay of her fantastic essay collection, Real Artists Have Day Jobs.

Once againt the mic was handed to the judges, and once again they delivered hilarity bombs and compliments galore before huddling and making the night's second impossible decision, declaring Texas native Brickhouse the night's second finalist.

Then up stepped LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga, who announced the night's finale: Literary Spelling Bee III, in which Crabb and Brickhouse took turns spelling more and more complicated author names (with assistance from Grissom and Benincasa). In the final round, with everything to play for, it was Brickhouse who survived the hot, hot heat of the tense competition, winning him the LDM San Antonio, Ep. 3 medal and literary immortality to go with it.