Stick These In Your Ears

For the As Was Written series, JMD and I have been sitting down with loads of talented writers of varying styles – poets, prose-writers, comedians, musicians – and chatting it up with them to record a few good minutes of what is affectionately dubbed a podcast. We’re up to 15 now. 

The latest was with comedian Jeff Dye (Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central Presents). He’s cool, funny and an all-around good guy. You should listen to his podcast right now, then check out the full list of podcast episodes when time permits.

Feel free to send us feedback and suggest whomever you’d like to hear from in the series. It’s been fun to do, and it passes the time quite wonderfully as we prepare for our next show that will be in the Fall. Be excited with me, people. Thanks.

A Few Words Read Out Loud Once

On April 8 and 9, my partner in crime, John-Mark, and I successfully pulled off a two-day, As Was Written event.

The experience was fantastic. All of the performers came through big time (see the full list here) and the crowd was wonderful. Even moving from a tiny townhouse seating 60ish people to the Lyceum with 140-plus, the crowd has always been just as attentive and as receptive as anyone on stage could ever ask for.

Even with double the seats to fill from our last two shows, we surpassed our numbers from last year. Friday sold out, with standing-room only in the back of the room. We were just short of selling out Saturday night, but it was a hell of a finisher. Feedback so far has been very positive and encouraging, and overall I am very pleased with how the show has grown and excited about what we have in store for AWW down the line.

We will do our next show later this Fall. We’ve already begun the search for talented folks to fill our next lineup. This part, where we scout talented song, poetry and prose writers, is my second-favorite part of the experience. Putting on the show(s) without a hitch – knock on wood, we’ve been fortunate so far the last two years – is my number one favorite part of the process.

I’ve promised to share pieces before, so I figured I would do that this time around. Here they are, two pieces from the April 8 and 9 shows:

• Drinking and Dating (April 8, 2011)
• Killing in the Name Of (April 9, 2011)

I don’t have the audio for the two nights yet, so the PDFs and single photo below performing at the Friday show will have to suffice for the moment.

Thanks to everyone for supporting this event that JMD and I thoroughly enjoy putting together twice a year. If you’re a writer who wants to submit your work to read in one of our future shows, send an email to submissions@aswaswritten.com. If you’re just interested in staying in the loop outside of updates here and on the As Was Written website, you can sign up to receive email updates here. Bear in mind we maybe send to the list three times total before shows. This go-round one of those emails will be a presale discounted ticket, so it might be good to stay in the loop that way.

Keep up with our website and I’ll post updates here as well when new announcements are made about the show moving forward.

Reach out to me if you have general questions or feedback about the show: tim@aswaswritten.com.

As Was Written

This Friday, October 1, in Old Town Alexandria at the historic Lyceum museum, I will join seven other readers and artists on stage for As Was Written – an evening of poetry, prose and song.

I’ve taken a break until October from freelance work to organize this event that I co-founded with my friend, John-Mark Davidson, nearly three years ago.

The most fun – besides the actual show itself – is setting the line-up of talent. JMD and I bounce around to open mic nights in D.C. and Virginia in search of local artists, and we thing this week’s show features one of our best line-ups yet.

We have local DC-area readers, as well as performers flying in from California and Washington State. Some will read poetry, some prose, and two – Stacy Clark andThe Heligoats – will sing. Each person will perform their own original work – a requirement for taking to the AWW stage.

Once the show ends, I can resume freelance web work again. Until then, I will likely be editing, re-writing and re-editing my piece* for the event. As I like to say each time I sit down to edit my own writing before these events, “The self-loathing is high in this one.” I mean it just as any writer does who is their own toughest critic – write, edit, do better, rewrite, edit, perform.

This will be the fifth reading event we’ve held, and each time the excitement is just as high. The event has been sold out for the last two months, so we have a large audience looking for a great show. Hopefully we will be able to deliver – all signs indicate toward just that.

See you (or not) Friday night at 8:30pm!

*I will be posting the piece I read on here the week after the show, for your reading pleasure or torture, depending on your taste and/or my talent. :)