BIG POPPA E: Slam Tour 2007

Big Poppa E

Slam Tour 2007

© 2008 Eirik Ott (634479773068)

Achingly beautiful and painfully hilarious spoken word sauteed with equal parts slam poetry, stand-up comedy, and dramatic monologue, as engaging, empowering, and energetic as it is entertaining.

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"Revenge of the Wussy Boys"
The Washington Post

"The leader of the new Wussy Boy movement!"
The Los Angeles Times

"Exuberantly defiant!"
The New York Times

"An icon!"
Ms. Magazine

Big Poppa E is a veteran slam poet and three-time HBO Def Poetry alum who melds rhythmic verse, stand-up comedy, and dramatic monologue into explosive works that skewer pop culture, politics, and the pain and beauty of relationships. He was named “the funniest poet in slam” by the Austin Chronicle and is one of the most well-known poetry slam artists in the United States.

Big Poppa E’s slam poetry musings have led to appearances on BET’s The Way We Do It sketch comedy series, National Public Radio, CBS’s 60 Minutes, and Australia’s Triple J Radio. Recently, his viral video Why I Got Fired From Apple Computer was viewed over a million times on sites across the Internet, including YouTube and Google Video, and garnered links from hundreds of websites and extensive press coverage.

Big Poppa E burst onto the poetry slam scene as a member of the ‘99 San Francisco Poetry Slam Team, co-champions of the ‘99 National Poetry Slam in Chicago and the only undefeated team out of 48 that year.

The piece he performed on the finals stage — ¡The Wussy Boy Manifesto! — has since become a rallying cry for outcasts, dorks, dweebs, and feebs everywhere, leading Ms. Magazine to proclaim him “an icon for effeminate males” and The Los Angeles Times to declare him “the leader of the new Wussy Boy movement.” The piece is now one of the most popular poetry slam works performed by high school and college speech competitors in the U.S.

Big Poppa E has toured relentlessly on the poetry slam highway since 2000, when he did 65 gigs across 27 states in just under four months. In the summer of 2003 alone, he logged over 21,000 miles on his ‘99 Ford Windstar mini-van, which has since been retired after 200,000 miles. He has headlined at more than 70 universities and colleges and performed 150+ poetry slam features in 40 states
(including Hawaii and Alaska).

Along the way, his tours have generated numerous stories in newspapers and magazines in the US, Canada, England, and Australia, including such publications as: The New York Times; The Washington Post; The Ottowa Citizen; The London Daily Express; The Sydney Morning Herald; Bust Magazine; Poets and Writers; and The Utne Reader.

Big Poppa E’s latest collection of slam poetry is called Big Poppa E’s Greatest Hits: Poems To Read Out Loud. This 128-pager compiles the best road-tested poetry slam pieces for use by high school and college speech students for use in competition.

BPE is also the author of six other books of poetry, two collections of haiku, three CDs, two DVDs, and a bunch of T-shirts and stickers. He has been published in Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry on Manic D Press, and his essay Slam Your Way Across America was included in the Poets and Writers magazine collection The Practical Writer: From Inspiration to Publication.

Big Poppa E has two tuxedo kitties named Aretha and Thelonious. He currently calls Austin, Texas, his home. When he’s not on tour, he works as a video producer and blogger for a website catering to college students.

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  • Humorous and Moving
    author: DeMerick

    I've always thought BPE was the king of the final line. He can end a piece so strong a person gasps and is left feeling an odd combination of lightness and heaviness. His poetry is lighthearted enough to make a person laugh deeply and touching enough to reach the heart. This combination is one of the best combinations you'll find anywhere. Even if you don't like standard poetry, you'll love this. Part comedian, part philosopher, part activist.

  • The Dane Cook of poetry!
    author: dannystrackles

    This guy is freaking hilarious, and I can't remember a time when I laughed out loud more to a CD than the last Dane Cook joint. It's deep, too, with really meaningful and moving passages. I don't know anything about poetry, but I love this! I bought two copies, one for me and one for my girlfriend!

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