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[william williams]

Thank you Neil as you have stated a Judges job is not an easy one but one thing that is noticed is that a well presented and performed humorous poem will out score an equallywell presented and performed serious poem.

I know it is as the performance that grabs the judges attention with its humour and the audiences enjoyment, but not all performers voices have that ability to attract humorous sounding speech.

Yet the serious performers voice and poem may be as good or better than the other yet it does not attract the attention of the judges or audience. ( queastion ) Is it because it is not in their comfort zone.

Bill Williams the old battler

[keats]

No, I do not believe that Bill. I am sorry, but having judges many performance competitions, in particular State and National, I would have to say that the majority of winners have performed Serious poems. A good comedy poem needs to be performed with a lot more care and cleverness than a serious poem. By this I mean that the emotions you put forward in a serious poem are more genuine, more human (from grief to despair) than the emotions one has access to for a comedy poem. A great Comedy performer is usually a natural and I have seen more people attempt and butcher Comedy Poems than Original, Modern or Traditional serious. People tend to put their own personal spin on a serious and emotional poem, whereas those who choose a comedy poem of another writer often struggle because they attempt to deliver it as they heard it performed by the writer. A truly original comedy piece delivered in a hilarious and original away always has a great appeal to an audience, yet that does not mean that it ticked all the boxes on the judge's score sheet.

With comedy, you will find that the best comedy poems you will hear in competitions are written by performers who go nowhere the competitions anyway. And the lack of originality in a lot of other comedy poems leave a lot to be desired, leaving the emotional writers a greater amount of literary real estate to explore and cover.

Cheers Mate.

[william williams]

thank you Neil for your answer. I know that I have attended very few comps in comparison to you. But these are my interpretation of what I have found and heard over time

Bill Williams

[Robyn]

Neville I can understand where you are coming from, as I'd be coming from the same sort of place. I get intimidated by a section labelled comedy, as that's way out of my comfort zone. I'd like a section for quirky/mildly amusing, garnering smiles not guffaws... but of course for practical reasons (as outlined) there will never be such a section!
Cheers
Robyn