*Photo from NerdMelt events page
August 3, 2013
A recap of Saturday nights Literary Death Match which was held at the Nerd Melt Showroom inside of Meltdown comics in Los Angeles, CA.
What is a Literary Death Match you may ask?
(from the NerdMelt event page):
"Literary Death Match, now in 48 cities worldwide, was called "the most entertaining reading series ever" by the LA Times. The live show brings together four authors to read their most electric writing for seven minutes or less before a panel of three all-star judges. After each pair of readers, the judges take turns spouting hilarious, off-the-wall commentary — in the categories of literary merit, performance and intangibles — then select their favorite to advance to the finals. The two finalists then compete in a vaguely literary competition to determine who takes home the Literary Death Match crown.
The night will feature four writers reading their own wonderful tales for seven minutes or less, judged by three all-star judges. Two finalists will be chosen to compete in the Literary Death Match finale, a vaguely-literary game that will steal your affection and make your heart pound."
Hosted by Literary Death Match creator: Adrian Todd Zuniga. @atzuniga
THE JUDGES:
Judging intangibles: Sara Benincasa is an award-winning comedian and author of the memoir Agorafabulous! Dispatches From My Bedroom. @SaraJBenincasa
Judging performance: Dr. Andrea Letamendi has a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology and writes and lectures about the psychology of fictional characters from comic books and science fiction. in 2013 she became known in the DC Universe as Bat Girl's therapist. @ArkhamAsylumDoc
Judging literary Merit: Will McCormack is an actor, producer and co-writer of Celeste and Jesse Forever from Sony Pictures Classics. He's producing TV for Warner Brothers. @skillzwill
THE READERS
Round 1:
Nick Antosca is a novelist and screenwriter. His short story collection, The Girlfriend Game, is out now, and he also writes for the JJ Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron show Believe, coming to NBC next March. Follow Nick on Twitter @nickantosca
Nick was the first to compete reading his story from his new book titled The Rat Beast about the trauma of being a teenage boy.
Brian Finkelstein is a comedian and a regular performer at The UCB Theater as well as a regular storyteller and host of the Moth. He's an Emmy-nominated writer for his work om The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Follow Brian on Twitter @bsfinkelstein
Next up was Brian who read his story titled The Hope Ring which is a true story about a fake engagement.
After the judges critiqued each author they huddled together to decide that the winner of the first round was Brian Finkelstein.
Round 2:
Cecil Castellucci is an award-winning graphic/young adult novelist for books including Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, The Plain Janes and First Day on Earth. She's the YA editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books, Children's Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus and a two time Macdowell Fellow.
Follow Cecil on Twitter @misscecil.
Cecil came out on stage wearing a shirt supporting fellow writer, Amber Benson, that read "Team Amber" on it which I found to be very amusing.
Cecil read an excerpt from her sci-fi novel Tin Star.
Amber Benson is a multi-talented individual. She is an actress, writer, director and producer. Amber refers to herself as "a maker of things" and she is damn good at making things, in my opinion anyway but I'm sure a lot of her fans would agree with me.
She wrote the five book Calliope Reaper-Jones urban fantasy series and is currently writing her new series with the first book, Witches of Echo Park, due to be released next year. She co-directed the Slamdance feature Drones and co-wrote/directed the BBC animated series, The Ghosts of Albion.
Amber spent three years as Tara Maclay on the hit TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Amber supports 826LA.
Follow Amber on Twitter @amber_benson.
Amber read her unpublished piece which I'm sure made quite a few of us blush a bit. If you know Amber then you know she has a naughty side. Amber held back nothing with her very graphic story that I cannot even repeat. My brain needed to be bleached after listening to that, lol.
"I told you it was bad" she said to me afterwards.
After critiquing the authors, the judges decided the winner of round 2 to be........ Cecil Castellucci.
Cecil and Brian went on to compete against each other in round 3 of the competition which consisted of three parts in which they had to draw each of the judges individually.
Host, Adrian Todd Zuniga, selected three audience members, dubbed them "art critics", and made them sit in the corner facing the wall. They would be the judges this time.
The first part, Cecil and Brian had 20 seconds to draw their best rendition of Will McCormack.
Second part, 15 seconds to draw Dr. Andrea Letamendi.
The final part they had 30 seconds to draw Sara Benincasa blindfolded.
Each selected audience member chose the drawing they felt was best.
Cecil took the first point with her drawing of Will McCormack.
Brian took the next two points with his drawing of Andrea Letamendi.
The final drawing, and three points, of Sara Benincasa went to Cecil.
In the end the winner of the Literary Death Match was Cecil Castellucci who won 4-2 and received a Literary Death Match medal.
It was such an enjoyable night and I am looking forward to the next Literary Death Match.
Amber and I after the show.
*All images were taken by and belong to me except as noted*
