What you really want from a session called "You write funny!" is for there to be writers and for them to be humorous. It's pretty much right there in the title. You're expecting to laugh a bit. And certainly this Friday night session at WORD Christcchurch Festival 2018 MCed by the affable Ray Shipley filled the bill.
The laughing, however, was expedited by Shipley's careful, "kindly primary school teacher" style coaching, leading the audience through some "little titters" to start with, and eventually even, some good, old-fashioned cackling. "All laughs," we were told "are valid and important".
So that was a good place to start from.
The line-up of reading authors was largely unfamiliar to me but the feelings of amusement and genuine laughter (did the coaching and practice beforehand make for a better quality of chuckle?) weren't. This is what funny sounds like.
First up was Erik Kennedy (author of poetry collection There's No Place Like the Internet in Springtime) who read three poems all with a wry serve of humour, "You cannot teach creative writing", "Get a pet with a longer live span than humans have", and in between, a strange take on Christmas heavily influenced by the content of spam emails. I can't really explain this poem except to say that it was simultaneously more AND less weird than it sounds.
There's No Place Like the Internet in Springtime
Megan Dunn read excerpts from her book Tinderbox, about her time working at a Borders bookstore. Much of the time Dunn read with a sly, knowing smirk on her face... that was fully justified. Her tales of retail reminded me more than a little of my experiences working in libraries as well as the self-confessional style of David Sedaris, in particular the essay Santaland Diaries about his time working as a Christmas elf at Macy's Department store.
It eventuates that I find both David Sedaris and Megan Dunn hilarious.
Dunn was followed by poet Chris Tse (author of poetry collection He's so MASC) and his poem, Wasted, was a hit with the audience. Wasted is a treatise on the sort of men who don't get drinks thrown in their faces nearly as often as they deserve. Though he admits there are few workable alternatives,
Only a monster would throw a bowl of chips in this economy.
Lastly Annaleese Jochems took the stage reading, from her book Baby, an exquisitely awkward scene of backyard fitness instruction that made me feel more squirmy than amused, but many people in the audience let loose their best cackles in response, so I might have been alone in that.
All in all, You write funny! gave my laughing muscles a good, solid workout.
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