There are few performers that aren’t Ben Hersey who I’m this enthusiastic to see. When he steps up to the mic and starts shouting about sipping dunkies and having to “settle down, boy” when it’s getting scary, many of his audience members don’t quite know what to think. If you’ve seen him before, the book he recently published, titled The Autograph Of Steve Industry, is like seeing Ben Hersey live, but having to imagine his voice bouncing up and down from a quick scream to hysterical laughter. However, still very much worth the $.
At this particular performance, he read excerpts from The Autograph Of Steve Industry, twisting and distorting his insight into blue-collar New England. With lines like “I cry my way through the force fields, sometimes, fuck, driving in the rain, on the weekends especially, south on 495”, Hersey’s character maintains a relatively simple life in this world that’s changing in ways out of the control of people like him, and me, for that matter.
Additionally, another of the evening’s performers, Eric Paul told the audience some pretty messed up stories from his youth, growing up in the Providence area. “I Offered Myself As The Sea” and “A Popular Place to Explode” are his two new poetry books. Similar to Hersey, Eric Paul has found the most unlikely ways to deliver heartwarming messages to his audience. Unlike Hersey, his delivery is sincerely deadpan and more straightforward.
Also part of the evening’s lineup, Max Winter, a graduate of UC Irvine’s MFA program, shared stories from his novel Exes, his debut novel. Exes is an intense story about life and death in Providence, RI. Preceding Max was Gilmore Tamny, of Somerville, who passed out pamphlets to the audience containing “Ben Hersey-like lines” of nonsensical fun as she put a voice to the her words in the pamphlet.
http://benjaminhersey.tumblr.com/performancevideo
http://magichelicopterpress.com/steveindustry.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Paul
https://www.facebook.com/linesdotscircles/?ref=br_rs
http://ohioedit.com/category/prose/columns/my-days-with-millicent-by-gilmore-tamny/
https://weatherweapon.bandcamp.com/album/weather-weapon
Recording courtesy of Tim Davison!
