Finding their voice, at The Inspired Word open mic ‘Poppa Mike’ Geffner gives stage time to hopes and dreams BY MICHAEL LYDON
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TheVillager.com
PHOTO BY MICHAEL LYDON
o open mic or not to open mic? That’s a question that rookie (and even veteran) performers often ponder. The pros: a chance to grab five priceless minutes of stage time, if you’re gigless Tuesday night. The cons: riding two subways to a half-empty bar, waiting for an eternity for those few minutes, then trekking home — well aware that you haven’t earned a penny for your efforts. Never again, you vow: “You want me to play, sing or tell jokes in your blanketyblank dive? You blankety-blank better pay me!” Then another gig-less Tuesday rolls around, you’ve got a new song or routine you’re dying to try out, and you think, “Hmm, Jerry Seinfeld openmiked at the Comic Strip, Lady Gaga open-miked at the Bitter End.” So you swallow your pride, trek the trek, sign up and make one more bid for the big time. Many open mic venues have come and gone over the years — Folk City and Catch a Rising Star are among the best remembered — but open miking will never die. Why? Because, as George Burns said, “Performers need a place to be bad.” You can study at school and rehearse in your living room — but you’ve got to get up on stage and bomb, and keep getting up there and bombing, until the blessed night somebody says, “Hey, you’re good!” and you go home on a cloud. In the past few years Mike Geffner ’s The Inspired Word series (inspiredwordnyc.com), held at a variety of Village and Midtown clubs, has been a hopeful new presence on the city’s open mic scene. Geffner, a buff and chunky former Village Voice sports columnist,
Pop-folk musicians Orlando and Elia, at Bareburger.
began presenting poets at a vegan restaurant in Forest Hills in 2009. The first night a snowstorm blanketed the city, and only a dozen or so people showed up. Soon, the restaurant went out of business. Failure only made Geffner more eager to succeed. After months scouting for new stages, he lined up two nights a month at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street, site of the old Village Gate. At first he only booked featured performers. But when he added six open mic slots, they filled up instantly. He expanded to twelve, then fifteen open slots — and he still had no trouble filling his bill. In 2011, Geffner moved the Inspired Word to the Nexus Lounge on First Ave. near Houston, then to MacDougal Street’s old folk club, the Gaslight.
Now, The Inspired Word’s home base is a pleasant upstairs room at the Bareburger restaurant (Second Ave. at Fifth St.), every Monday and Tuesday. Open mikers sign up at 6pm, the show starts at 6:30 and runs until about 10 ($10 admission, including for performers). From the best open mike regulars, Geffner picks five for a featured performers’ night on the third Thursday of every month. At one of those Monday shows, singer and keyboard player Sylvana Joyce, MC for the night, kicked things off with a song, “Just Hold On,” that she dedicated to the open mikers waiting in the audience: “So you want to make your break? Well, you just gotta hold on, hold on.” “I love Sylvana,” said Geffner, watching from the back of the room. “She was my first musician. She came in one
snowy night to a poetry show and asked if she could play a song. I said sure, and she got a standing ovation. Now she has her own band, The Moment, and she’s starting to take off in the alt rock circuit.” Next up, five middle school girls from the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, accompanied by their English teacher and a mother or two. They read original poems espousing peace on earth and kindness to animals in clear, strong voices, and the crowd cheered them to the rafters. The girls went offstage blushing and giggling but proud of their accomplishment. “They’ve been preparing for this for weeks,” said one mother. “I can see how much my daughter has grown with the experience.” INSPIRED, continued on p.14
January 23, 2014
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