Fullerton College’s Writer’s and Reader’s Club held it’s 2nd annual open-mic night on campus in the 200 building.
The open-mic took place on Thursday, September 22nd, and was held from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Room 226.
Members of the Writer’s and Reader’s club attended along with students, faculty and Fullerton locals.
Club president Justin Marquez stated that they were expecting, “A rather large turn out,” after advertising the event on campus, around Downtown Fullerton and on Facebook.
Marquez, an English major in his fifth semester at Fullerton College, says that the club, “Started as a means of writing and workshop,” for students in the theatre department.
Club advisor and Fullerton College theatre professor Bill Mittler said “This is actually the third time that we’ve put on the open mic.”
Mittler added, “The first was a complete failure, but we are expecting around 60 – 100 to attend.”
“I’m expecting a lot of variety. We usually get spoken-word poetry, slam poetry, people playing cover songs, raps and stand-up comedy,” Club vice president Grace Krikl, who helped organize the event said.
Krikl added, “ We also have someone coming who is performing noise, which is an actual, literal, genre of noise.”
When asked if she would be performing any material, Krikl said that she would be “sitting this one out,” as she usually did material for the previous open mic nights that the Writer’s and Reader’s Club puts on and adding, “I’m always the coordinator and organizer of these events and I want to experience the art that I helped put on for once.”
Fullerton College student Anthony Camacho, a first time performer for the Writers and Readers Club read original poetry for the event.
Camacho heard about the event from Fullerton College President Greg Schulz’s “President’s Weekly” email.
Camacho described his writing as, “It goes from things about love, or it can be about self-reflection, by looking at myself from a different perspective.”
“I do sometimes also write about society and Generation-Y, in general,” Camacho elaborated.
As the event began, Marquez announced to the forming audience, that each performer has a five minute limit to perform, in order to allow others to have stage time.
Camacho was the first writer to read some of his original work that evening.
Camacho was followed by FC student, Reggie Peralta, who read poetry from a Creative Writing course he took during a previous semester.
Stand-up comedy acts for the night included: Raymond Salamanca and is raunchy brand of humor, Ricky Silveira’s dead-pan comedy, Jonathan Blake’s self-reflective observational comedy and Robert Lipscomb, who got the audience involved with his performance.
Blake also performed an acoustic song with his band Happy Cows.
Another performer that stood out that night was Asia Simone, who played original songs on her ukulele.
Artists performing twice at the open mic included Silveira, Blake and Simone.
The Writer’s and Reader’s Club’s next foray is a showcase in Room 228. It is being held on November 4th & 5th, from 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Auditions for the showcase are being held on October 4th and 5th, from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. in Room 226.
