Review: One Mic Stand

The latest edition of PVCC’s “One Mic Stand” gathered a diverse group of talents, including students as well as other members of the Charlottesville community.

With comedians, singers, musicians, a novelist, and even a hip-hop artist, it was a pleasant array of different acts.

The night began with two comedy acts, the first talking about why people enjoy music so much. The second poked fun at old age from an 80-year-old point of view. The latter involved an in-depth description of the so-called “Super Senior Olympics” to the great amusement of other performers of the night and the audience alike.

A spoken word performance followed the two comedy acts. It was a moving piece about a woman’s struggle with changing from a life of hedonism and crime to a life of responsibility and motherhood. Her emotionally-charged performance garnered a raucous round of applause upon completion.

The next act involved a young author reading two excerpts from his novel. Both excerpts happened to be dream sequences from the mind of a criminal.

After the novelist, a man recited some of his personal writing, which were mainly influenced by his late father’s teachings to him about life. The first piece involved what his father taught him about being a man.

The second piece involved the speaker’s experience with posttraumatic stress from military service. He said that The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was a major influence in this writing. Both were emotional, well written, and well received by the audience.

Wrapping things up, there was a poem/spoken word performance, a hip-hop artist’s performance of a few verses of his work, several singers and a guitarist, and finally another comedian. Most notably of these was the guitarist and songwriter, who performed two original songs, to a great response from the audience.