By Alyssa Bluhm
Murphy News Service
The Triple Rock dance floor was still Sunday night as a lineup of writers took to the stage as part of the 13th installment of Irregular Readings, a literature reading in Minneapolis.
“Welcome to our Super Bowl party,” said Tigger Lunney, one of the organizers of the event, prompting half of the small audience to put away the books they were reading as they waited for the event to begin. “It’s our 13th one, so we’re probably all going to die.”
Irregular Readings alumni Maggie Ryan Sandford, Rana May, John Jodzio, and Matt Rasmussen had been invited back for the occasion.
“We try to have people who’ve never read before,” Chris Besinger, who co-hosted the event with Lunney, said. “But we wanted these people to come back for one big event.”
The theme of the readings switched between the past, to public urination, to drugs, each writer bringing his or her own hilarious spin to the subject.
Comedian Rana May’s reading of the journal of a deceased 11-inch tall policeman stole the most laughs from the crowd.
“I found a date online by lying about my height,’” she said. “’I said I’m 5-foot-11. That’s a 5-foot lie. But when I went to meet my date at Vescio’s in Dinkytown, I got scared and hid in a boot for four hours.”
Despite the all-star cast of writers, among them a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award for poetry (Rasmussen), cold weather and the Super Bowl contributed to a smaller crowd than usual, Besinger said. Even so, the crowd consisted mostly of newcomers.
“I’ve seen some of [the writers] read in other places, but this was really great,” Julia Tindell of Apple Valley said.
The mood remained high even as Lunney took over the mic to deliver parting words to the crowd, singling out a guest in the front row with a book in front of her. “Are you reading ‘Things Fall Apart’?” he said. “That’s so much more interesting than this was.”
Alyssa Bluhm is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.
For more info: Follow Irregular Readings on Facebook to find out about the group’s next event.