90-second slam competition

Paris heat – 23rd September at SpokenWord

Practice – round 2 at SpokenWord on 9th and 16th September

INFO & RULES for the 23rd September heat

Format

• 3 rounds with up to 15 contestants – 12 is probably ideal
• 90 seconds on the mic each round
• The contestants with the 3 highest aggregate scores go through to the final

Tiebreak

In the event that there are more than 3 contestants that qualify though their aggregate scores, the lowest of these qualifying scores will be subject to a tiebreak. This will be decided by a playoff, with the highest score in the playoff going through.

E.g. the highest scores are 100, 92, 88 and 88. 100 and 92 immediately qualify, who goes through from the two contestants with a score of 88 will be decided by a playoff.

Judging

Judging is by a panel of judges chosen from the audience. There must be a minimum of 4 judges, and a maximum of 7. The judges should not be friends or relatives of any of the contestants.

Scoring

Scoring is out of 10 and should take into account both performance and content. An example as a rough guide:  a contestant performs exceptionally well, their piece is humorous but essentially trivial, they should expect a score of around 6 or 7.

SLAM RULES

• Contestants must only perform their own, original work
• No singing or use of props
• No deliberately sexist, racist, disablist or homophobic language
• Each contestant has 90 seconds on the mic for each round.
• The clock starts from the moment the contestant speaks. (Contestants need to be reminded of this, to avoid introductions, etc.)
• Per round, 1 point is deducted from each contestant’s score for every 3 seconds they go over time.
• If a contestant completes a round within 1 second either side of the 90 seconds, they will be awarded 5 bonus points.