Dressed in nothing more than just a T-shirt, khaki slacks and some brown dress shoes, Jem Rolls took the stage. But when this British export of a performer took the stage Rolls’ booming accented voice, constant hand movements and use of the entire stage made his poetry performance come to life. Considered a Fringe legend to see, Jem Rolls: Off the Tongue was a show with a “set list” of poems and spoken word for an hour of inventive word play, political puns and even love poems.
He had energy for days, shouting with passion many of his words (at times almost red in the face) and even walking into the crowd as he recited one of his poems. “The Day Died Very Old” was about tourism, where Rolls slowly “dies” throughout his poem as he figuratively waits in line with tourists in a condemnation he brought himself to — a poem a many of us here in Orlando can relate to. He brilliantly recited “How to Rule the World in 10 Easy Lessons,” where at the beginning Rolls calls Machiavelli a “softy.” He then proceeds to do a poem pointing out 10 lessons that can be taken from Machiavelli’s works (and if I recall from my European history class, many lines incorporated his work The Prince).
And yes, there were love poems, one titled “We broke up because the sex was too good.” It was perfectly ingenious and made me recall a conversation I had with a group of friends about the subject (and like Rolls says about people that come up to say they can relate to that poem, most of the people in my conversation that could relate were men, too).
The most impressive poem he did was a poem made up of entirely spoonerisms. As he explained to the crowd, a spoonerism is a deliberate error used as a play on words where the consonants, vowels or other parts of the word are switched between two words or phrases. It is almost as if you’re reading the word in another form, but when switched gives a completely new meaning to it (for example, “a blushing crow” would be changed to “a crushing blow”). It’s a high level of difficulty in word play and rhyming, but Rolls executes his poem, which was entirely composed of spoonerisms, without skipping a beat. It was charming, witty and especially interesting to watch him recite it at the speed he did.
I have been to poetry nights and spoken word events before, but there was something different about Jem Rolls. I don’t know if it because I am used to poetry and spoken word being performed by free-loving, liberal arts students from Rollins or Full Sail, or if it was Jem Rolls’ amazing accent (Any kind of British/Australian wins me over), but this is definitely a show I’d recommend to my fellow Fringers (especially those that can truly appreciate the art of poetry). It combines the speed and articulacy of great spoken word with the depth and color of poetic prose.
