User:Funnypoet/Shappy seasholtz

New article name goes here new article content ... Shappy Seasholtz (born Feb. 28, 1969) is a poet, cartoonist and creator of the Nerd Slam.

Life-

Shappy grew up in Kettering, Ohio. In 4th grade his teacher would let him re-enact Popeye cartoons in front of the class which led to him becoming the lead in his school's Christmas play. In 5th grade he met Morgan Taylor (creator of Gustafer Yellowgold) and the two of them started their own comic book company ST COMICS. This lead to Shappy drawing cartoons for the yearbook and his own strip in his 9th grade class newspaper.

In high school Shappy was voted "Most Swinging Guy" and played in a punk band called Your Form Of Government. He also started acting at this time and had success as competitor on the Forensics Team winning a Ohio State Speech Championship in 1986 in Humorous Interpretation. In 1987 he qualified and competed the National Forensics Association National Tournament at Oklahoma State University.

Shappy attended Eastern Michigan University on a speech scholarship and went on to win two National Forensics titles in After Dinner Speaking and Dramatic Duo in 1991. He also acted and directed several plays including Pop Manifesto, a one-act play Shappy wrote in which all of the dialogue was commercial jingles which won Shappy an undergraduate Symposium Award (also in 1991). In 2010, Shappy was inducted into Eastern Michigan University Forensics Hall of Fame and in 2011 was inducted into the National Forensics Hall Of Fame.

Poetry & Performance-

After college, Shappy moved to Chicago. He formed several theater companies with his college buddies and wrote and performed his own material. One show was a throwback to the Living Newspaper of the depression era in which current events were acted out on stage called Every Speck Of Dust That Falls To Earth. Shappy also worked with members of the Neo-Futurists for a musical about quantum physics called THE COLLAPSIBLE DETACHABLE SELF-CLEANING UNIVERSE SHOW.

Shappy eventually discovered the Poetry Slam at The Green Mill and wound up being taped (and bleeped twice) for CNN. In 1994 Shappy won a city-wide slam and ended up touring with Lollapalooza spreading the word of Nerd Power in the Spoken Word Revival Tent. This tour has been cited as the first big event that caused Poetry Slam to become a national movement. Shappy performed with Maggie Estep, Jeffrey McDaniel, Wammo and Regie Cabico among others. During this tour Shappy was hawking his first recording, TUB O' MEAT which was produced by Brett Sparks of THE HANDSOME FAMILY who would eventually play guitar for the short-lived band SHAPPY AND THE FAMILY SHAP that played the third stage at Lollapalooza 1995.

The next year he "Shappy-roned" the first ever Austin slam team to the National Poetry Slam 1995 and has been an honorary Austin poet ever since, performing at several South by Southwest Spoken Word Showcases (1996-2000) with such artists as Exene Cervenka, Lydia Lunch and Hubert Hunke.

Shappy then tried his poetry shtick in the Chicago comedy scene. He hosted his own live talk show, Nite Cap with Shap at The Note and then The Subterranean Lounge in 1999 and appeared in the Chicago Comedy Festival 4 times including the Neil Hamburger Show in 2001. He also appeared regularly at Matt Dwyer's Midnight Bible School at the legendary Second City where he performed alongside Zach Galifanakis, Tina Fey and Fred Willard among others.

Nerd Slam-

At the 1999 National Poetry Slam, Shappy hosted The Jedi Masters Slam which was an open-mic for all Sci-Fi related poetry. This eventual led to the NERD SLAM which started at the 2001 National Poetry Slam in Minneapolis. At first, the format was male versus female poets (Lukes VS Leias) then as the NERD SLAM grew in popularity there was a disproportionate amount of men to women poets. So a "trivia-off" was used as a process of elimination between male nerd poets. The winner would be allowed to read his poem. Female nerd poets and group pieces were given free passes. Eventually, the Nerd Slam became such a popular event at Nationals that it was decided that men and women should have to compete for what precious few performance slots were now available. Sponsors donated prizes and a Nerd Trivia Tribunal was developed as a way to have a panel of experts on a vast array of nerdy subjects. Noted hosts and co-hosts of Nerd Slam have included Robbie Q. Tefler, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, The Klute, Omar Holman, Amy David and Jaime Martin.

Bowery Poetry Club-

Shappy moved to New York City in 2001 He served as the founding bar manager at Bob Holman's Bowery Poetry Club. During his tenure there Shappy not only ran the bar but performed on top of it as well. Shappy re-launched his talk show NITE CAP WITH SHAP, hosted a variety show with Regie Cabico, competed in Dan Nester's POETRY+KARAOKE=FUN and served as the Slam Master for the URBANA POETRY SLAM series. In 2002, Shappy and his teammates tied with the Detroit Slam team to win the National Poetry Slam. In 2006 he represented Urbana at the Individual World Poetry Slam in Charlotte, NC and in 2008 coached the Urbana team that went on to win the first ever Group Piece National Championship at NPS Madison.

Shappy also appeared on Russell Simmon's DEF POETRY Season 3 on HBO in 2003 performing his award-winning poem "I AM THAT NERD".

Shappy has published several books of poetry, most recently "Spoken Nerd Revolution" (Penmanship Books, 2011) which collected 20 years of Shappy's poetry, including his Firecracker Award winning poetry & cartoon collaborations with Sam Henderson. Also in 2011, Shappy was interviewed by the New York Times about zombie poetry that appeared in the Write Bloody anthology AIM FOR THE HEAD. His latest project is a poetry / memoir hybrid titled "American Buckeye"

Cartoonist-

Starting in 2011, Shappy became a cartoonist for The Daily Dot website. His pop culture gag-cartoon, UNCLE SHAPPY'S CHUCKLE PARLOUR, ran twice-weekly until 2013. He also did illustrations for Buddy Wakefield's Henhouse: How to Raise Your Own Chickens: The International Book for Chickens and Their Lovers in 2012. Shappy still does occasional illustration free-lance work and is working on a sketchbook of 70's sit-com characters called TV GUYS. AWARDS

Inductee: Eastern Michigan University Forensics Hall of Fame (2010) Winner: Individual World Poetry Slam Qualifier (NYC Urbana-2006, Philadelphia-2010) Winner: Slammaster Slam at National Poetry Slam (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009) Winner: National Poetry Slam (2002) Winner: Firecracker Award Winner for Best Poetry Collection (2001) Winner: Toyota Comedy Festival’s Word Wrestling Federation (2001) Semi-Finalist: National Poetry Slam Individual Competition (2000) Winner: Eastern Michigan University Symposium Award for Original One Act Play (1991) Winner: National Forensics Championship for After Dinner Speaking and Dramatic Duo (1991)

PUBLICATIONS

Spoken Nerd Revolution (Penmanship Books, 2011) Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (Soft Skull, 2008) Chapter: “Unfair Stereotypes of Other Cities’ Slams” Schlock and Awe (Kapow! Press, 2006) Do You Want Freedom Fries with That? : All-American Rants (Little Vanity Press, 2003) Spoken Nerd (Little Vanity Press, 2002) Little Book of Ass (Kapow! Press, 2000) – Firecracker Award Winner Best Poetry 2000 Sensitive Little Poetry Boy (Kapow! Press, 2000)

ANTHOLOGIES & LITERARY JOURNALS

Learn Then Burn 2: This Time It's Personal: Awesome Modern Poems for the Classroom (Write Bloody Press, 2014) Henhouse: How to Raise Your Own Chickens: The International Book for Chickens and Their Lovers (Write Bloody Press, 2012) Aim For the Head: An Anthology of Zombie Poetry (Write Bloody Press. 2011) Learn Then Burn (Write Bloody Press, 2010) Elephant Engine High Dive Revival (Write Bloody, 2010) The Good Things About America (Write Bloody Press, 2009) Last American Valentine (Write Bloody Press, 2008) A Bigger Boat (University of New Mexico, 2008) Chapter ; “Nerd Slam” Bowery Bartender’s Big Book of Poetry (Bowery Books, 2005) Revival: Spoken Word from Lollapalooza (Anthology) (Manic D Press, 1997) Literary journal publications: PANK, The Legendary, Bestiary, Boog City, SpindleZine,Tunnel Rat and Slagdrop.

RECORDINGS

RADIO SERIES: National Poetry Month (WYNC-NPR, 2008) CD: Attack of the Urbanabots (The Wordsmith Press, 2007) ONLINE FILM: GameTap (promotional video game poetry spots, 2005) RADIO SERIES: Live From the Bowery (NPR Radio Series Pilot) CD: NYC URBANA: Bowery Poetry Club (Urbana Poetry Series Anthology, 2004) DVD: Taylor Mali & Friends (Wordsmith Press 2003) CD: NYC URBANA: Best of 2002 (Urbana Poetry Series Anthology, 2002) CD: Poet/Comedian/Asshole (Solo Performance Poetry CD, 2001) CD: NYC URBANA: Spoken Word Underground (Urbana Poetry Series Anthology, 2001) CD/DVD: Slam America (Slam America Bus Tour Anthology, 2001) (PoetCD) DVD: World’s Greatest Poetry Slam (DVD of the 2002 NPS Championship Finals, 2002)