The Streetcar, Mississippi State University’s student-run creative arts journal, hosted their first open mic event of the semester this past Monday at the DawgHouse.
The night started off well with refreshments, including lemonade, water, cookies and fruit, as well as beautiful paintings from guest artists displayed at the entrance. Before the show began, the room was packed with more than 60 people in attendance, 20 who performed.
The stage acts ranged from musical performances, to comedy stand ups, to intimate poems. There was a range of diversity in the performers. People of different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations and backgrounds took the stage before an encouraging audience.
Everyone was welcome to perform any type of poem or musical piece. All participants must do is show up prepared and write their name on a slip of paper. The show’s line up is determined by randomly selecting performers’ names from a bag.
The many poetic readings were deep, emotional and inspiring. The amount of descriptive language used was beautifully powerful, and all the poems had a level of intimacy.
It was easy to tell the poems had a deep meaning to the performing individuals. These poems were about family memories, a crazy night at a party, a 21st birthday party, picking yourself up after heartache and tragedy, idealistic beauty standards and so much more.
One powerful poem which stands out above the rest was titled “Dear Fathers.” A woman delivered a passionate piece talking to all fathers. She talked about daughters needing fathers just as much as sons, and discussed the results of not having a strong father figure in a daughter’s life.
There were multiple comedy stand-ups, most of which were absolutely hilarious. 
The comedy sketches talked about things college kids go through, hence why they were so funny. The personalities of the comics were charismatic, which helped deliver the jokes and establish credibility with the audience.
There were jokes about dating and Tinder, babies on drugs, “bad” words like dollop and ointment, racist Mississippians, searching for the fellas and majoring in engineering. Considering all the performing comics are MSU students, they really knew what would connect with their crowd.
Also, there were a few musical performances. One person performed a cover of a Twenty One Pilots’ song. Another person sang a gospel song a capella, and there was one guitar soloist. All musicians were talented and gave a great show.
It did feel a little out of place to give a musical performance. One would expect only poetry and stand-up comedy at an open mic, but it was a pleasant surprise to have a mix of entertainment.
Overall, the show was entertaining. There were a few people who should not have gone on stage, but at least they had enough confidence to go through with it.
I do not believe the performance of a comedy scene from “22 Jump Street” should have been performed, but it did not receive any negative feedback at the time. Even though the performance was a poor, obnoxiously loud movie re-enactment, no one said anything or tried to take the microphone away.
If the jokes were not funny, the audience would politely clap for a person to stop. There were not any booing or insults toward bad performances. The atmosphere was truly welcoming for all people to try to entertain, even though not everyone should have.
Even though not every performance was perfect, there were many amazing stage acts, the wide variety of performances were well presented, and the emotions and talent poured into every delivery was beautiful and brilliant. It was absolutely a great night and well worth the time.
This event is completely free and open to everyone and anyone who would like to attend. The Streetcar’s next open mic will be toward the end of March.