Brian Jay - Winner of the Unley Slam Heat, SA

Earlier in the blog, we wrote about the Unley heat and caught up with the runner-up, Jenny Toune. Today, we hear from the winner, 65 year old, Brian Jay.

"My legal name is Brian Coughran; I use Brian Jay because people stumble over my surname - hardly a good start to communication.

In my youth I was a dancer, choreographer and teacher of such things;  in 1992/93 as part of my incomplete university degree, I did some drama units - which included two publicly performed plays; in early 1998 I attended a WEA poetry writing workshop and found out about performance poetry; in the second half of 1998 I performed in four evenings of poetry at the then Boltz Cafe in Rundle St, and won their annual competition; in early 2008 I first set foot on stage as an amateur stand-up comedian, and have now done six spots each of different material; in 2009 I competed in two of the Poetry Slam heats.

There are usually only three categories of artistic performance:  the self-expressivists - less politely known as the wankers; the formalists - less politely known as the nerds; and those who attempt, often successfully, to combine the two - the synthesists, less politely known as the mugwumps.  I am mostly in the second category, but I do admit to collapsing into the other extremes on occasion.  There is, however, another category.  And they are the real artists, poets, painters, composers etc.  They deserve the appelation because they provide fresh insights and, sometimes, provide totally new insights. Why do we need leaders?  Why aren't we all capable of that level of achievement?  I don't know.

My involvement in the arts is more circumstantial than intentional.  When I was very young, and noticed authors' names on books, my response was:  'Oh, someone wrote this.'   I had similar reactions to learning that there were painters, composers and - most significantly - scientists, the makers of scientific discoveries.  What has driven much of my life has been an attempt to answer the question:  'How do people generate ideas?'  So, what I have been doing - most recently in stand-up comedy and performance poetry - is using myself as a guinea pig in various experiments designed to address that question."


Brian (left) with Unley host, Daniel Watson