VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
WAPPLER: My own first reading is forever imprinted on my mind. I was 18 or 19, and I went to an open mic at a place called the Hot House in Chicago with a teacher-friend and my boyfriend. I got to the stage and read my poem, and was amazed at how quiet the room got. For some reason, I expected people to keep talking, or to maybe even heckle me, but everyone politely listened. Afterwards, a few people — proper adults! — came up and said nice things to me. I was incredibly thrilled and flattered. To calm my nerves before the reading, I’d gotten my hands on some illicit booze. I had slugged back a lot of it, and suddenly it all hit me at once. I ended up rushing out of the club and throwing up in a newspaper box on the corner (I still feel sorry for the Chicago Tribune person who had to deal with that the next morning). Despite my inglorious exit, I remember feeling so excited and proud the next day. I’d made it through my first reading! I haven’t thrown up at a reading since.
Margaret Wappler has written about the arts and pop culture for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Elle, Cosmo, New York Times, and several other publications. Her debut novel, Neon Green, published by Unnamed Press in July 2016, has been praised as “witty and entertaining” by the Los Angeles Times and a depiction of “life in the nineties as it was actually lived ” by Electric Literature. She lives in Los Angeles and can be heard weekly on the pop culture podcast, Pop Rocket.
Come see Margaret read at 3rdSpace in San Diego on Saturday, January 21 at 7pm.