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| How we started and how we do it? |
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| How did we start it? There were two threads coming together. |
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| Matt Harvey, poet-in-residence at CopperBeech with non-specific duties, was encouraged to start writing a blog. Conceived of as the cheeky younger sibling of Soul and Soil, it was to be called Topless Thinking - or should it be called Wondermentalist? |
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| Hmmm. |
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| Then Matt was asked/challenged by Traydio’s Carl Munson to generate two hours a month of top notch poetry-related pods. |
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| Again, hmmm. |
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| Matt felt the best way forward was to hold a monthly live event where a variety of poets, comedians, even musicians, could come and strut their stuff before a live audience. |
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| The Wondermentalist cabaret and accompanying site is the result of these threads being woven together and embroidered by the involvement of various imaginative persons in India and the UK |
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| Various poets, three musicians and a comedian were approached. A room was booked. Posters and flyers were made and distributed. The details of how we went about this are covered by the Start Your Own Cabaret page. |
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| The first Wondermentalist cabaret took place in Totnes, Devon, UK in December 2007 before a full house of about 170 souls in the function room of the Royal Seven Stars Hotel. |
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| The evening was recorded by Carl Munson of Traydio on his Zoom H2 recording device, and juicy extracts can be heard on Traydio to this day. |
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| The evening soon became more interactive with the introduction of the ridiculously successful audience collaborative poem, and this spirit accessibility will be carried across to the site with the introduction of an online poem and the Wondermentalist Lexicon to follow (we hope) shortly. |
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| Thus the comedy-infused, musically-enhanced spoken-word-spined, cabaret and website known as Wondermentalist was born. And, in a strange way, continues to be born. |
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| The intention, both on and offline, is to be entertaining, accessible, honest and wonderful. |
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