Search - Whitman Mcgowan :: Po Fu

He's a spoken word performer, a declaimer- whose influences range from Lord Buckley to Screamin' Jay Hawkins to the Wild Tchoupitoulas; At any given time he may be multi-channeling a blend of Dylan Thomas, Salvador Dali, Brion Gysin, Yma Sumac.
WHITMAN McGOWAN started his public vociferating career reading poems for a dollar each at a Pasadena, California coffeehouse, putting poetry on the menu where he worked. His first featured reading was on a farm in Northfield, Minnesota, his first solo appearance at Tigh Johnny, an Irish pub on the Rue Montmartre in Paris. After that he became known for crafting a pagan anthem, "White Folks Was Wild Once, Too," just reissued on DVD. Since 1985 he has performed extensively in the San Francisco Bay Area and at the first National Poetry Slam in San Francisco in 1990 he was employed as the barker at the front door. He's hit most of the blue states and some of the red ones and toured Europe four times, often with flute player Margery Snyder and electronica artist DJ Louka (Lucalyptus). He's also collaborated with cellist Michael Kott, the late Brion Gysin guitarists Bob Log III, Steve Westfield, and The Dead Kennedy's East Bay Ray and appeared on the same stage as California's poet laureate Al Young, San Francisco's poet laureate Jack Hirschman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Maya Angelou, Attila the Stockbroker, Billy Childish and Lydia Lunch. Along the way, this San Francisco spoken word artiste also garnered the title of nightclub wrestling champion of Dresden, Germany!
1 Dinner Poetry2 Epic Janitor3 Tibetan Heckler Prayer4 Public Sex5 Distinguished Poetry6 Shake Baby7 Personal Bomb Threat8 Blah Blah Blah Love Poem9 What Kind of Lipstick?10 Action Auction11 Future Sex12 Death Star Disco Satellite13 Lieder for the Serious Materialists14 Alarm Cock