Alternative Slams

[Duffman]

Hey, I was wondering how you make sure people stick to theme of an alt. slam?  Do you dock them 2 points?  Do they get disqualified?  I guess Spillious (& whoever helps him out) would know best.

Just wonderin' in case we end up doing any themed slams.

[Duncan Shields]

Yeah.  Mumbles and The Dust did a great poem in the final round back at the last Nerd Slam but it wasn't nerdy.  They won.  I came in second.  I'm not bitter about it but I wondered about that as well.  It's a hard thing to really judge.

[ms_spelt]

It would, I feel, in the end come down to the judgement call of the host of the alt slam.
it's their event and they are overseeing the theme.
I personally would allow non labour poems(although strongly encouraging themed work)in the open mic,but once the labour slam itself was underway I'd dock poets points or DQ them for not following the underlying rule which is that work must be labour related.
were I running the nerd slam i might even go the route that shappy does-were you must win head to head nerd trivia to compete.
ones nerd cred must be solid. 

[sue]

Betty and me would just pie the bastards.

Edna

[Lisa]

I think it makes sense to tell the judges that the work should be according to the theme, and let them judge accordingly.

[sue]

Seriously now, I agree with Lisa. The host includes the slam's theme in his/her instructions to the judges (eg. in the Instant Poetry Slam, judges are reminded to include in their score an assessment of how effectively the prompt was incorporated into the poem).