Extra chairs had to be brought for audience members in the room that easily housed 100 people.
“This turnout has been better than the comedians we’ve had in the past,” said Daniel Dingman, a mortuary science major and a member of the Student Government Association, which sponsored Mali’s appearance.
After a short introduction from SGA President Tyler Adams, the audience applauded as a man with sparkling blue eyes and long brown hair that was fashioned back into a ponytail stepped up and shook Adams’ hand.
Mali turned to the audience, leaned into the mike and said the line that’s been heard a hundred times from those Burger King commercials and for which he was the official voice-over speaker.
“When you have it your way, it just tastes better.” The audience was won.
Mali is a teacher, a poet and a spoken word artist. That day he performed as a slam poet.
Slam poetry is a competitive contest that allows poets to deliver poems in an emotional and dramatic dialect. Listeners are allowed to vocally boo or cheer the poet, and six random audience members are chosen to judge the poets. Although there wasn’t competition that day, Mali is a four-time slam poet champion.
He began with a poem called, “Voice of America V/O,” about the voice-over industry in which he strung along a melody of commercial lines and ads, molding them together to sound like one big train of commercialized thought. After the poem, Mali went right into a joke.
“I sat down next to a woman on a plane,” he said. “She asked me how big of a Christian I was on a scale of 1 to 10. I said pi.” The audience began to laugh, and after a pause, Mali finished with, “She moved away.”
The audience was putty in his hands.
Mali continued for an hour. He cited poems he knew by heart such as the one titled, “How falling in love is like owning a dog.” During the poem, Mali stepped down from the small stage and had a nearby student roll up her homework assignment that was conveniently sitting next to her. She handed it to him, and as he continued with the poem, he proceeded to bop her on the head.
“No,” Mali said. “No, no, no. Bad love. Don’t ever do that again.” His style was comfortably crass with a non-offensive approach. He interacted with the audience and had everyone in stitches.
“I thought it was funny and smart and so unexpected,” said art instructor Stephanie Jung.
Mali’s accomplishments are long-listed. He is an advocate for teaching, which is his passion. His work is on audio CDs, in two books and on a DVD, all of which were on sale at the event.
He read a poem called, “The last time as we are,” from his book, Thrift Shop Chic, and another titled, “Undivided Attention” from his second book, What Learning Leaves.
“I love that not everything rhymes,” said English major Amanda Watkins. “Rhyming can be so trite.”
In between his poetic bursts, Mali threw snack foods into the audience, which he had been given the day before at a visit to Oklahoma University.
Mali left the audience tickled and tear-stained. He spoke with a line of people afterward and found a few young fans in attendance.
“A friend and I found him on YouTube,” Watkins said. “When we saw he was going to be here at AC, we were so excited.”
Mali said his main goal in life is to inspire as many people as he can to become teachers. He refers to himself and all teachers as “miracle workers.”
He wants to help create 1,000 new teachers, and so far he is at 420. “The changing of minds is so great,” Mali said. “It reminds us that we still have one.”
More information about Mali can be found at www.taylormali.com.
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