Extra Credit: Erik Campbell

From the moment Erik Campbell walked up to the podium, I knew he was unique. I knew I was going to like him. He began by not bringing the proper materials to the podium with him and had to race back to the table to scrounge around for the right ones. He made it back in perfect timing, just ready to begin his reading.
Erik Campbell has a very interesting story. He and his wife spent 5 years in Indonesia. Through the many years spent far away, he had the opportunity to experience a lot and broaden his range of writing capabilities. Many of the pieces he read were ones he wrote while over there, along with his recollections after returning back.
I found quite a few of his pieces very compelling in that he uses his sense of humor in a mature fashion. He began the reading with a series of short poems all encompassed by one theme, a Hamlet action figure series. The characters in this were Jason and Amy, who were in the crowd with us that evening. Campbell uses the names of loved ones in his poems instead of random names picked from the sky. This poem goes on to describe the many feelings and emotions experienced by many of the characters including The Gravedigger, Hamlet himself, Polonius, and Claudius. The humors exceeded in this poem are for all ages. The older crowd got laughs out of it as well as the younger crowd like myself. Along with the individual snickers here and there, Campbell knew how to correlate both kinds of humor into one line. He mentioned how he knew, “why the parents bought this game and children did not.”
After getting my attention, I deeply listened to the words he was saying. His vocabulary was so pronounce that I would get quite lost for awhile, but after a few moments, I would be right on track again. The poem I found was striking was one called, “The Strong Box” possibly because it relates to around my age. He got his inspiration for this piece after buying a safe with his wife. He felt “all grown up” buying this article because it meant that he actually has important documents now that could forever not be destroyed. He had car insurance, life insurance, a birth certificate, tax information, credit cards. Plainly said, he had grown up materials now, he wasn’t a kid. This seemed to be a moment in his life. He has realized something new. He mentions in this poem how he thought about testing this safe box under high temperatures because, “every mistake is made by a professional.” I thought that was very mature language.
Erik Campbell had a great sense of humor about him making it easy to relate to his audience. It wasn’t hard to keep my attention toward him. A great writer I would call him.