The Spoonful in the title relates to a certain Vis The Spoon, frontman of punk rockers Electricity Comes From Other Planets. As well as promoting bands at the Rhythm Factory, Spoon bills himself as the 'Sweary Pam Ayres' -- he's performed his poetry at all kinds of gigs and festivals. He claims to have retired as a poet to make room for new talent -- but ply him with enough booze and he might reconsider.

Spoon has nurtured A Spoonful of Poison into a great showcase for brand new talents who are finding their way. Playing your debut gig to a room filled with hundreds is an intimidating prospect at the best of times. Monday night however is a less stressful time, as the chances of the venue being packed out are slim. Another bonus of an open-mic night is that much of the audience is composed of other performers, who are usually respectful of their colleagues.

In typical style, the Mullah breached this particular covenant by heckling one of the poets. Not only did the poet give as good as he got, I think the adrenaline thrill of sparring verbally with me inspired him to new heights. Alas, he didn't hang around long enough to heckle me in return, in spite of my offer to let him do so later. Maybe approved heckling just doesn't have the same buzz.

So finally it came my turn to get up on the stage. The first thing that struck me was the lights -- they were shining in my eyes! Which was initially disorientating, but once acclimatised it was nice not being able to see the audience as there was less pressure!

I did hear a heckle early on in my pre-poem banter, but I rambled on and no more heckles came thankfully. The Mullah likes the sound of his own voice, so he was spending more time listening to it booming through the speakers than paying any attention to the invisible audience!

After ranting on for a while, I announced that I wasn't here to perform stand-up comedy but poetry. I launched into my performance and completely messed up the end of the first verse with an ill-advised bit of improvisation. But no-one knew the true verse, so I just sailed on and doubt that anyone even noticed.

Before I knew it, it was all over and the crowd were very generous with their praise, as was Mine Host. I'd definitely come back for another Spoonful -- and if you're a new poet or musician, I'd commend it to you too.

A Spoonful of Poison is at the Rhythm Factory every Monday, 8pm-Midnight.