January 21 - Bill McNamara

This show begs to be a great one as we are joined by master storyteller Bill McNamara, host of Cafe Montmartre's long running Thundering Word (formerly hosted by the late, great T Paul St. Marie).

I'm sure he'll have us all in stitches!

Bill McNamara first fell into Spoken Word rather late in life, in 2005 when a good friend named Wanda Nowicki read about a thing in the paper called "Story Slam" and urged him to go. Remember that name. Wanda. It took her a while to convince him but he finally went.
He was impressed with what he saw. He went back the next time and entered, taking first prize. He won the next one and the next as well. Then the year end finals came up and he became Vancouver's "Story Slam Champion" from 2005 to 2006.
That led to perfomances at The Festival of Spoken Word, The Vancouver Folk Fest, The 15th Annual Festival of Storytelling, In the House, Lafflines and he also had the great honor of providing 'after hours' entertainment for 72 of the finest poets in the world at the International World Poetry Slam finals when they were held in Vancouver! At that event he was priviliged to perform on the same stage as Jack McCarthy.
During this time Bill also spent a lot of time at various open mics around town honing his skills and trying new material. He was greatly encouraged Darleen Carty of the sorely missed Behind the Scenes and by T-Paul Ste. Marie who was the originator and host of Vancouver's finest Open Mic, Thundering Word. Remember that name. T-Paul.
At the same time, the wonderful Magpie Ullysses talked Bill into going to Poetry Slam. Never having been a big fan of poetry he was resistant to earlier suggestions of this event, but Magpie made it sound intriguing. He went and was immediately hooked. It wasn't long before he was on stage there and tho' he admits that there are many, many poets he cannot hope to hold a candle to in this city, he does have the distinction of being Vancouver's oldest Slam poet.
In the meantime, the host of Thundering Word passed away, May 27th, 2007 at the young age of 41. Yes, T-Paul was gone and so was Thundering Word. It lay dormant for a few months until Bill began asking around town if anyone would mind if he took a shot at reviving it. He knew there was no one who could hope to fill the very large shoes of T-Paul so he enlisted his old friend Wanda Nowicki to help with the hosting duties.
They re-launched TW to great success and for the last few years it has been going strong and getting better with each show. It goes every 1st, 3rd and, if there is one, 5th Sunday each month. They have had some incredible people feature there from all over the world and the Open Mic segment is a truly Open open mic. They have Music, Comedy, Poetry and more. You never know what you'll get at Thundering Word but one thing is for certain. It's always interesting! Bill continues to do host Thundering Word, attend Poetry Slam, Story Slam and various things that come along and is always interested in expanding his list of experiences.