This month literary journal Going Down Swinging will present a series of shows around Australia featuring spoken word rockstar Derrick Brown. As a special treat for Readings he has answered Jonathan Safran Foer’s ‘Two Minute Personality Test’ questions from his Cultivating Thought Author Series.

What’s the kindest thing you almost did?

I ate bacon from a hog that looked depressed.

What’s your earliest memory?

Standing on my Father’s lunchbox at age 2, looking out the windows at morning while he waited for his ride to come and take him to the shipyards for long days of work in Long Beach. I remember he called me his watchdog and would touch my head as he walked out the door.

Which feels worse: to know that there are people who do more with less talent, or that there are people with more talent?

For me it is most frustrating to know that there are people who HAVE to do more for themselves as an artist, even though they are more talented but lack connections. The reason I started my press was 2 fold: The first being the ammunition to give rise to great voices I was stumbling across in the American poetry underground. It was frustrating how the system used to work. You had to have an agent and you could only get an agent if you had a book and you could only get a book if you were in an MFA program and were cozy with the professors. There was so much talent in those bars and basement parties, I wished someone would have come along and scooped them up and thrust them into the limelight. I got tired of waiting and started my own press a decade ago for poets who wrote well and read well onstage.

Do you walk on moving walkways?

If I have been sitting on my ass for over three hours on a plane, hells yes. I drink a lot of beer and I am always pretending like I am burning it off.

How many years of your life would you trade for the greatest month of your life?

I’d trade ten to have two birthdays over and over. One was a 40th birthday dance off and roast where people get onstage and destroy you. Amber Tamblyn, JB and Mindy invited all my pals and coordinated a surprise roasting by video from Parker Posey, Amy Poehler and Amy Schumer. Then my 34th birthday in Alaska which in one day had dogsledding, snowmobile jumping, a fun reading, karaoke and wildness at freezing temperatures with pals.

What would you tell your father, if it were possible?

You should have thrown away everything that you didn’t need. Kept closer everything you did.

Which is changing faster, your body, or your mind? Is it cruel to tell an old person his prognosis?

Body. I can barely drink whiskey anymore without feeling like a creep.

When you pass a storefront, do you look at what’s inside, look at your reflection, or neither?

I’m a ghost. This question is offensive.

Is there anything you would die for if no one could ever know you died for it?

I would die for any fellow paratroopers, unless they were idiots. I would also be fine dying during a failed art attempt to cover the empire state building in a massive cloth that made it look like a huge weiner.

Is there anything you feel a need to confess?

I think Justin Timberlake is a baby genius.

Come and see one of Derrick’s events as part of the Emerging Writers’ Festival! This includes a performance at One-Night Wonders, the first of a new spoken word series curated by Going Down Swinging, a workshop on poetry for performance, page and publication and more!