Reading Between the Rhymes: An Interview with Performance Poet jem rolls
In the uniquely Canadian wagon train that is the Canadian Fringe Festival, jem rolls is kicking off his tour in what might just be his favourite city on Earth: sunny, green Montréal. This one-of-a-kind high-energy English performance poet’s career began at the age of 31, when he semi-accidentally stumbled on stage at a ‘terrible’ open mic in North London and never stopped. Feeling liberated by the possibilities of spoken word poetry, jem rolls is now doing his 21st full Fringe tour and is even making a stop at Kingston’s Tett Centre to perform his show jem rolls: Adventures in Canadian Parking Lots.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
For jem rolls, the best part of his job is the people he travels with. Each year, he and a group of various other artists gather in Winnipeg to begin their journey through Canada for the Fringe tour. He describes this group as a wagon train of sorts, saying “I’m just one wagon on this wagon train, and my friends reach their way.” With the tour across Canada taking over fifteen weeks, jem rolls has reflected on the struggles of getting used to the constant traveling. Fortunately, with the unwavering support of his crew, the journey is less daunting and much more enjoyable.
Have you performed in Kingston before? And if so, how does it feel to be back?
I have not performed in Kingston before; I have only passed through once for my birthday, fifteen years ago. I went to a drive-in cinema to watch a movie. We don’t have drive-in movies in Britain, so the actual drive-in aspect was more interesting than the movie itself. I’m from Surrey, near where the original Kingston [Kingston upon Thames] is. I’ve been in Kingston briefly, but I have never performed there. I am looking forward to it, though! By the time I get there, I’ll have done the show eleven times already. I’m doing two shows in one day. I used to call it a “half-marathon while shouting,” but that’s no longer really true; I’ve calmed down with age. It’s quite a lot of work, so twice in one day is plenty.
After the tour, I’ll probably calm down by going on a 1,000km walk across Spain. I’ll probably do the Camino. It takes about five weeks to walk, a bit like the Fringe tour, since you’re also rolling around the country. It’s a bit more nomadic. I haven’t had a home since 2007, not properly, so I tend to keep in motion. I have a piece in the show called God of Motion that is kind of about that.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Really, from all over. From a lot of books, from a lot of movies, and I wander aimlessly. If I were to think about this show and the pieces I’m going to do, one of them is, in a sense, just me having a laugh about chats with a friend of mine who is a mother. The piece is called A Cool and Trendy Mom is Rubbish. She really said all of these lines to me, and I wrote them down.
Another one came from walking down the street in Derbyshire and imagining what movie everyone is in. All you have to do is look at a person and ask, “What movie are they in?” It’s a game that everyone can play, even in a café if you’ve got lots of time to spare. Inspiration can come from all sorts of people, from all over the world.
The last one is more of a poetic introduction to the idea of Fringe. The Canadian Fringe tour is truly unique, and I don’t think Canadians realize that it doesn’t happen like this anywhere else. The first principle of the Canadian Fringe tour is that the artist keeps 100% of the door. That just does not happen in any other country.
And in a sense, the sources of inspiration really do come from all over. I read a lot of history, always looking for ideas and parallels between then and now, things that are universal and unique and constantly moving forward. And the writing takes a long time, and that slow process is really quite good for the pieces. For example, the piece that I started the show with is less than a minute and a half long, but it took me ten years to finesse into a lyrical fluidity. It’s quite nice doing this kind of work over the years.
What does your creative process look like from idea to performance?
That’s quite a big question, because it’s not the same for each piece. I’ve got a piece in this show that I have not written out. I’ve always been a bit terrified by the idea of improv and ad-libbing, but with this piece, the story is there; I just haven’t written the words down.
Generally, given that I’m a performance poet, these pieces have been knocking around for quite some time, being honed into shape, and hardly any of them have been written only once. There is nothing special in the act of writing itself; it seems to happen on the spot, but it’s good when things have happened in a different way, different context, with different textures, and different styles.
One of my newer pieces is science fiction. I’ve had the idea for thirty years to try science fiction, but only now did I think, “I could really do something with that!” So, sometimes it just starts with one idea or one line. The science fiction one started as one idea, and I kept fleshing it out until it became a story.
What do you hope your audience will take away from your show?
A bunch of ideas, really. It’s meant to be fun, it’s meant to be entertainment, it’s meant to get them thinking. Thinking that more is possible than when they first walked in. More in terms of language, in terms of performance, and in terms of what a show can actually be. Most people on tour are not like anyone else, and I get the impression that I’m quite original, too, so I hope that the audience leaves the show with a new perspective.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just the uniqueness of the Canadian Fringe tour. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I enjoy how straightforward it is compared to other tours around the world. You get to be your own producer, and that gives you a lot of freedom as an artist.
jem rolls is a high-energy English performance poet, who has done more Fringe Festivals than anyone on Earth this century. Shows feature dumb comedy, smart comedy, dark tales, and lyrical poetry. More information about jem rolls can be found on his Facebook page.
‘jem rolls: Adventures in Canadian Parking Lots’ comes to the Tett Centre on June 21, 2025 as part of the TK Fringe Festival in The Kick & Push Festival. More information can be found here.
