A slam poet with almost 10 million hits on YouTube performed at UNC Wilmington’s Burney Center on Feb. 25 to a packed auditorium of students. Most knew him by his breakout slam poem “OCD”, which went viral on the popular forum website, Reddit. 

Neil Hilborn graduated from Macalester College with a degree in creative writing and has written a full length book “Our Numbered Days,” a chapbook “Clatter” and an audio book “Northbound.” He is a Collegiate National Poetry Slam champion and has won multiple awards for his poetry. 

“Slam poetry was basically a bar game invented in the 80’s by a construction worker named Marc Smith. Marc Smith went to poetry readings and thought they were super boring because its just a bunch of people reading into their books and being monotone, so he devised a system whereby poets had to engage with the audience,” said Hilborn in an interview before the show. “It’s a way for poets to get instant feedback on their work, so similarly with the internet it becomes very apparent what people like, what’s getting people excited in the world of poetry right now.” 

Hilborn treated UNCW students to performances of poems from both his books and new pieces he has never performed live before. The second to last poem he performed in his show was written in Charlotte, North Carolina before his very first show on tour.  

The show was a manic mixture of poems and hilarious anecdotes. “I can be funniest when I talk about whatever day to day minutia I happen to be dealing with,” said Hilborn. “I find that I’m at my funniest when I’m making fun of whatever dumb mental health issues I’m dealing with.”  

Hilborn started the show with his viral poem “OCD,” one of his highest energy poems, which is a poem where he emphasizes the ticks he experiences while dealing with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  

He kept the performance high energy with his second poem “Audiobook,” which was a hilarious yet somber satirical piece that made fun of the tortured artist archetype. The poem focused on parodying the perception that an artist is unable to create meaningful art without being hopelessly depressed.  

After the first two high energy poems Neil moved on to “Ballad of a Bruised Lung,” which he explained was about an ex-girlfriend. In the poem, he takes an excerpt from an actual conversation they had, which he said was the line he is most proud of, “You are like a comet: every so often you come around to fuck up my shit.”  

The fourth poem he performed didn’t have a title because he had never performed it live.

All of his poems, including the nameless new ones, were well received by the audience. No one bothered to snap after his poems per normal poetry slam etiquette; all of his poems received thunderous applause. 

The next two poems he performed, “Pick Up Lines I Used to Get My Girlfriend that is Definitely Real” and “Unsolicited Advice to Minnesota Children,” both received thunderous laughter and applause. “These poems were both hilarious and really entertaining,” said Jenn Beach, a UNCW freshman that attended the event. 

Hilborn performed a total of thirteen poems, usually accompanied by hilarious anecdotes explaining what inspired him to write the poems. “Joey,” and a new poem dedicated to his pet rat Henry, stood out because they weren’t accompanied by a funny anecdote. 

After Hilborn performed “Joey” he took longer composing himself than he had for every other poem he performed up to that point.

“I always think this poem is going to get easier to do and it never does,” said Hilborn. The poem is about his friend Joey, who is still alive and healthy today, but struggled with mental illness and never got the help he needed. 

Beach said her favorite poem from the show was “Henry” because “the poem discussed what it means to love another person and have another person need you.” said Beach. “The poem was about Hilborn’s pet rat yet explored the topics of self worth and the motivation to keep going, to thrive for the future hope of fulfillment. To eventually have a family of your own.”

After the performance concluded, Neil Hilborn stood in front of the stage and met with everyone in the audience willing to wait to talk to him. Each person was able to share their admiration for him, buy a book and get a picture with him.

Beach said that if she had more time to talk to him she would have said thank you to him because “he’s very good at putting emotions into words and saying things I’ve felt but never have been able to express… he makes me feel like I’m not alone.”