The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life presents
DramaturgicalSlam
Front stage! Back stage! You'll be thrown off the stage!
Sanctioned by Commissioner Erving "The Presentation" Goffman
Region Match · Winner Controls the Performance
StageThe Idealized Self
StageThe Self Off Duty
Two regions enter. One performance leaves. The loser is exposed for who they really are. A region is any space bounded by barriers to perception. The bout cannot be decided, since the line between the two is sustained only by an audience agreeing to look from one side of it.
| Front Stage | Tale of the Tape | Back Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Public | Region | Private |
| The audience | Visible to | The team |
| Idealized | Standard of conduct | Relaxed |
| Full costume | Props | Costume discarded |
| The Impression | Finisher | The Reveal |
Mask vs Career
The masked legend who has NEVER lost face defends the mask against the man who spoils your identity on contact. Face-work is the effort to keep conduct consistent with the face one is claiming. The Stigmatizer manages a spoiled identity in others. Neither man wrestles. Both negotiate.
Grudge Match
The unstoppable monster who processes everyone who enters meets the man who SWEARS he doesn't even care about wrestling. A total institution absorbs the whole of the self that enters it. Role distance is the expressed separation a performer puts between himself and his role. Rodney cares enormously. The not-caring is the act.
Tag Team Titles
The champions are all gimmick and no substance. AND THAT IS THE ENTIRE POINT. A team is a set of performers cooperating to sustain a single definition of the situation. There is no substance behind the gimmick. There is only the gimmick, cooperatively maintained.
Special Acknowledgement Match
After a lifetime of being POLITELY IGNORED, he steps into the ring and DEMANDS to be acknowledged! Civil inattention is the courtesy by which strangers grant one another privacy in public. The crowd is obligated to glance and then look away. He will lose, and the loss will be respectful.
- The Cooler works every corner, cooling the mark out after each defeat.
- All disputed decisions reframed on the spot by senior official Frame Analysis.
- Free tie-sign with every paid admission, while supplies last.
Saturday Night
The Interaction Order Arena
One Night Only · There Is No Back Stage
All seats front stage. No refunds on the self. "The self is a dramatic effect arising from a scene that is presented." Doors at the back. Mind the discarded props.
A parody fight bill for entertainment purposes only. Dramaturgical Slam is not a real promotion and no actual selves were thrown off any actual stage. Erving Goffman (1922 to 1982) is not affiliated, being deceased, and was not consulted, the deceased being notoriously hard to book.