Book Launch Zoom Bomb

Poeticus Interruptus

The Sweet Spot in Chaos book launch event just after the zoombomber was 86’d (reenactment)

     I went to a book launch on Zoom
     In a virtual poetry room
     But there uninvited
     A Zoombomb ignited
     And burst from some Fruit of the Loom.

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The above is a fairly true account of what happened in my first Zoom session last week for the launch of The Sweet Spot in the Chaos. I’d heard stories about horrible zoombomb situations and knew that it was ill-advised to publicly post Zoom links ahead of an event because nefarioius ne’er-do-wells and malicious mischief-makers lie in wait to seize on just such an opportunity. I thought I’d been pretty careful. Nonetheless, about five minutes into the session, I — being in charge of gatekeeping, tech support, guitar strumming, and poetry spieling — and a little distracted — let a strange fellow in, who, moments later seemed to have launched two more windows into the gallery. In both windows the same video was playing: a grotesquely-naked loudly-moaning male masturbator — his duplicated motions and moaning chaotically out of sync between the two windows. After a minute or so of fumbling with switches and dials in the Zoom control center, I was able to shut down the two-pronged intruder, and that was that. A poetry reading that will not be soon forgotten, with an outbreak of chaos at the outset to go with the book’s title.

Have a zoombomb story? Or feel like trying your hand at a limerick of your own? Please have at it in the comments.

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