Storyteller and poet Rives is the star of the new special "Ironic Iconic America." A regular on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, he's the co-host of the upcoming TEDActive simulcast event in Palm Springs. Offstage, Rives designs and writes pop-up books.
Why you should listen to him:
Flat pages can't contain Rives' storytelling, even when paper is his medium. The pop-up books he creates for children unfold with surprise: The Christmas Pop-Up Present expands to reveal moving parts, hidden areas and miniature booklets inside. On stage, his poems burst in many directions, too, exposing multiple layers and unexpected treats: childhood memories, grown-up humor, notions of love and lust, of what is lost forever and of what's still out there waiting to unfold.
On his Bravo special, Ironic Iconic America, he and costar Bar Rafaeli tour the United States looking for wonderfulness, on "A Roller Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture."
"This was great. He spoke like I imagine a good prophet would. Epic win!"Joshua Mullen on TED.com
Quotes by Rives
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“If I ran the Web, you could email dead people.”
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“Some days, I’m as shallow as a baking pan, but I still stretch miles in all directions.”
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“Mockingbirds — that’s Mimus polyglottos — are the emcees of the animal kingdom. They listen and mimic and remix what they like.”
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“For a time that I find to be the most placid and uneventful hour of the day, four in the morning sure gets an awful lot of bad press.”
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“You look like a mermaid, but you walk like a waltz.”
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“I think my heartbeat might be the Morse code for ‘inappropriate.’”
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“Right now, talking to you, I’m not even really a guy. I’m a monkey blowing kisses at a butterfly.”
