Gregory Corso: His cafe recitations were often more playful and humorous than Ginsberg's, and he was known for his use of slang and profanity. His most famous cafe performance was likely "Marriage," or, "The Days of Good Luck & The Wedding (for Anne Waldman), a poem composed on stage at the Gaslight on September 30, 1960. Corso’s poem to Waldman has a long and controversial publishing history but was ultimately collected in Corso’s Gasoline (New Directions, 1968) as "My True Story (For Anne)." Like most performances at the Coffee Gallery it features both Corso’s signature humor and pathos and also the poet riffing directly to and occasionally with, an attentive young crowd. Like Corso's published collections it also contains references to other artists, in this case his friends Jack Kerouac (who he names) and John Clellon Holmes (alluded to but unnamed).
Jack Kerouac: He rarely read in public when not reading from On The Road but he was still considered an iconic performer.