Great ideas happen behind the wheel.

BOOM beckons Bluz, a spoken word artist, to Snug Harbor April 28 6 p.m., April 29 6:30 p.m. and April 30 2:30 p.m. for his performance of “Road Trippin’.” Bluz, whose given name is Boris Rogers, has been involved with the festival since its inception, saw an opportunity to create a show.

“I’ve been toying around with the idea of writing a show,” he said. “Then my imagination started running wild, and it turned into a play about where a lot of my ideas happened, or a lot of things that happened in my life, happened in the car. I think for a lot of us who write, most of our great ideas and most of the things that we think about happen while we are driving to a point where it’s kind of annoying because I can’t write any of this down.”

To capture those moments before the marvels of recording technology on cell phones, Bluz would pull over and write down ideas, or place them on a napkin while driving.

“There would be times when I would hold onto the idea for the entire trip until I could get somewhere and put it down,” Bluz. “I could be sitting at home, nothing to do and nothing pops up, but the minute I get in the car and start driving to the store, 14,000 ideas pop up. I’m like ‘come on man. Brain, what are you doing today.’ It was those things that kind of helped spark the idea for the show.”

For Bluz, life-shaping moments have been attributed to his time spent on the road.

“A lot of my life experiences and things that have shaped me have happened while in the car,” he said. “This play is about my life from Charlotte to Columbia to see a friend who was in the hospital, and me reflecting on my entire life on that span of a trip down to see him, and then the trip coming back.”

“Road Trippin’” takes Bluz outside of his traditional style.

“A lot of it is set to music,” he said. “It’s different for me. It’s my first play that I’ve written for myself in its entirety. It’s a challenge, and it’s a little bit scary, because we all want to be perceived well, and I just hope people don’t hate it.”

Bluz and Carlos Robson performed at last year’s inaugural festival.

“Last year Carlos and I did a show that was more delivering Charlotte our college set that we may have done once in the city after five or six years of touring together,” Bluz said. “It was a really good chance to almost give back, and show off what we’ve been doing on the road.”

For more information:

boomcharlotte.org