While recognizing the intellectual system which orders the creation of dɔmɛisia, the critic must keep in mind that for a Mende audience the primary purpose of the performance is not intellectual. There are other verbal forms – riddles, proverbs, dilemma tales, and bondomi (a kind of ‘twenty questions’ game played by a performer on a thumb piano) – which are addressed exclusively to the intellect. The dɔmɛi must entertain. The accomplished performer must be familiar with the images of the tradition, and he must be adept at manipulating those images, but he must also sing well, conduct a chorus, use appropriate gestures and dance steps, pantomime, and be acutely sensitive to the reactions of his audience, if he hopes to engage them in the argument of his narrative. Thus a performer like Boi, who perceived and brilliantly exploited the intellectual possibilities of every image she used, was nevertheless not considered an accomplished performer because she could not effectively objectify the wonders of her narrative vision with the non-narrative elements of performance. Bobadeen Goba, Mattru's dɔmɛigbuamɔi, summarized the plight of such performers by observing that ‘Nowadays, ordinary people like the stories for the music and the entertainment; they don't know the stories have sense.’

Non-narrative performing elements are essential factors in the creation of every dɔmɛi, but their importance tends to increase with the increased professional status of the performer. Thus, at a local performing session in a mawɛɛi or a kuwui, performers might enhance their dɔmɛisia with several elements of performance without necessarily adapting those elements to their narratives or exploiting them for any special effect.