Red Bastard

I've just seen a provocative clown who aims to get as to change our lives.

Red Bastard is an edgy, dangerous act. It has good intentions again reminding us that we need entertainers to break out of our own patterns. (Why is that?) 

At the end of the show he strongly encourages (or gives the opportunity) to someone to do exactly that. He doesn't know how it will end, but in my show a man telephoned his girlfriend in Australia and told her she needed to respect his parents more.

At this, another man leapt to his defence (although thinking about it now perhaps a little late), suggesting that he was bullied or provoked into it. The performer took off his costume, articulately disagreed and offered himself for a post-show, well, let's say debate.

The person who took the opportunity defended the performer and the situation, henceforth to be known as the choice he made for himself. He agreed with the entertainer that he done something that needed doing.

Perhaps the entertainer judged it perfectly after all. I think he did. I think he knew what he was doing and I speak as someone who's leapt to the defence of many.

Not every exploration needs closing down. Sometimes you must encourage the opening of a door, even if you know it leads nowhere. Help them through it anyway and it may lead to another door. Tell me you know where that one leads, Nostradamus.

Dreams were discussed in the show - the dreams of the audience.

But who cares if you write that novel you always wanted to write?

Well first off, you do.

Do you want to write it and expect it to be a bestseller? Maybe it will be. Maybe it won't.

Maybe if you write it, another door will open. But either way it certainly won't occupy the same space in your head anymore.

You'll probably learn something through it. And you will be able to give yourself a big pat on the back and get on with your life.

Yes, you need to protect people from doors with precipices on the other side. Of course.

But you can also put protect someone by putting them in harm's way, letting them play in the mud a bit, building experience, creating resilience.

As my mother would say, a little bit of dirt never did anybody any harm.

This was a show of controlled harm, with clinical execution. 

And if that's OK for surgeons, it's OK for clowns and comics and it's OK for me.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if at tomorrow's fringe nominations, a little red bastard makes an appearance.