July 5th- bayview, summerfest, jazz in the park.

Posted by R. Winsome.

Lucky and Pozzo went out again on thursday.

This time Rex Winsome played Pozzo (there's no way i was going to try and do lucky with my various forth of july induced injuries) and Kate Pleuss played Lucky. Our first female lucky. She played him as a man (so the shtick was still "this is lucky, HE'S a master of the performing arts) and with the too-big suit on, and the hat and hair-in-the-face people were sometimes fooled, othertimes confused about Lucky's gender. Susan Bischoff was the third and she drove us down to bayview because we haven't done any promotion for the show down there.

Bayview was unexpectedly dissappointing. Traffic was really light and people were generally confused, slow to respond and put-off. Made me glad i didn't end up moving down there. Fun requests? not really, a couple weird coincidences, two requests for the Ghettysburg Address and two renditions of Amazing Grace (first one was off the top of Kate's head when asked for a song, the second was specifically asked for) Oh yeah, there was a request for Lucky to crawl on his hands and feet accross Kinnicinic ave. Pozzo stopped traffic to keep it safe. We ran into Mark Buchardt driector of the Boulevard Theatre. He didn't even listen to the speil, got the referance, (yes, i've taken a high school theatre history class) started talking over us and then sarcastically dismissed us (it's all wrapped up in 401k's, sorry). What a dick. There were also these super lame gamer dorks who treated us like WE were geeks because we inturupted their D+D game to do street theatre. being looked down on by gamers was a low point in susan's life. Ran into two of Rex's high school teachers at Cafe Lulu, they managed to give us a dollar before we were kicked out.

Next stop was the summerfest gate. We parked a few blocks away, made a few bucks while walking from people who weren't going to summerfest and then took up position on one of the medians of the crosswalk by the art museum. Hundreds of people walked past. Not a single dollar. After ten minutes of failed begging, Susan and Ian went back for the car, a cop came over and told us we could beg ("you'll do anything for a dollar? Really? isn't that kind of... risky?" "oh don't worry officer, we don't do anything obscene or illegal, we find our way out of those kinds of things") but we couldn't do it on the median. We moved to a grassy area, dropped character and talked about how discouraging this crowd was. How these people reminded us just how much the east side is still a sheltered bohemian enclave and we're surrounded by millions and millions of dull boorish shitheads who won't do anything but stare and maybe laugh at street theatre performers, and didn't geekrock and grunge explode the whole idea of conformity and "coolness" in the 90s? How did it get so thoroughly re-entrenched so quickly?

While we moped, Susan and Ian created a new action on their way to the car. They became desitute russian actors begging for money to appease their opressive communist producer. something along the lines of: "My director, Rex Winsome, says that if i do not bring 15 dollar back he will beat me and rape me and send me back to old country in burlap sack. Thank you! Thank you jesus will not sodomize your children." This made some money. Ian was shocked: "if you need money, you can just ASK for it and some people will give it to you!" Susan is going to develop it further, costumes and what not.

Then we rolled over to Cathedral Square park and caught people loitering after Jazz in the Park. This was by far the most successful and fun part of the evening. Performances included: Tell me if that's a dude or a chick, I of course stayed in character and said Lucky is a man, and they then wanted to have an inspection, but didn't offer up the money for it. There was a drunk-as-fuck man who shouted angrily at us as soon as he saw us, but his friends were into it, so we performed through his tirades and insults. A few requests for magic tricks. Kate has a tendancy to perform at a distance. When she's thinking fast she must look to the horizon, cuz her solutions to sticky situations generally invovled walking 20 feet away. Then, the highlight of the evening: "here's a dollar, now lick my friend's balls"

There's actually a little backstory to this one so i'll go into detail. We walk up to the youngest group of people there and as i start the speil i realize one of them has something hanging out of the fly of his pants. something flesh colored. I give a quick glance without stopping the speil and, yes the young man is displaying his genetalia, only the scrotum and testicles. Kate does not notice this, which is probably fortunate as it turns out. We do a song for his freinds, he puts his balls back in his pants and sits down. Someone realizes that Pozzo looks a lot like his old friend from back in burlington's big brother. Someone else realizes that Lucky is being played by a female actor. This second person produces a dollar and tells lucky to lick the previously displayed balls. Kate does something i don't think i'd be able to do in the circumstances, and totally bluffs the guy. She walked right up to him and made a "i'm ready when you are" face. My little sister's friend protests: "wait guys, she might HAVE to do it, it might be part of the part that she HAS to! Stop!" Then the boy who was only moments ago proudly displaying his balls got totally uncomfortable, sat down, wouldn't even look at Kate and damn near crossed his legs. The original requester settled for a cartwheel replacement and we moved on.