Two weeks ago we went to see Mike Daisy's monologue, Invincible Summer at ART. A great show.
Once upon a time, Mike was putting on a one man show in Seattle about the dot com life when a fire, a book deal, and some crazy ideas led him to move to New York City. After settling in to his new home, he started "working" on his manuscript when September 11th happened. In his new show he recounts all this and more.
The performance was excellent. Daisey is a master story teller. Even John Hodgemen gave it a great review on his blog (yes, John Hodgeman has a blog).
Then this afternoon I got an email with a link to this. Yes that's right, in the middle of the performance a group of protesters got up and stormed the stage. One guy poured water all over Daisey's notes and then the bandits left the show.
Why?
I guess they were upset. But they went to an ART show - what were they expecting??? Below the fold is the video of the entire event and some comments by the stunned Daisey. Careful, there is strong language in the clip.
To give you some background, Mike just moved to NYC and is describing how if New York City was a person, he/she would be a narcissist.
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Uh, does anyone have an idea WHY????
Mike was a friendly competitor of mine on the sketch comedy scene, and I was pretty damn happy to see him get all the press and the attention.
I'm just hornswoggled on why they would choose Mike to do this...he wasn't known for singling out anything except rampant stupidity...
Weird. The posting got me to spend 10 min. looking at this, but I'm not sure I get the point. It sort of looks like a not-very-interesting comedian making pretentious claims that his monologue is "theater". (I confess this is an impression of the very beginning -- I haven't seen enough to really evaluate, but based on what I've seen, the stupid pseudo-sophisticated jokes about Paris Hilton and living in NY, I certainly wouldn't listen any further based on the merits of the monologue.) Then a bunch of people get up and leave, and the talker becomes very upset. I sort of sympathize with him as it's a free country and he's just one more self-important guy trying to make a living by getting people to pay to hear him talk. It is a mystery why someone would bother to spend their money on it only to walk out, but perhaps something he said offended someone badly enough that they wanted some kind of revenge. It certainly seems like, if that was the purpose, it was accomplished. Anyway, it doesn't look like a stunt that was planned to enliven the performance. It does raise the issue, if he has the right to "perform" by running on about Paris Hilton and stuff, don't they have the right to respond by walking out?
It isn't the walking out that is the problem. That was merely rude.
It is that they felt the need to literally dump water on the papers that were his sole copy of his monologue outline in an attempt to damage them on their way out. That is a form of assault and akin to "keying" a car because the driver made you mad.
I am utterly speechless.
My friends and I went to see Invicible Summer a couple of weeks ago, and not knowing what to expect (since it hadn't been part of the original season's schedule), we were actually quite pleasantly surprised by his piece and enjoyed it very much. It's a hard skill to sustain an audience's interest with a monologue, but he did just that very well, and I feel like he managed to tackle some extremely touchy topics while still making us laugh.
I agree with Mike Daisy: the protestors' actions were nothing but cowardly. I would like to know, what did they accomplish? Dialogue? They did not even state what exactly about the work they were offended by! Shockingly rude behavior. Mike, on behalf of more decent Bay Staters, my sincere apologies!
Aha! They were not Bay Staters afterall. Figures.
From Backstage.com:
"...the protesters were a visiting choral group from Norco Senior High School in Norco, Calif., a suburb in the San Fernando Valley just west of Riverside. A woman from the group called the box office Thursday afternoon and wanted to order 87 tickets, Miller said.
The woman asked if the performance was suitable for high school students, said Miller, who added that the woman was informed that the material contained strong language and adult situations.
"She didn't have any problem," Miller said, and ordered the tickets. "Once the F-word started flying ... the adults led them out." Miller added that the students didn't seem to have a problem with the material, but the adults did. It is uncertain who poured the water on Daisey's notes, but it was a man who seemed to be in the early stages of male-pattern baldness."
What a strange comment. This isn't an ad. The nutty people didn't storm out during the bestest, funniest bits. It wasn't a "this segment is just too hilarious for us" protest.
I,am a Father,of one of the kids, my son was there .
One thing most people are missing. It seems to me, Mr Mike Daisey, knew before he posted on youtube, who this group were and came from. In the info area of the clip It states 87 members of a Christian group. why?
I talk to him about this in messages ,he said he had posted before he knew who they were. It does not look that way to me . The one that puts the clips on youtube, are able to pull their clips, and repost, They can remove comments and block veiwers from making a comment. Which he did to me.
Day of walk out 4-19-07
Talked with Cindy L. from the school and the man the poured water David 4-20-07 acording to news papers and his site.
Youtube shows posted 4-21-07.
Why? After reading much about Mr. Daisey and hid followers. I think I have the answer.
Seems as he forgave 1 and punished 86 others lets not count the other 11 adults just the 75 kids that were 14-17 years of age.
He heard there cries with their comments .
They were high school kids from s. California .there for choral competition.
Thanks Jim