This guy, whom I met in China at an international clown festival, (see day 17: Dado, who was this guy’s roommate) had a big freakin’ inflatable hammer and the punk would skateboard around this huuuuge park (kinda like a small Central Park) and whack random people on the head. Once I was doing a street show for a crowd of Chinese gawkers, and out of nowhere, WHACK! I fell on the ground, motionless for about a minute. When I got up, the stunned audience laughed their asses off. Fesso was about 100 yards away on a bridge, jumping up and down, taunting me with his hammer before scooting away again to find another clown to brutalize.
This is now his profile picture on FaceBook, which made me proud.
It’s interesting to me how performers, can form deep connections quickly. We became friends quickly – I don’t know why – and we hung out a bunch for the month. But my theory is that when you’re an entertainer, your social group is constantly changing because you’re traveling a lot. As a social animal, we as humans need to adapt, either by forming a group, which could become insular and xenophobic, or develop the ability to make deep and meaningful connections quickly. This ability is especially useful for clowns (and other comedians, public speakers, etc.), who need to get an audience to like them and go along for the ride within the first 20 seconds.
And yes, that is a frying pan on his head.
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