In light of Whitney Pastorek’s excellent posts calling for civility on our message boards, I want to share an incident that happened — live, in front of an audience, and captured on video — up Boston way. Mike Daisey is an accomplished monologuist who, unlike Eric Bogosian or the late Spalding Gray, never does the same show twice. Instead, he charts out each night which topics he wants to cover. He’s currently starring in Invincible Summer at the American Repertory Theatre, the professional stage company in residence at Harvard. Last Thursday, 87 audience members exited a performance, en masse, objecting to his use of (heavens, no!) the good old f-word. Watch the show come to a screeching halt in the (obviously NSFW) clip after the jump, and don’t miss what went down after one guy detoured onto the stage to empty a water bottle on Daisey’s handwritten notes, destroying his original manuscript.
What’s remarkable isn’t that some extremists were rude to a guy whose job is to sit on a stage and express a strong point of view, at times in strong language, but rather how Daisey addressed his audience in the aftermath. So cool you’ll wish you could reach into YouTube and shake his hand. And, as recounted on his blog, Daisey actually dared to find the water-bottle man and discuss the incident with him, calmly.
I have no idea what it’s like to live in a country where "moral police" is more than an abstract concept, where people using some words or opinions actually get punished. If you have, do tell: Didja like it? Really? I don’t mean to be glib, I just wonder why freedom of speech is such a problem for anybody. Water bottle man, if you’re out there, what’s the deal?
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This was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. The way he reacted afterwards was amazing. What he said was so true, why would you come if you had no idea what you were seeing????
As a Christian, quite frankly I’m appalled. Mike was absolutely correct in saying that you’ve got to know what you’re going to go see! I wasn’t offended. It actually made me search for more monologues. The “protestors” did have the right to walk out, as inanely as they handled it, but they had NO RIGHT to destroy the man’s work. That’s actually a crime. You can’t just dump water on his notes because you don’t like what he’s saying. That group’s ignorance give rational, pragmatic Christians like myself a bad name.
Wow. The video was great but the blog entry was especially thoughtful and illuminating.
Man…Mike Daisey took that a lot better than most people would have. If that was me, I probably would’ve gotten really pissed off and quit performing the show. I’d buy him dinner for his amazing conduct alone, despite the idiot who poured water over his handwritten manuscript.
The blog was even better and much more thought provoking than anything I’ve read in the past month. If the future of Christianity includes fag bashing Christians and Catholics like the irrational and biased water bottle guy, I fear for its future. No wonder the religion gets such bad rep recently with characters like these giving it such negative press.
I hate to say it, but I must ‘live in a country where “moral police” is more than an abstract concept, where people using some words or opinions actually get punished,’ Just a few weeks ago a radio commentator got fired for his use of ’some words’.
That was absolutely unbelievable! As another Christian, I found David’s behavior appalling…as an artist, I was totally disgusted. Water bottle man is raising children who will be just as rude, disrespectful, and destructive as he is. If the material was too much for the high school group, their administrator should have done a better job of researching the show before checking it out. The box office told them it was strong language (maybe they thought strong language meant he would say ‘dag-nabbit’) Idiots!
Mike Daisey’s response was priceless. I want to check out one of his shows in the future. He gained a fan tonight.
Just to clarify, I do not approve of hate speech or racist speech, nor do I condone the actions of Mr. Daisey’s audience. But let’s not kid ourselves by thinking that there are no ‘moral police’ in this country.
Brad…here is the thing: Imus was fired (thankfully) because people who thought he had gone too far decided to get the ‘money’ involved. He is still free to say whatever ignorant things he wishes to do (on street corners, in the supermarket, at the IHOP), but MSNBC and CBS are no longer paying him for it. Just as we can expect to get reprimanded for calling our coworkers kinky-maned street walkers, he is accountable for the things he said.
Water bottle guy destroyed someone else’s property. PERIOD. He had no right to do it. I respect the group’s right to leave the performance. I’ve exited early from some inappropriate and crappy shows in my lifetime. If he had just walked out with the other folks, this story probably would not have gone so far.
Come to think of it, the high school group leader missed a great teaching moment for the kids. Why not voice why they were leaving the event? Even an explanation like: “See kids, his soul is tainted by Satan…”
Hey Brad, With all due respect, I think you miss the point. A corporation which was losing advertising dollars because of one broadcaster’s use of airtime made a decision to cut their losses and let him go. If you read what Daisey has to say, you’ll understand he wants people to be respectful of each other when disagreeing; he doesn’t say disagreement itself is bad. What if listeners who Imus offended, or the Rutgers girls themselves, had cornered him in a public way and thrown dog-doo at him? A very healthy, grownup debate ensued after Imus offended people. In this case, the dude who charged the stage while Mike Daisy was working was clearly trying to P*ss all over this man in a public & humiliating & personal way. He didn’t ask to converse with Mr.Daisy about his objectionable language, he didn’t organize a petition or write a letter to the editor. He saw himself as a vigilante member of some kind of moral police, and free from any obligation to treat other human beings with respect.
Brad, that’s a load of BS comparing this to Imus’s ordeal. The only reason Imus got fired is because CBS lost advertisers, not because of his inappropriate statements. I’ve never heard of the guy before a couple weeks ago, but from my understanding, he’s said remarks just as offensive and idiotic for years. He even slandered the Clintons in a public display, yet it took an overblown case like this to fire him? It all goes back to money…he’d still have a show if CBS didn’t lose so much money in the fallout. Fox cancelled the OJ special for the same reason, knowing the special would antagonize everybody. Hypocrisy like that is the worst comparison to this honest display of character between an entertainer and the water bottle guy.
I agree. The blog was powerful. As a public high school teacher though, I can understand the usage of “safety issue”. I am scared to death to show my my students a Sister Wendy art video for fear that parents will unite and call for my resignation. In that case it is a safety issue. My job safety. We need to continue the dialogue. It isn’t christian vs. atheist or liberal vs. conservative. It’s living in a litigious society. Water bottle guy didn’t want to discuss but do damage. American parents don’t want to dialogue with teachers, they’d rather get them fired. Gone is our motto “In God
We Trust”. Now it’s “I’m Gonna Get You Suckah!”
I have a huge amount of respect for Mike and how he handled all this. I feel sad for David, that as a “Christian”, he could be so shocked at Mike’s forgiveness.
Who knew those Harvard kids were such staunch defenders of Paris Hilton?!
re: gypsy’s comment
Bear in mind that everything we know of David is coming through Mike; something tells me that David might disagree with Mike’s assessment of their phone conversation.
And although Mike told David he’s forgiven him, it doesn’t strike me as very much in the forgiving spirit to then basically further dress the guy down through his blog entry.
As a Christian and a lover of art, I’m deeply embarrassed. Had this man offended me, I’d have tried to talk to him; however, I didn’t find him offensive. I’m offended by the sexualization of violence and perpetuation of fairytale romance that I see being fostered on children, not a guy using the f-word in a room full of adults. When will people stop thinking only of immediate image and start trying to see the innocence or danger of the underlying message? Glad he had a sold out show. Excuse me while I look for more of his work.
What I love the most about this situation, and what protestors like these people never seem to understand, is that their little tantrum does so much more to promote this “offensive” material and birng it to more people around the world than it ever does to silence it.
I didn’t know who Mike Daisey was before this indicent, but now i do and from what little I’ve heard he sounds funny and insightful and I’ll probably seek out more of his material.
It’s pretty much the best exposure Mike could ever ask for, not to be cliched but you really cannot buy publicity like that!
I think that the people who got up and walked out, and especially water bottle guy, are incredibly rude. If you don’t like something you can quietly leave, but I agree with what Mike said, find out what you are seeing before you go, if you get offended so easily. The country is quickly becoming less about freedom and more about what a vocal minority thinks is right.
The protestors had been told that the show contained potentially objectionable language and material when they bought tickets. They deliberately went to the show to do this. A walk-out would have been enough, but they had a person commit a criminal act of vandalism as part of it. Mr. Daisey was targeted and the victim of a hate crime. That these people were, many of them, high school students taught to attack others in this way is a sign of just how bad things have gotten in America. And yes, sign me up for the Mike Daisey fan-club. Few could have acted with such grace.
The webmasters at http://www.spaldinggray.com
are 100% behind Mike.
And by the way, Spalding often changed his show every night – depending on the show he was doing.
jb
As has been said on this site, I hadn’t heard of this man until today. And now I have tickets to his entire four-show run of “Great Men of Genius” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Thanks for the heads-up on what should be a great show.
I,am Father, 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 was 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 veiws from miking 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 . thank you for your time Jim