Sunday, July 23, 2006

Mario, Queen of the Circus

I found myself in a supporting role in the fantastic show of Mario, Queen of the Circus today. A Freddie Mercury lookalike juggler and street entertainer, he was appearing as part of the free Temple Bar human circus today. I was picked out of the crowd as the "husband" character in the show and just as I thought he had forgotten about me, my time had come.

A fake jealous husband routine followed - I just had to repeat whatever Mario said about his other "volunteer". So far so good. This ended up in a duel to the death with bananas. Not being a veteran of many banana duels I made the beginner's mistake of eating my first mouth full. Once I realised that in fact you spit each mouthful of banana at your opponent, I made much more progress. I ended up in triumph with a fine shot direct to the chest, lording it over my fallen foe.

But not so fast, said he. The duel was merely the warm up to...my rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody!

Mama I killed a man...

I was crowned with a portable microphone headset and given the lyrics. Despite the allegations, I was not a plant, I am not a professional street entertainer and what laugh. Dylan's favourite was how the song ended, a classic:

...air guitar!