AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

I had a 4 year relationship with this man.
He had brain damage from a car accident in his youth and a walk that suggested a former broken hip.
He always wore the same hat.
A barrow Florist would give him damaged flowers and he would walk around the inner city giving them away.

(Who wouldn’t sacrifice a bit of brain damage for the opportunity to walk round town leering quite openly at women ,thrusting wilting flowers in their faces.)

His benefit to me was that he would always do the same thing, he would limp slowly
up to my corner , head down, seemingly oblivious to the audience and the rising tension until, at the corner he would stop and without looking up raise his left hand high in the air and flip me the finger. He’d then limp off. He had great timing.
I could create a ball and spin it on my finger and then transform it to his knowing exactly when his hand would shoot up and the finger appear.
I remember I impaled a stuffed toy on his finger by its butt once.
Didn’t like that.
I showered him with petals , he quite liked that
I bent suddenly as he passed and pretended he’d poked me in the eye with his offending digit, he didn’t notice that one, even funnier.
Most of the time I just highlighted his one moment, he got his laugh and chuckled off.
He was a regular.

Another regular was a nurse 50s, she,d approach pretending to read and then squeal and jump sideways, always got a huge laugh, she’d also sometimes borrow motorized carts from the hospital and motor 3 blocks into the mall past me and swerve out onto two wheels, she was a hoot.

I had another old woman that I could tempt to dance easily, she’d light up in front of 200 plus people, dancing with the stiltman.

Another elderly woman who did a great job of acting angry and attacking me with her stick about once a fortnight, I,d cower behind my flyswat terrified, she thoroughly intimidated me and the audience loved it. She spluttered convincingly, we were both seasoned professionals.