I have received another e-mail from this blog’s occasional Canadian correspondent Anna Smith. This is what she said:
There is more very disturbing news from Vancouver…
Bad news from Canada for grazed comedian
A mentally ill person shot himself dead outside a comedy club and almost killed a comedian – Dave Shumka.
Shumka wrote about it in his blog.
He was leaving a comedy show at 11.15pm on 4th July with about fifty other people when a man ran into the crowd. Shumka wrote: “He then walked up to me and my friend and said: Hey how’s it going? He pulled out a handgun, lifted it up to my head and fired point blank… I didn’t realize what was happening at the time, but I ducked. I ran away and heard him fire two more times.”
Blog photo of Dave Shumka’s head last week
Shumka was grazed on the head and has posted a photo of the injury on his blog. He said he still has ringing in his ears from the shot.
Meanwhile, a sidewalk chalk illustrator grew tired of drawing gigantic Mona Lisas on Robson Street, (the main shopping street downtown) and instead created an incredibly lurid reproduction of Judith decapitating Holfernes – a bad copy of the version by Caravaggio. There was a wishing well drawn beside it to throw coins at. I can’t imagine what terrible wishes people might make after looking at such a thing….
On Denman Street, a photo of Oscar Wilde has been turned into wallpaper for the back wall of a telephone shop, where he appears to be imprisoned….
And a frustrated librarian at the Vancouver Public Library binding a new edition of Philip Roth’s novels applied the library bar code to the book’s cover in such a way that the author appears to be muzzled….
Philip Roth’s Complaint – gagged by librarian’s barcode
It has not been a good time for authors, comedy or art in Vancouver…
As if all this isn’t enough, the bears have been acting-up again in the outlying cities…
In Mission, a man was knocked to the ground after dropping his children off at daycare…Local residents said they are used to being lunged at by bears, but that it is unusual to be knocked over. The bear was reported to be after junk food… specifically a burger.
The bears have been unusually troublesome this year…
I try to send you news of quaint things that are probably not happening in Borehamwood, yet are not horrific enough to appear in the international news…
I was about to go to sleep several hours ago but, as an exercise, I decided to look up another, perhaps forgotten, British performer – Captain Keano, the Covent Garden busker…
Captain Keano (Paul Keane) used to print his own money – headed The Bank of Entertainment – and give away the pound note sized currency instead of business cards. The notes had on them his phone number, a drawing of himself and the promise printed thereon: I WILL DO IT ALL – ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS CALL. How innocent.
My father was on an airplane, departing from Helsinki, last week. Thanks to your blog, he knew that Mr Methane was due to arrive in the country at any moment….
Finland is a good place to perform, as the audiences are eager for outside stimuli that does not emanate from Sweden or Russia. Also their interior design is excellent, making it possible for road-weary performers to get from the bed to the toilet without injury. And the food is good.
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 