643: Damned If You Do…
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A couple months ago, Amanda took her buddy Aaron to see the rodeo in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Amanda goes nearly every year. Aaron had never been. This was the professional Bullriders tour. And one of the pleasures of that particular tour is the guy they have is a rodeo clown, Flint Rasmussen. The guy is like a consummate entertainer. Like a consummate entertainer. What do you mean? I mean, he commands the crowd. That's Amanda. Brad Rasmussen's official title, in fact, is not rodeo clown or barrelman. It's entertainer. And I like when you make a picture in a rodeo clown. He speaks. He does a running powder, the whole show, joking with the audience. He works in clown makeup and a cowboy hat, baggy gym shorts, athletic jersey. Her friend Aaron totally enjoyed him. He was constantly finding people in the crowd who had their cowboy hat on backwards. Yes, backwards. These were New Yorkers out for the night in Western gear, having no idea how to do it properly. If we had to have the cameraman pop them onto the jumbo train. I mean, it was a great joke. You know, he called them Woody, like the Toy Story character. That's so cold. Rasmussen is also an amazing dancer and great physical mimic. He moved like Michael Jackson or Elvis or for laughs, a piece of bacon on the griddle. He dances with people in the audience. And in that show at Madison Square Garden, there came this moment. He was out in the audience, moving up the aisles. Here's Aaron. He was dancing with people in the crowd, interacting with them. And a girl in her mid 20s came down to dance. And he visibly got uncomfortable and started backing off. And asked the arena if she was too young and if this was appropriate for him to be dancing with her. And what does the arena say? The arena is fine. The girl on the jumbo train visually gives consent, verbally gives consent. Said yes, yes, yes, yes. She was ushering him closer. As he was backing away, she was like, no, you can come closer. And he shakes his head and like walks away. While she's still like egging him on, but he does not want to cross the line. I remember if we used this as a man in clown makeup and a cowboy hat. Aaron was like, wait, has me two made it to clowns? I turned over and looked at my friends and I was like, you would not have seen this a year ago. Yeah. This is an amazing experience to see how the world is changing, like right in front of your eyes. Now remember a friend Amanda had seen Flint Rasmussen many times before in Madison Square Garden. And she told me, yeah, in the past he would dance with the young woman as comedy. Yeah. Like very big, very exaggerated, very physical, like slightly inept. But in general, his schtick with women was like fake flirting. Fake flirting, yeah, and like very like cartoonish, like over the top. And was it playful? Playful. And she says, never threatening, never ever creepy. And he's like really floppy and you know, he's this like middle-aged corny guy wearing like gym shorts.
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