The Drunken Showman

“Why are some people so good at art? Others are just angry.”

People do weird things. We cry as we laugh, work hard to complain when we get drained, chase for something to toss aside once we get our hands on it, and hate boredom but tremble at anything intense.

There is a kind of intensity that we can’t run away from.

42nd Street — There is a man who throws glass bottles every day at exactly 6:00 pm.

He throws different kinds, mostly liquor. I see him every day. I’ve been wondering why he chose here — dark alleys for his show. The townspeople call him Philip, the drunken showman.

I’m guessing he is ‘thirty-eightishh’. But I don’t think the nickname suits him. Drunk — well, he looked the part. But I never saw him drink a sip, not even once.

A showman is someone who can entertain an audience with some dramatic play. There is no stage, script, or lights and sound to sprinkle into the act of throwing.

Throwing. There is nothing unusual or special to it. All of us can throw things mainly to make space for new — things, people, memories, and feelings. Most need to and a few choose not to.

And then there was him, someone who is so good at throwing that nothing he throws gets broken. He has a creepy pre-ritual though; he holds the mouth with his right index and thumb like some fragile thing and places the bottom in his left palm like he is weighing something sacred. He looks at it like a child and then ‘boom!’ the bottle moves away from him and falls peacefully.

A gentle force. It’s like the bottle moved on its own and agreed to fall.

“Excuse me, Mister, what’s your trick?”

“What trick?”

“Come on now Sir, we know glasses break.”

“Kid there’s no trick and not all glasses break.”

“What do I need to do for you to tell me?”

“I already told you.”

Liar. I tried throwing a hundred bottles at home. I did his creepy ritual before each attempt. None survived the fall. I tried it with a different amount of force. I tried it with different angles. And then a thought hit me;

if it’s not the bottles

if it’s not the force I apply

if it’s not the angle

then it must be —

it is the thing I can’t change

the only I didn’t change

Yes!

“Kid there’s no trick and not all glasses break.”