Elsewhere, on a similar and yet at the same time diametrically opposite theme, the ballroom-dancehall-by-day, nightclub-by-night La Paloma in Barca had been receiving complaints from the neighbours about the levels of late night noise. Bouncers couldn't solve it. The bar staff were helpless. Drunk people are rowdy and they shout, everyone privately shrugged. That's what they do.
Until the owners came up with an ingenious solution: mime artists. No really. From about midnight onwards, a group of mime artists in black clothes, whiteface and silly hats, stand holding "SSSSSHHH!" and "SILENCIO!" signs and pulling strange faces.
Oddly enough, it works. I've seen it in action and the success rate is remarkable.
The cod psychologists have suggested an explanation. If you put an intimidating figure in front of someone, so the theory goes, they'll either be scared or spoiling for a fight (cf reaction to riot police in previously peaceful antiwar marches). If, however, you put someone in front of a person completely helpless and utterly ridiculous, they won't know what to do.
So everyone just stares, drunkenly trying to work out what a group of mime artists is doing outside a club at 5am. Even more bizarrely, what anyone is doing smiling happily and waving you goodbye outside a club at 5am.
I for one would like to give a shout out to those hardworking late night mimes. And even if the scheme eventually backfires (as it surely would in the UK), as La Paloma knows, that the one good thing about mimes is they go down quietly in a kicking.
Posted by Andrew Losowsky at April 18, 2003 01:29 AM | TrackBack�Ay, la Paloma!
I saw a great gig there by Tot� la Momposina a couple of years ago. The show ended with the band bringing their drums down off the stage and joining the audience in an enormous conga of about two hundred people.
Lucky we didn't go out into the street - from what you say, I'm not sure the neighbours would have appreciated it.
Posted by: Stuart at April 18, 2003 04:12 PMNot the only solution either according to Wired News:
Busty Bouncing
A nightclub in Cologne, Germany, has devised with a new way to halt troublemakers and reduce violence. Gone are the muscular, don't-mess-with-me thugs at the door. In their place the Beatclub employs naked women as bouncers. Since the transition, turnover has doubled, aggression levels are down and guests find it more fun to stand in line: "When they come out on the streets they have to wear a coat, but it's not fastened and there is plenty to see. It takes your mind off everything else," commented club-goer Stefan Wurz. One bouncer, wearing high-heeled boots over black suspenders with a fur coat open at the front, said she hasn't had any trouble. "If they are over 18 and well dressed, they have a good chance of getting past me," she said.
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Posted by: Andy at May 6, 2003 02:04 PM