Pope just died

[gav]

Just this evening I got all my gear together to go and do my first show in 6 months(damn I was nervous), as fate would have it, my sound system refused to function properly even though it worked fine when I tried it at home. I was planning to go out again tomorrow if I managed to fix my sound problems, but now the Pope has died and I don't think it's such a good idea. Croatia is 95% Catholic and I'm pretty sure that tomorrow I would get stoned if I went out to make people have fun!! Maybe I'll just get 'stoned' instead.
Seriously though, this is quite a dilema for me. Just how long will people be in mourning for him? How long should I wait untill resuming my efforts to entertain? I'm non religous, so really have no idea about how these things effect people. Are there any practising or non practising catholics on these boards that could enlighten me as to how long i should wait?
The only thing I could compare this to is the day I went to do a show on my local pitch in Fremantle Australia and ended up bailing and wondering why so many people seemed so down and unentertainable(is that a word?) Turns out that princess Di had just kicked the bucket !! I couldn't believe how much that effected people, even people I know who I thought didn't have a royalist bone in their body were in a serious funk about it!
I am definately in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[gav]

news just at hand

The Italian media said he had died, but now the vatican has come out and said that he is not dead ! Probably he is, but apparently they have to wait 2 hours befor they can officialy announce it.
I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

[martin ewen]

He might be just holding his breath

I do that sometimes.

[Jim]

Oh my god... is this sudden? I didn't know he was ill.

[martin ewen]

side note

I was in Perth too when Di died. It was the first real instance where you saw the effect of mobile phones in the general population. It seemed it was as good a reason to ring your friends as any. Perth it was round mid-day when in France it was the evening of the crash. Phones were going off during my show and ripples of info would flicker across the crowd in murmurs. People put on their tragic brows but they kept watching me work. By my second show I had a piece where I would mime winding down a window to vogue for the cameras before giving the photographers the finger and then I would stagger round erratically before running into a wall where I would die, become an angel and meet god who would show me my choices. (I made hell look the more interesting)
Once you have an audience following a mime narrative they become a little entranced and its hard to escape till you finish. I took them on a bit of a disrespectful journey and it amused me to feel their suburban outrage and betrayal at the conclusion. It was not a good hat.

I was in Japan while the emperor was on his death bed. They had continual readouts on all the major networks in a little box in the corner of the screen that showed his heart rate, the amount of urine he had produced that day (seriously) and a few other factors.
They had him plugged in, he hadn't been conscious for some time. No-one really had the power to turn him off.
Some events still went on, gigs continued but officially it was like 'muted happiness zone' you were still allowed to enjoy yourself but not excessively and no new gigs were being organised by corporations because of the indecisive nature of the situation and the tendency to err on the side of cultural caution.
It went on and on, I started a lottery, $5 and you could pick an AM or PM of any date, winner takes all. But weeks past and I got bored and went to Taipei for a working holiday and left a big jar of money in my barman's capable hands.
They ended up turning him off over a long weekend so it didn't impact business at all. You were just sposed to be sad on your monday off.
Winter was approaching so I cut out to Australia for a summer instead.

Is he dead yet?

[gav]

I'm not sure if he's dead yet

Originally posted by Jim
Oh my god... is this sudden? I didn't know he was ill.

Shame on you Jim !
He's been in and out of hospital for years now, and more recently it looked like they'd propped him up in the window at christmas and had someone there wave his hand for him whilst he mumbled(sounded suspicially like'get me to a hospital you cruel buggars)
I still can't believe the Italian media announced his death prematurely ! What a thing to get wrong.
I'll check up on it now.
Martin, your show has always been more suited to the dark side than mine. That routine sounded pretty funny, but I'm surprised you weren't beaten to death by a gang of handbag swinging grannies ! Even on a good day in Perth it's a possibility.

[gav]

he's still haging in there

He's been near death for 7 hours now. This guys stamina is unbelievable, I've never heard of anyone being so close to death for so long, especially after being pronounced dead already.
From all accounts it seems it will happen sometime today, and rest assured I will not be in the middle of my show when it happens.Imagine though, 'And now, for my finale, the pope shall die!'
I had planned to have a bbq though. I guess it can be a wake(is that how you spell it)

[em]

he's proper dead now but i don't think its a shock to the nation... wait a day,do a show see what happens, i reckon (don't quote me) you'll be fine...

[eurobuskers]

3 days?

three days i believe.


Ive died many times and in public!
nobody cried....

[gav]

it is here

Originally posted by em
he's proper dead now but i don't think its a shock to the nation... wait a day,do a show see what happens, i reckon (don't quote me) you'll be fine...

I'm sure it's not much of a shock to your nation, but like I said, it's 95% catholic here, even the news reader was crying when they showed footage of the service. Women are walking around in black everywhere. there's quite a somber feeling.
I'll give it a few more days.

[firegirl]

my grandmother called me to tell me about the pope's passing... she was quite upset - as she is polish and felt a particular affinity with this pope. my dad says to send her a condolence card - but, i think that's just too silly.

what it would say:
Dear Gramma,
I'm sorry the Pope died.
Love,
Kate

does halmark even make a card for the passing of a pope?

geesh.

[miquee]

the hats were pretty shit in italy the day after the poop died.
i thought of a great joke but didnt risk it...
in italian they say "every death of the pope" which means once in a blue moon...
i wanted to ask my female volunteer to go to bed with me after the show...cuz, well, i'm really unlucky with girls, in fact, i have sex every death of the pope... (pause) , its my lucky day!
oh well... maybe next time

[UCO]

Ballsy mike, try it next year. later in the season maybe. i like that though. I would assume the hats suck after that. I think they will improve when George Bush dies.

[charlatan_mudo]

Good mourning, good afternoon, good night..

Looks like now is the time to, if not go in mourning, at least be sort of despondent and stuff for anyone who thought and hoped the next pope would be someone aware of the fact this is the 21st century. Well, nothing doing it looks like. The chosen one is aged 78 and reputed to be more conservative than old John Paul the Second was in numerous affairs.
As for "Number Two", the question of his last days evidently was not if he would die or not, but how long he would hang on. The day after he finally went away, I arrived in Barcelona and saw this commemoration meeting of several hundred people on the Cathedral avenue. Actually, it looked more like a mixture between a party and a sect meeting, because in the middle of the multitude there were about eight part-time musicians with guitars and drums; the rest of the crowd went in circles around them, singing and clapping. Odd to say perhaps, but seeing a reprise of this happening at nightfall of the same day, once more attended by both young and old alike (including entire families as well as a few accidental tourists) was impressive in a strange way.