It’s hardly surprising that lots of audiences are a bit scared of Red Bastard. The New York-based performer might cut a comical figure – an almost amorphously unitarded blob somewhere between a rooster and a tomato – but there’s something of the leering cadaver about his pale face and red-rimmed eyes, and he wastes no time in shooting death stares at the crowd, getting in their faces, making them swap seats, even throwing them out of the venue if he doesn’t like the cut of their jib. All this confrontation, however, is a kind of ice-breaking that sets the scene for a disinhibited collaboration between performer and audience based on strict leadership and a contract of honesty in expression. Think a team-building away day, but with an aggressive, brutal red blob as the motivational speaker. Go along with Red Bastard and he could just change your life.
Part of the 2014 Vault Festival