Bob Slayer summed up his entire Edinburgh Festival philosophy when he said "I don't wanna be serious, I wanna be silly."
The man responsible for the appearance of thousands of penis-shaped stickers throughout the City of Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival spoke openly and enthusiastically about the comic mayhem he had induced. Not surpisnigly since it has won him the 2001 Malcom Hardee Cunning Stunt award for the most outrageous comedy publicity stunt on the Fringe.
Speaking to Show Me the Funny judge Kate Copstick, Bob explained how he had become the face of "Cockgate" - perhaps the most talked about event of the 2011 Festival.
After having booked musical comedy act Künt and the Gang to play at The Hive as part of the Free Festival, Bob and Mr Künt decided to get creative. They opted to distribute thousands of phallic stickers to advertise the show instead of the traditional promotional posters: "He handed them out at a couple of gigs and BOOM, they were all over every poster in Edinburgh."
Bob told STV that the stickers had evoked a phenomenal reaction, both good and bad. People had threatened to beat up and even sue the comedy masterminds. Unfazed, the events promoter pointed out that it really just helped distinguish the funny people from the kill-joys, with many acts joining in and embracing the willy stickers.
Bob criticized larger, corporate promoters claiming that they’re only ever interested in the money. He said that the Free Festival was a great remedy for this mentality, allowing comedy acts to concentrate on comedy, rather than worrying about business and finances.
“So much nonsense came out of it and when people at a comedy festival are telling you off for winkies, it’s just…” he said as he shook his head incredulously.
Clearly not interested in being serious about it all, Bob told STV how his fun-loving personality even came through when he was supposed to be getting a row from some Edinburgh Council workers:
“They told us off that we weren’t taking our telling-off very well. We tried to be serious and then they told us ‘you take this seriously, because we’ve spent all day pulling off over a hundred cocks!’”
Check out Bob Slayer and Künt and the Gang's websites.
