Don't Kick the Clown See the premiere performance! https://youtu.be/aUTTsfYmmC4?t=1085 Watching a set at Woodford festival Sitting next to Linsey Pollak and best of all We were hearing Wayne Freer playing trombone I said, “damn, he’s good” with an disgruntled groan Linsey gave me a look, like only Linsey could And after a pause, he said, "Well, it's good that he's good" I must've looked annoyed, 'cos he looked away But when I swore some more, he then turned to say, "Hey, when you see something that you admire, You can let it threaten you or let it inspire you It's your choice, you decide whether it Is gunna make you wanna practice or make you wanna quit" And with that, he sat back and left me to it And I stewed on it, he was right and I knew it Wayne and Linsey are great, yeah, the problem is me Don't underestimate the depth of my insecurity Many years later I reminded Linsey of it He said, "I hope I didn't seem like a pompous git" I said, "Nah, it was just what I needed at the time" And I've paraphrased it all a bit to make it rhyme He didn't leave me guessin', I'm proud to be confessin' That Pollock / Freer moment was a potent double lesson Don’t shoot the messenger Don’t kick the clown Don't blame the up side when it gets you down I know it's not so easy and it could be true That the ones you envy could be just as jealous of you Once at a gig of my own, I felt off my eggs Physically and mentally on my last legs But Dr. Footlights put me right and got me through My voice came to the party and the crowd went "woo!" When I finished, up came an ebullient man Who proudly announced he's my biggest fan We had a nice chat about what he did Then he said, "Gee, you must've been a horrible kid" I tried to laugh it off and change the topic But he got yucky to the point of misanthropic I was struggling to respond to his nasty niggling Like a comedy roast, but only he was giggling Eventually I got away without being rude But I rather empathised with that insulting dude When under stress we all express affection curiously Don't underestimate the depth of our insecurity When Pollyanna tall poppies make you feel stroppy and crappy Snipey, snippy and snappy, 'cos they happen to be happy Don’t shoot the messenger Don’t kick the clown Don't blame the up side when it gets you down I know it's not so easy and it could be true That the ones you envy could be just as jealous of you We're all putting on a show to some degree Don't underestimate the depth of our insecurity ©Mal Webb 2021 These are both true stories, although the second story has happened quite a few times, leading to the phrase, "don't kick the clown". Linsey Pollak https://www.linseypollak.com and Wayne Freer are both legends and a fab friends. When I sent an early draft to Wayne, he responded: "WHAT!!!! i was always thinkin "jeez wish i could sling the golden handbrake like Brother Mal" ... It is an honour indeed to be included thusly in your bop Sir". He has a glorious way with words! And it led me to include the last line of the chorus: "That the ones you envy could be just as jealous of you". Linsey heartily approved of both Wayne's response and my repsonse to it. Musically, it uses a 8 against 13 Malleable PolyPolyRhythm, which I've explained more at my MPPR page. *Dr. Footlights comes to me courtesy of Dame Edna https://youtu.be/_A4wxnWxQ2A , although Barry Humphries didn't make up the concept. |