This wasn't a performance or is it? I have used him as a comparison to Marcus Coates in my dissertation. And have been trying to get a picture of him for the last year to no avail until today. Conrad is his real name but all the kids call him Gandalf, he roams around Sutton. He dresses like a wizard with a cape, staff and usually a black cat on a lead. He will tell your fortune for 50 pence and has been doing this for years. In the same way, Coates is just donning a costume and performing, sensationalising himself just to be noticed. Gandalf, the present day manifestation of Coates has an audience. As a madman it is a way of life for him. On the other hand, Coates is getting at some primitive psyche that people, like it or not have deep down, that superstitious bit that everyone has ingrained in them to some extent, but is reluctant to admit. He is playing the role of the mediator. The go between. Audiences laugh because it is alien to them, as he is displacing the shamanic stereotype associated with different Cultures.
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