Guerilla Performance and Multimedia
can get a bit carried away, it can be extremely expensive ...! You can completely transform your life if you are doing pleasant things all the time. Q- You've toured your shows all over the world — any advice for artists putting together a tour for the first time? Bobby — You have to be very organized. The thing that I find most important is to have some kind of telephone contact with the people at the venue so that it does not just all happen by paper or email - I discover things when I converse with people on the phone. The best thing of all is to actually go to visit the site. You can find out all these sort of subtle things about what kind of audience you are getting, sight lines - detail to do with the performance. My shows all have a set structure but I ad lib a great deal so the more I can find out about the venue and the sort of people who are going to be there in advance the better it is. So a great deal of work and research should go into that - the more time you spend, the better your show is likely to be. Q- How much of your time do you think you spend on rundraising? Bobby - About 20 percent, 15 to 20 percent - no, that is too much, maybe between 10 and 20 percent. I am constantly working on the next set of fundraising — not working on it practically but actually working on it mentally — preparing the application in my head. The actual time spent writing an application is quite small but the time that goes into planning that application can be extensive. Q— Can fundraising be a creative or guerilla act? Bobby — Oh yes, it can be a very exciting process - one has to be very creative about it about how you approach people and how you put your package together. Q — Do you add quirky things? Bobby - No, it all goes into the work. We do send images but I was on a panel once and in my experience there is very little time to look at images - most of it goes on what is on the paper. So I spend a lot of time with Artsadmin on the words. It is fun to be imaginative but I think the fun comes with the nature of the ideas and the way you communicate with them rather than doing zany things just for the sake of it. Q — Did you ever think about getting a day job? Bobby - I am freelance. I have always been self-employed. I do jobs sometimes as they come up but I spend most of my time on my work and I have never had a nine to five job 8