An Email re: Doing Stuff

Thanks to everyone who’s come along to see Doing Stuff thus far this year; I really appreciate it and I hope youse have had fun.

I received an email this weekend just gone from James (not his real name), a punter who came along to see the show. It really affected me. Thanks to James kindly giving me his permission, I’m able to share it with you here.

I hope this doesn’t cross as me going “hey fucking check out how tops I am” or anything. I just felt this was a little bit special and genuinely changed my perspective on this show and the kind of impact comedy can have.

Cheers very much,

Tom

I was at your MICF show tonight (Friday) (…)

I wanted to come up and say congrats afterwards, but had to rush off to another show (…) However, I did want you to know how much I admire you for standing up for what you believe and, more importantly, using your influence to make people question their ideas and viewpoints.

Relevance – you helped me come to a decision tonight. My dad is the President of [a church] in the South Pacific, which is a gay-hating denomination. The fact that he has a gay youngest son is a relatively open secret, but not truly acknowledged. Getting round to the point – I was sent a facebook message a few weeks ago from some [ex-church members] wanting to point out the damage that this lack of acceptance can have, and in fact turn me into a ‘poster boy’ for the movie, coinciding with the release of a movie. I turned them down, not wanting to take the hard route and potentially hurt my family.

I realise now, after tonight, that I should have stood up. Some things are more important, have greater impact on the defenceless, and require courage. If the opportunity comes up again, I will take it .

Thanks for the kick up the ass. I don’t know if your journey was difficult, but I hope that my story helps add to the mosaic of you finding it worth it.