2funBasTards is a performance collective with many members. For the first three performances of this project, Jason Lee and Tom Bleigh were the BarkerBasTards, Chris Wildrick was the Problem-Solving Technician, and Terry Tierney was the Gaffer. In the third performance, Tom Cranley was the Gaffer.
2funBasTards determined that there are 114 problems in the world today, and decided to try to solve them all.
The BarkerBasTards used megaphones to ask people to write their problems down on white square boards. Once the participants wrote down their problems, the boards were passed to the Gaffer, who held the board steadily in his hands. The Problem-Solving Technician then solved the problems by breaking them. Usually he used his hands and feet, but especially tenacious problems occasionally required the use of a baseball bat or crowbar.
The problems ranged from wanting a boyfriend to world peace.
By the end of the first performance, the full allotment of 114 boards had not all been written on and broken, so unfortunately all the world’s problems came back the next day. The same was true at the end of the second and third performances (which both started all over again with 114 new blank problems). At the end of the fourth performance, however, all 114 problems were solved. Therefore the world no longer has any problems. There are some things that some people think are problems, but they are not in fact real problems.
Pictures: putting problems on the board; solving some problems; wrapping up a solved problem; the Barker BasTards; the team.
Chris Wildrick 