PuSh Profiles – Tim Carlson
December 18, 2012
PuSh Profiles is a new series where you can get to know the names and faces of the people that make this festival so great.
* Tell us what you do for PuSh in one or two sentences – or a haiku.
Club PuSh Co-curator, co-producer, dedicated barfly and heavy tipper.
* How long have you been involved with the PuSh Festival?
Since 2006 when Theatre Conspiracy presented the Canadian premiere of Will Eno’s Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) with Richard Wolfe directing Scott Bellis who revelled in making his audience so uncomfortable you could hear their sphincters clenching.
* What is your favorite PuSh memory? Which PuSh shows/ experiences have stayed with you?
Working with Rimini Protokoll to develop Best Before at the festival in 2010. A very ‘PuSh’ show with a company from Berlin that has a truly singular vision. The essence of theatrical experiment. Having Taylor Mac open the inaugural Club PuSh was an inspired moment as was discovering the awesome talent of Daniel Barrow there. As a longtime fan of Dean Wareham’s (Luna) songwriting it was a distinct pleasure to get to know him a little and have Dean & Britta play the Club after 13 Most Beautiful in 2009. The tune Harringbone Tweed from that show is on top of my instrumental playlist. Check it out on YouTube, it’s a song based on Dennis Hopper’s screen test for Andy Warhol. Twang on.
* What are you looking forward to at this year’s festival?
Backing DK up on cardboard guitar if he’s going to sing Bang a Gong again for Weekend Leisure Karaoke for the closing of Club PuSh. And there’s a new show from Argentina’s Mariano Pensotti. His El pasado es un animal grotesco (The Past is a Groteseque Animal) was a highlight of last year’s PuSh. If you missed it, find the book. It’s great on the page as well. Pensotti’s a fucking genius but whatever — throw an ice cube at PuSh and it’ll bounce off one genius and land in the drink of another.
* Outside of PuSh what do you do with your time?
In recent months I’ve been doing a lot of songwriting and recording with Belinda Bruce, a brilliant musician and writer (also Conspiracy communications manager) and guitar virtuoso/record producer Jon Wood. Looking forward to recording (High) Maintenance, Man with them.
* What does ‘crossing the line’ mean to you?
All of the things that I most enjoy doing, which now pay 51% of my bills, in which I get to connect with inspired, hard-working people and support a few artists and projects that really speak to me, and have this amazing ongoing relationship with PuSh and Norman and Veda et al have happened because I’ve crossed the line at some point and said: “Fuckit, I’m going to do it anyway.”