Alex spent the afternoon dressed as a pirate, preaching the word of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the University of North Carolina campus to a few hundred bystanders. You can contact alex here: pastafarian@gotfork.net
Videos:
[googlevideo]2738310326648144290[/googlevideo]
[googlevideo]-3763476420197295458[/googlevideo]
Alex talks about his experience:
I planned the entire event in about two days and prepared by making a few posters about FSMism and borrowing a pirate costume (ok, well I know it might be a little bit more north African warlord than pirate, but I got it for free!) and talking a few friends into coming to take pictures and to heckle me to get things started.
I put on the pirate costume and walked to a central point on campus where I took off my shoes and started talking loudly about how the flying spaghetti monster created the world to no one in particular, and quickly attracted a crowd of about 30 people including some of my friends. I went through a brief routine about the creation, why we dress like pirate, scientific facts, the afterlife (I made a judgment call and said the beer in the beer volcano was a dark Belgian lager like “Lefe Brun”), our flimsy moral standards and so on. After that I answered a bunch of questions from people about FSM and fended off a few hecklers, most of them people I knew - it’s surprisingly easy to make everything up! While doing this I attracted more people by yelling questions at pedestrians and gesticulating wildly. Only after I had a fairly large captured audience did I talk about whats going on in Kansas. The key point I tried to push home was that FSMism was just as good as ID, but possibly better due to said beer volcanoes and scientific graphs. I went through this routine a few times in the first 45 min before I had to start walking around to find more people to talk to - next time I’ll go earlier in the day when theres more traffic.
The best part was the small number of people who clearly believed that I was totally earnest. These people asked the best possible questions and only added to the overall effect =). Another highlight when a bunch of people from the Physics department all came by at the same time and swore that the scientific evidence was valid - lol. I’ll try to get some video up in the next few days, even if I have to do it again. I’m waiting till our local religious zealot shows up on campus again.
This is a great way to make friends. An interesting suggestion that I was too chicken to try out is to make a long FAQ about FSMism and to make the last question be: Are you single? Yes.
Lisa V. from the University of Arizona asked for a few tips, which I reprint here:
Bring lots of water, having to speak loudly for more than a hour can produce a lot of wear and tear on your throat! Its good to be comic, but its even better if you can remain as serious and earnest as possible. Try to use as much body language as possible - wiggling your arms and shoulders while talking about His Noodly Appendage is apparently pretty funny. Bring posters or signs if you can, and while some should be large, funny and sarcastic, its probably good to have at least one serious one about whats going on in Kansas.
I didn’t have pamphlets or stickers, but that would probably be a good idea. Invite a few friends to come and heckle you to get started (or even practice with them in advance.) Not only will this help you generate a crowd, it can also help you get into the swing of things. If you’re working a single crowd and not moving, always be trying to add to it by asking questions of people walking by, etc. Make certain that if someone is taking pictures for you they know how to
use your camera!
If you have any other questions feel free to contact me!
-Alex, pastafarian@gotfork.net
