Malcolm Hardee

Malcolm Hardee was a Gandalf of the dark alchemy of the publicity stunt, writes Mark Borkowski [further to the obituary by John Fleming, 5 February]. He was a maverick and a risk-taker.

Malcolm Hardee was a Gandalf of the dark alchemy of the publicity stunt, writes Mark Borkowski [further to the obituary by John Fleming, 5 February]. He was a maverick and a risk-taker.

The Edinburgh Festival was always interesting but whenever Malcolm was there, it was even more fun and a little more edgy. One of my favourite Hardee tales is of the time he brought his "Greatest Show on Legs" to the festival, performing in a tent next to the actor Eric Bogosian. Malcolm rented a sit-down lawnmower and drove it right through Eric's tent in the middle of the show, taking his audience with him. Being of a slightly more serious disposition, Eric did not take kindly to the interruption and the two came to blows in front of the audience - guaranteeing yet more publicity for Malcolm.

When David Blaine was doing his stunt in London in 2003, sitting in a glass box dangling from a crane, Malcolm rang me up to ask if I could help him organise the media because he'd got one of his mates in Deptford to knock up a glass box. He was going to put his up right next to Blaine and sit in it for the same amount of time . . . stark naked. When I told him he'd never get away with it, he decided to settle for standing underneath Blaine throwing chips at him.

As anyone who ever saw him perform will know - he had balls.