Join Me & Danny Wallace

[Guest guest]

"...I gave out a tiny football, a whopee cushion, a small plastic

squirrel and a small laser gun suitable for a child," Wallace told

AFP.

"It was something I've wanted to do for a while, and it seemed the

right time to do it with Christmas coming up. It's like playing a

prank -- but the victim benefits."

Wallace, 27, a slightly gawky man with thick glasses and an anorak, is

a most unlikely cult leader, but that's exactly what he is.

Danny Wallace

"Join Me boasts more than 4,000 members, all dedicated to performing

random acts of kindness to strangers.

It's the improbable outcome of an experiment in human gullibility.

Two years ago Wallace attended the funeral of a great-uncle, Gallus

Breitenmoser, in Switzerland. There, Wallace learnt that Breitenmoser

had tried to start a large commune on a farm just after World War II.

Only three people signed up.

But that got Wallace thinking, and back in London he decided to place

an advertisment in a newspaper, asking people to join him and send in

a passport-sized photograph of themselves.

To his surprise, people responded, mostly out of curiosity. "

A year and a half later his east London flat is the headquarters for a

global internet-based group who carry out good deeds for strangers

each week.

"There is a social barrier in places like London where if you see

someone struggling with something, part of your brain goes 'I want to

help'.But the trained part of the brain says: 'They will think you are

a nut job' or are going to mug them, so you walk away. Join Me is

about giving you an excuse to do something.It's kind of a cult that

happened by accident and is now a collective of about 3,000 people

around the world who do my bidding every Friday.

'Look of bewilderment'

I think in London it is too easy to just keep your head down and walk

a little bit quicker. I send them to undertake a random act of

kindness towards complete strangers. I call them Good Fridays and

make them sign a Good Friday agreement.I'm usually out on a Friday

night so I go for one of the traditional acts which has become

standard - the unsolicited pint. You would be sitting in a pub and

see an old fella in the corner and walk up with a pint of whatever

they are drinking, say: 'I've got you a pint' and walk away. The look

of bewilderment on their face is a pleasure to see.There can be some

suspicion, but I think that was mostly in the early days when I

didn't know how to do it properly.'Get quite a lot out of it'

I would walk up quite nervously like I was doing something wrong and I

didn't know when to leave.It's hit-and-run kindness, you have to walk

up with confidence and humour and don't get in their faces. You say:

'This is for you', then you go.I work west and I live east and tend

to get off the Tube halfway through so I'm all around. I'm

omnipresent thanks to London's marvellous Tube network.Join Me is

without geographical boundaries, but there are quite a few joinees in

London and I get quite a lot of stories about things they have done on

the Tube or on the buses.One lady got on the bus and put a £10 note

down and said: 'That's for me and the next nine people' so at every

stop, everyone who got on was told it was paid for.A lot of people

were doing this sort of thing anyway and go to great lengths to tell

me. They get quite a lot out of it, an excuse or reason to do

something nice for a complete stranger because they've got the

confidence to walk up and start chatting.I think in London it is too

easy to just keep your head down and walk a little bit quicker and

get angry at people for not walking to the same step as you. If

people step on your foot on the Tube they are an inch away but they

won't say sorry because they don't want to speak out. This gives you

the excuse to be a bit more confident and not care about that social

barrier."

Join Me now has members in countries such as France, Belgium, Norway

and Puerto Rico. Mr Wallace hopes to take it to America next.

yourlondon (AT) bbc (DOT) co.uk

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