A Vancouver busker says his language may have been a bit harsh, but he doesn’t regret confronting a boy and his parents during a street performance.
Daniel Zindler was performing a balancing routine during Vancouver's Pride Parade festivities when a young boy ran out in the middle of the show.
In a video posted on YouTube, the boy can be seen trying to touch the cylinder Zindler was balancing on, disrupting the busker's concentration and eliciting gasps from the crowd.
"I felt like I was about to fall. I was able to catch myself… I was pretty close to rolling off," Zindler told CTV Vancouver, describing his feelings as the child ran back into the crowd.
"F*** man, be a parent," Zindler can be heard saying.
“Dude, when you get down you better run. You’re young but you need to learn a lesson. That wasn't cool, yeah?” he says, asking the child to apologize
But Zindler says the parents' response to the whole incident angered him more than the child's.
"The parents sat with their kid and laughed. They thought it was funny. I understand how a kid might find that funny and not realize the harm that you can do to somebody by doing that, but I don’t understand how an adult, someone our age, could react that way," he said.
A witness who recorded the exchange says the child's disregard for the busker's safety combined with the parent's seemingly carefree attitude struck him as odd.
"What's very strange is the parent didn't do anything about it, didn't stop the child during the incident, didn't seem to discipline the child after the incident," said Alex Hillman, who posted the video online.
The child later apologized, but not before Zindler let fly with another quip.
"Some people should really use a condom. I'm sorry, that was deserved.” he says, prompting some laughter and applause from the audience.
The busker says he regrets swearing, but is otherwise unrepentant about his comments.
"If I was able to do it again would I swear? No. Would I make the same comments? Absolutely," he said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver
