Car 3

87
Mr Ben Bevis

Outward appearance

An advertising executive from some 1950s sitcom. Squiggly, pockmarked, in a grey suit, pork pie hat, pipe, specs.

Inside information

A professional comedian, organizer and star of Mind the Gap, a troupe that stages comedy skits on the Underground for a fee-paying audience. Trying out Geoff, a promising amateur who might fill in when Ben has a better paying gig.

What he is doing or thinking

Ben is jealous. To go ahead and sit on a real passenger instead of the plant was brilliant! And then to sit down on Ben anyway and make it look convincing!

Ben spends two hours, three days a week in protracted ritual humiliations up and down the Tube. He gets in a fight with his tie, and eventually cuts off the ends with a pair of scissors. He gets gum stuck to the soles of his shoe, and from there all over his suit. People roar with laughter. Even for one routine, he misses it.

Then the woman next to him growls, "This is a put up job, isn't it?" The newcomer hasn't been believed! Ben pretends that he doesn't understand the woman, but a kind of satisfaction settles over him.

It's a brief respite. Police get on. Ben has left the letter of permission from London Transport at home. It any case, it's a forgery. He'll have to pay a fine. He has no money. Geoff has a job. Let him pay the fine. Ben decides to make a break for it, first chance he gets. It's every man for himself.

The comedy never stops.

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