Tag: Bill Irwin

Waiting for Godot

We saw the play tonight, a hard won date night, after difficulty finding a babysitter.

 But it was worth it.

Studio 54

DATE NIGHT!

 I love Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane was amazing.

 Every line was pitch perfect.

We had drinks after at the bar opened and funded by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick during “The Producers”,  Angus McIndoe 

and now we’re home

the baby sitter’ s paid and gone

Waiting for Godot

Existential Angst (it’s not easy to get a standing ovation for existential angst!)

CLOWN!!!!!!!!!

why do I hear helicopters overhead?

Humor Abuse

We went to see Lorenzo Pisoni’s solo show, “Humor Abuse” at the Manhattan Theatre Club last night. It was a touching performance by a man who in the 1970’s was a child clown in the San Francisco based Pickle Family Circus and who as an adult is a serious New York actor.

I never saw the Pickle Family Circus, but we watched videos with reverence at Clown College because that was where Bill Irwin (the clown who became a MacArthur Fellow had gone to develop his own style with Larry Pisoni and Geoff Hoyle after graduating from the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Clown College (and Oberlin). But, I remember the black and white photograph of Larry Pisoni with his son in identical clown costumes. As a novice clown struggling to master basic juggling in a few short weeks, growing up with circus parents seemed like a much easier way to go.

Apparently not.

According to the show “Humor Abuse” learning to be a clown from a father who is a professional clown didn’t sound that much different from growing up with a football coach for a father. Same type of obsession just practicing different skills. I’m thinking sports analogies because yesterday afternoon before seeing Lorenzo Pisoni’s show and this morning after the performance, I escorted My Kid to her first and second AYSO soccer games of the season. As an eight-year-old she is unable to participate in league soccer unless her parents are also willing to participate on a game by game basis.

I think about the similarities between playing fields and circus rings. I didn’t play team sports as a child and didn’t find that kind of focus until I began to perform with the Missoula Children’s Theatre under the direction of Jim Caron, at about the same time that Lorenzo. Pisoni was working with his father. The two organizations had the same do-it-yourself aesthetic of the 1970’s that grew out of the cooperative ideals of the 1960’s and shaped the lives of those who came of age in the 1980’s.

Googling Randomly

I should be doing a million things (like cleaning–yuck and writing grant proposals–yuck), but instead I am hiding from the heat in our air-conditioned bedroom next to our sleeping daughter googling randomly.  It started with an on-line search for Brownie Girl Scout Try-It badges (because I have to get the requests into her leader today.)  I thought I could find badges she could get for the work she did in preparation for her First Communion or as a member of her school’s FirstLEGO Robotics team (there must be a badge, we saw Girl Scout First LEGO League teams at the Javits Center in April)

Then I googled Cirque du Solelil’s KOOZA because I was still thinking about this weekend.  I had hoped to see the production which was playing in Philadelphia yesterday when we were there and there were matinee tickets available.  I knew this because had the concierge check for me.  (KOOZA was concieved and directed by David Shiner whose workshop I was taking last fall when the seeds for the piece I did last week were planted)   But, My Kid didn’t want to go see the Cirque du Soleil  (Her concept of the show was probably damaged by the Simpson’s unflattering “Cirque du Puree”).   She was there to swim in the hotel pool and we had already dragged her to one theatrical experience not of her choosing. The Husband wasn’t backing me up, and I wasn’t selling it well.  We live on the East Coast, KOOZA will be in the region for months, it was not our only chance to see the production.  Other than seeing Bill Irwin’s show we were just there for a relaxing weekend get away. My Kid has been sick, The Husband was tired and the weather was HOT. So even though we could see the trademark tent from the hotel–nobody but me thought it was a great idea to go there.  Sigh.

David Shiner worked with Bill Irwin in “Fool Moon” which The Husband and I saw together in Seattle.  I googled Bill Irwin because he’s, well, he’s Bill Irwin and I saw his show this weekend.  I enjoyed the fact that his home page hasn’t been updated recently enough to include the current production even though it’s nearing the end of its run.  Bill Irwin led to the name Bruce Hurlbut, who played the piano for “Scapin” on Broadway and also for  the melodrama “The Drunkard” at the University of Montana when I, as a short thin high school student, played the child in the show.  His name led to the website of a new theatre in Washington full of our old Annex friends including Andrea Allen and Allison Narver and Jack Bentz who we had hoped could marry us but who wasn’t quite finished with seminary when we looked into it at the time.  I think he hooked us up with the priest from Seattle U who did marry us.

Gosh I feel so connected.

Baggy Pants and Big Black Shoes

As The Husband and My Child are playing miniature air hockey (it’s really cute 6-inch table we got at the gift shop of the Please Touch Museum) on the train from Trenton, as we make our way back to Brooklyn from Philadelphia, it seems as good a time as any to write a blog entry.

Halfway through Bill Irwin’s show last night, my heart started racing as my mind wandered from his work, “The Happiness Lectures” to my work and what if anything I would do next.  Thank God I can’t compare myself to him since in addition to being a MacArthur and Tony award winner he is also tall and male, two things that never come into play when I create my own work.  

When I was at Clown College (Class of ’89, Bill Irwin who I’ve shaken hands with but don’t know, was Class of ’74) there came a point, when we were watching lots of black and white silent movies and learning the classic slap and fall gags.  Almost everyone went to their designer and said they wanted big black shoes and baggy pants. The women in the class were told point blank that they couldn’t have big black shoes and baggy pants “…because Mr. Feld only hires girl clowns who look like girls.”   We were told the number of women clowns who were hired depended on the number of show girls who were hired.  Women clowns lived on the showgirl car.  More showgirls meant fewer slots for women clowns and so those who were hired had better look like girls.  Otherwise he may as well hire a guy and avoid the complications.

I don’t know why I thought of that, except that Bill Irwin does so much with his baggy pants and his big black shoes.