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Willie, In the Center Ring...
Bill's performing life, and his principal character "Willie the Clown", were nurtured and confirmed during his years with the Pickle Family Circus, a San Francisco-based troupe that mingled commedia dell'arte clowning with the occasional slack-rope walking or juggling act. In the early days of the Circus, it was *the* place to go for astounding laughs, as Bill Irwin, Geoff Hoyle, and the circus' co-founder and director, Larry Pisoni, teamed up in various combinations, adding up to unrestrained comic genius. (It's hard to justify using "comic" and "genius" in the same description, but Messrs. Pisoni, Hoyle and Irwin are more than deserving.)
From 1975 through 1978, Bill was a stock performer, after which he left to develop other presentations and productions. He rejoined the "Pickles", as they became known, in 1981, and briefly in '84 and '87.
In retrospect, the Pickle Family Circus was (and is) a tribute to Larry Pisoni who applied energy and inspiration to founding and sustaining it, while continuing to work as a principal performer. A cumulative roster of Pickle clowns includes Geoff Hoyle, who deserves acclaim for the breadth and brilliance of his performances in and beyond the Circus. The principal members of the 1980s "Vaudeville Noveau" troupe also graced the Circus ring as individual performers, adding their manic sauce to the stew. And there are others, too numerous to name, but whose gifts made and sustain the Pickles to this day. Like the Haight Ashbury scene in the '60s, a crucible of culture-shaking music groups, the Pickle Family Circus was and is the launching pad for a galaxy of Bay-Area-based comic talent.
For much more information about the Pickle Family Circus (and Bill's participation), all laid out in a *highly* enjoyable presentation, check out "The Pickle Clowns" by Joel Schechter, published in 2001 by the Southern Illinois University Press. You can get more information about this book from the University Press' Web site. Mr. Schechter was, at the time of the book's first edition, a professor of theatre arts at San Francisco State University.
| TIP! | Click ReadMe! to open a review of "The Pickle Clowns". |