What? Who says it’s now July? Oh, the calendar. Big deal. As far as I’m concerned, this is still my June series of Gothamist Interviews, and today’s is a great one. Tony winner Bill Irwin, currently appearing in the great production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? now running at the Longacre Theater. I had the pleasure of seeing a performance a couple weeks ago, and Irwin’s performance is utterly magnificent. He brings a nuance and sensitivity to the role which adds a whole new dimension. It’s not that his performance is better than the famous (and itself brilliant) one given by Richard Burton in the great 1966 film version.
I spoke to Bill on the phone about a week ago while he was driving into the city from his home in Nyack. Unfortunately, he only had so much time to talk, and while we had a very interesting conversation, and I enjoyed it immensely, it was unfortunate that I didn’t get a chance to ask him everything I had planned. Like what, you ask?
Well, for those of you who wonder why I didn’t ask him more about his career as a clown, I meant to. Here’s one question I had written: “You actually graduated from Clown College and were an original member of San Francisco’s famous Pickle Family Circus. Did you always want to be a clown? Why do you think so many kids are scared of clowns? Do you feel clowns don’t get enough respect? Where’s the line between mime and clown?” That would have been good, no?
And of course, I meant to ask about his season at the Signature Theatre Company last year when he was their annual selection as Playwright-in-residence, and he “provided them with three brand new world premiere shows which you not only wrote but also starred in and directed. What was that experience like?”
And then the generic stuff about being a multi-hyphenate, and how does he choose the projects he writes and/or directs himself, etc., etc. Hmm, maybe it’s not such a big deal I didn’t get to them, but I guess that’s also why I was willing to let them go when I was running out of time.
Regardless, Bill is a phenomenal actor, and he was very generous on the phone. If you’ve never seen him onstage before, I encourage you to check him out now, and hopefully he will also again do some sort of show in which he can exhibit his clowning and/or physical comedy talents. He’s really genius, and if you have seen him before, you likely already know that and are already a huge fan.
— Photo by Carol Resegg
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