Geier later struck out on his own as Puddles the Clown, frontman of the group Puddles Pity Party. Geier’s vintage sound and deep baritone voice made him an overnight Internet sensation after Puddles the Clown appeared in a YouTube video with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, a revolving collective of musicians who lend a retro sound to modern pop and rock tunes. Puddles returns to Phoenix this January after sold-out shows at Joe’s Pub in New York and the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In his official bio – written in third-person – the cheeky, nearly 7-foot-tall Geier jokes about Puddles stopping by his workplace at a Georgia bar back in the late ’90s. “There was a heaviness about him,” says Geier. “I could tell he wasn’t in the mood to chat, so I pretty much left him alone… A couple weeks later, he came by the bar and gave me a flyer to a show he was doing at a flea market.”
“The sound system was crap, but his voice was something else. I’ve been in my share of bands and wasn’t expecting much from a clown singing karaoke from a boombox. But I’ll be damned if his singing didn’t get me all choked up.” Actor and geek icon Neil Patrick Harris agreed, tapping Puddles to perform with him in this past summer’s “Circus Awesomus” special. Judging by Geier’s 30 million YouTube views, three-week run at Soho Theatre in London and sold-out shows at Hollywood’s Troubadour rock club, clearly Puddles no longer needs any pity from the public.
Puddles Pity Party will make an appearance at Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. 2nd Ave. in Phoenix, at 7 p.m. on Monday, January 4. Tickets are $30.
