My Letter to Bill Irwin

Dear Bill,

In 1983, I was 27 years old, married for eight years, one son born, another along the way, working for my parents as a meat cutter in the family butcher shop, mostly thinking I would be there for the foreseeable future. 

TV guide had a special section each day with highlights for the evening. It was a Tuesday night, and PBS was running a show called The Regard of Flight, with a long description of the show. I was intrigued.

I sat down to watch The Regard of Flight Tuesday night and was blown away by the concept, physical comedy, writing and wildly intelligent silliness. My local PBS affiliate would repeat their specials, and it was showing again Thursday night. I was scheduled to work in the butcher shop Thursday night, so I bargained with my dad, saying ‘if you let me watch the show again, I'll work two hours longer in the evening.’ Bless him, he said yes.

So at 8 o'clock on Thursday night while the store was still open I hunkered down in a corner of the butcher shop on my little TV and again watched the show. This time I watched for why it made me laugh, a “workshop on humor making.”

Fast forward five years, the store had gone under, I was now in college for the first time headed to seminary to become a pastor in the Mennonite church, however “Flight” never left my mind and comedic soul. While in college, I fell in love with theater and also met Lee, the man who was to become my creative partner for the next 20 years creating original comedy sketches and 6 length shows (never did become a pastor). 

Bill, your work inspired so much of how I wrote comedy; for example, exploring what a character does when exterior forces are thrust upon it. "Places for a dance segment," “Warning, cross to podium,” and Shake It—the lip synch “shake it!” particularly had me on the floor.

A piece Lee and I wrote was entitled The Catcher. It was the beginning of the show; dark stage, swelling music to a crescendo and bright lights come up--on an empty stage.  (long pause) We then wander out, half dressed, shaving cream or toothbrushes in hand, apologize and instruct our hapless sound engineer "Darrell" that “we missed our cue, perhaps we weren’t clear enough and Darrell, to be absolutely clear, we will give you a signal when we are ready” …at the word ‘signal’ the lights would go out,  the relentless music would begin and we scramble to get ready, of course we never quite make it and have to abandon The Catcher. 

That's you Bill, the look on your face, at the announcement for dance number, seared in my brain and infected how I approach physical comedy and surprise, and obstacle.   

Your work has been an inspiration for the last 35 years, in creating a theater company to tour all of North America and parts of the rest of the world since 1995, creating over 20 shows, making people laugh, making them think, many times with a simple premise; “We don't know what the hell we're doing, but we're trying as hard as we can to make it work.” Thank you, Bill, from the bottom of my comedic and theatrical soul.

Ted Swartz