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Who’s That Clown on the Bridge?
A performer’s
quest for more
than a living
BY R YYMOND Rl NDI.EMAN
T he P ortland O bserver
There are no statistics to show how
many unem ployed com puter program ­
m ers have becom e street perform ers.
I l can safely be said, how ever, that
Kirk Reeves' career path is fairly unique.
At least R eeves d o e s n 't approach
people dow ntow n w ith scream s o f
"G IM M E M O N E Y ," as he is the first
to point out. He uses a trum pet, a
p u p p et co lle c tio n an d c o stu m e to
support his en tertain in g acting and
m usical skills.
Passersby often react positively to
his m anner o f assaulting the senses,
giving him six dollars in one half-hour
period recently. It probably helps that
he chooses places like the H aw thorne
Bridge on-ram p, w here tens o f thou­
sands pass daily.
His aspirations go beyond this m od­
est income. C laim ing to have never
m issed a practice even w hile in a coma,
he seems to sincerely w ant musical-
legend status someday.
“ I d o n ’t miss practice because I in­
tend to be one o f the best-know n trum ­
pet players in the w orld,” h e says. “I
think I am well on my w ay."
It all started when he found him self at
photo by
Northwest 23rd store to close
S araii B i . o in t
I' iie P ortland O bserver
W hen Music M illennium ow ner
Terry Currier opened a second store
in northw est Portland in 1989, he
w as pioneering a neighborhood
that was more risky than trendy.
lm an /T hl
P o r tia n i ) O bserver
Trumpeter Kirk Reeves brings a lot o f theater to the street when he sits down to perform as cars pass on the on-ramp to
the Hawthorne Bridge in southeast Portland.
Music Millennium
Scales Back
by
R aymond R endi
But tim es have changed and so
h as N o rth w e s t 2 3 rd A v e n u e ,
prom pting C urrier to announce last
w eek that he will close the store at
NW 23rd and Johnson at the end of
A ugust, focusing solely on run­
ning the East Burnside location.
Terry Currier
The Portland Observer first re­
ported on the struggling retailer in
March, when Currier said they be­
gan selling more "lifestyle" items,
including candy and retro toys. But
Currier, who has owned Music Mil­
lennium since 1984. said he botro wed
$400.000 against the Burnside loca­
tion last year to pay off some debt
ereated by the northwest store.
Facing higher rent on 23rd Av­
enue, he was close to signing a lease
for another location but decided not
to after facing the bleak financial
situation.
a garage sale right after he was laid off
from his jo b as a “com puter nerd." He
describes the euphoria o f blow ing into
a trumpet that he bought there on a whim
for $15.
"It made the exact sam e sound as a
cartoon character fall ing over, so I knew
that I was back in business," he says.
Reeves says another aspect o f his
attem pt to becom e fam ous nationally is
"Low C om edy," his Portland version of
Saturday Night Live that he w rites and
produces for cable access.
T h e s h o w 's r e in te r p re ta tio n o f
“Scooby D oo" has becom e popular
online, where Reeves can be seen play­
ing the title character in an oversized,
hairy bodysuit.
The show is also a way for him to
avoid P ortland's wet winters.
A fter a particularly harsh day o f per­
forming in a snowstorm, he swore off the
colder m onths and found a nearly per­
fect venue at Portland C om m unity M e­
dia. He would consider it ideal in all ways
if it had a larger broadcast range and if
it paid anything.
"O nce my 'Low C om edy’ show gets
picked up by a network, I will have a big
payday," he says. "But mainly it’s the
m em bers o f the ensem ble cast that de­
serve to be stars.”
“ Low C om edy" tapes W ednesdays
from 6 p. m. to 9 p.m. at Portland Commu­
nity Media, 2766 N.E. M artin Luther
King Jr. Blvd.. and airs Thursdays at 9
p.m. on ehannel 23.
"It was a tough decision, but the
store has been losing money for
some time," he said.
Currier also noted that the north­
west store fared much worse when
downloading technology began to
diminish CD sales, and that its loca­
tio n w as a ffe c te d by th e
neighborhood's changing dem o­
graphics. The latter issue hasn't af­
fected the East Burnside store as
much.
“There are a lot of national retail­
ers moving in on that street." he said,
“our customer base has probably
moved on to Mississippi and Alberta
and Hawthorne [districts].”
Music Millennium is the oldest
music store in the Pacific Northwest,
opened in 1969 at 3185 E. Burnside.
The original location and website,
musicmillennium.com. will remain
open.
At the end of August Currier plans
to celebrate the N orthwest 23rd
Avenue store's final days with sev­
eral live performances. He also said
they are not opposed to opening up
another store, if futurecircumstances
allow.
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