Big Underwear rolls into Warren; free show Sunday
It may run on diesel, but what really powers Brady Bradshaw and Irmi Spiegel’s giant 40-foot tour bus is Big Underwear.
By Ted Hayes
from---eastbayrl.com
October 23, 2012
The two are jugglers, fire dancers, acrobats, comedians, hustlers, life partners and disciples of working less and playing more, and they just steered their enormous ex-Seattle Transit Authority bus into Warren after a drive of 2,000 miles from Texas. Mr. Bradshaw lived in Warren for years before moving to Oregon about five ago, and he’s in town to catch up with family and old friends. While they’re here they will play a free show in Warren this coming Sunday, Oct. 28 (see bottom).
That they’re stopping to relax is a change for the two, who bought the bus from an old circus friend in 2008 and promptly set about converting it into a traveling home. They outfitted it with a many as a dozen bunks, a retractable awning, a 1920s gas stove converted to propane, a fridge, sink and toilet, and Mr. Bradshaw’s endless collection of trinkets, shells, circus posters and detritus from the road. The bus now has close to 600,000 miles on it and while it’s big, “it’s such a smooth ride,” Mr. Bradshaw marvels.
Over the past couple of years, the two have driven a seemingly endless loop from his home base in Oregon to Central America and back, stopping in countless towns in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to park the bus, have a look, pull out their props, clean up trash they find and play free variety shows, usually in the town square. The Big Underwear Social Tour, as their journey is called, has at times had as many as 14 performers, all traveling together on the bus. There were jugglers, accordion players, trapeze artists, magicians and more. When there were guests, they were likely to pitch a tent or two on the bus’s rooftop platform and travel up there, too, if space was too tight inside.
“It was interesting. it got a little crazy at times,” said Mr. Bradshaw, who also goes by the stage name Bobarino Gravittini. “It became kind of a reality show, because we never should have had that many people in there. It was more intense than anyone ever expected.”
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