Pedicab/theater junction: It’s funny who you meet on the High Line — on a freezing-cold day, no less. Last Sunday morning, The Villager bumped into Aaron Beall, founder and operator of a plethora of former Lower East Side theaters — House of Candles on Stanton St. and Todo Con Nada on Ludlow St., among others — not to mention founder of Show World Theater on 42nd St. and co-founder of the Fringe Festival. Anyway, when it comes to cutting-edge theater, Beall’s the real deal. However, he identifies himself by his new profession these days — pedicab driver. Yes, like everyone else, it seems, he’s making his living as a bicycle taxi driver, plying New York City’s streets for fares looking for an open-air ride and some sparkling conversation. “It’s the last great bohemian job available,” he said. But Beall’s work title will soon change yet again, this time to either “driverormer” or “periver” — those are Beallisms for “driver/performer” and “performer/driver.” “I’m opening a theater on a pedicab,” Beall told The Villager. “I’ll do shows that last like 20 minutes. I have all these great shows. There’s a million and one ways to stage a pedicab extravaganza. I also wanted to have a theater that would be on Broadway and Off-Broadway simultaneously.” Beall explained that sometimes he will be performing seated backwards, sometimes moving — the possibilities are endless. The theater company will be known as “!bacideP, A Theater on Wheels” — that’s “pedicab” backwards, as if seen in a rearview mirror, he noted. Performances will begin in the spring. “You got the scoop,” Beall told The Villager.
Spidey the rickshaw driver doing his thing in Coconut Grove, Fla., before coming to the East Village this summer.
Swingin’ with Spidey: On a subject closely related to pedicabs, we found out a little bit about Shaun, a.k.a. “Spidey,” the East Village’s famous acrobatic rickshaw man, the other weekend. We espied his vehicle sitting by the curb on St. Mark’s Place, and then Spidey himself fueling up nearby on a cup of java outside Yaffa Cafe. It turns out he’s from a college town/hippie enclave near Miami called Coconut Grove. It was there that he honed his superhero-like rickshaw routine in which he does aerial spins and climbs on trucks and walls, all the while racing around with gleefully screaming passengers in the back of the contraption. The Spider-Man suit-wearing running man came to New York in August, and — after testing the waters around Soho — quickly found a home in the East Village, where people dig his tricks and the police don’t seem to hassle him. He was chased out of Times Square, however, where his daredevil act didn’t go down so well with the police and business improvement district up there. Nothing good lasts forever, though, and the Sunshine State native said he would probably be heading back south once the weather gets cold, but would try to stick it out through December. When we spoke to him, he was wearing his Spidey suit and just a light leather jacket to keep warm. As for why he came to New York, he said his dream is to tour the world’s big cities with his rickshaw. Tops on his list is Tokyo, which he noted, is “the home of the rickshaw.”
Dutch tree courage: The Villager’s recent article on a Dutch delegation’s visit to St. Mark’s Church to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s sailing up the Hudson River and to pay homage to Peter Stuyvesant ended on a sad note, when it reported that a tree the Dutch gave to the church had died. However, it turns out there is a happy ending after all. Felicia Mayro, director of the St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund, said she was surprised to read that the tree was terminal, and promptly contacted the arborist who planted it. “I’m happy to report that he found the tips of the branches to be green, which indicates the tree is alive,” Mayro stated. “The tree was planted at an unusual time in the year and some do have a difficulty adjusting to a new environment, but we are hopeful that the tree will leaf out in the spring. The arborist took soil samples to check, and, of course, guarantees the tree if it does not leaf out.”
