“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 except to pass him the mustard when he pulled an onion and a heel of bread out of his pocket. 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 at that flea market 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.”
The two soon became close friends, with Big Mike acting somewhat as a confidant, and the pair travel all over with Puddles Pity Party, Mike speaking on behalf of Puddles since the clown chooses to stay silent.
Originally from River City before kicking around Atlanta, the sulking serenader gained momentum after hitting the road as guest performer on the 2010 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live tour and 2013 Eels tour and making special appearances at Seattle’s Teatro ZinZanni and NYC’s Sleep No More.
It was Halloween 2013 when Puddles then collaborated with Postmodern Jukebox to record an epic version of Lorde’s hit song “Royals,” which instantly went viral on YouTube, having received over 29 million views so far. You may also recognize Puddles as quarter-finalist from Season 12 of America’s Got Talent and most recently on AGT’s The Champions 2020. The “sad clown with the golden voice” has captivated audiences and media from around the world, building a fan base of more than 400,000 on Facebook and over 764,000 subscribers to the Puddles Pity Party YouTube channel.
Puddles has since performed all over the planet, garnering rave reviews at festivals like Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Perth Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Fest, Belgium’s Gent Fest, Outside Lands and the Kennedy Center’s District of Comedy Festival. He was a feature performer in La Soiree’s 2014 Southbank show in London, which won the Olivier Award. He was handpicked by Neil Patrick Harris to perform Just for Laugh’s “Circus Awesomeus,” gala filmed for HBO Canada, and Jack Black selected Puddles for multiple performances at Festival Supreme. And he recently enjoyed a Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace.
In 2020, with touring and live concerts halted in the wake of the pandemic, Puddles stayed busy producing twelve episodes of his Still Sequestered Show, a musical variety show series on Veeps.com that features lots of special guests like Jack Black, Weird Al, Penn Jillette, Tim Heidecker, Mark Ryden, Neil Hamburger, Rebekah Del Rio, Sid Krofft, Michael Des Barres, Petra Haden, David Dastmalchian, Cait O’Riordan, Michael Stipe, Patton Oswalt, Nicole Atkins, El Vez, Mastodon, Amy LaVere, Jake La Botz and Jolie Holland. The softhearted crooner hopes everyone is taking good care and wearing a mask, so that some day soon he and his fellow performing artists can get back to touring, and Puddles can resume giving free hugs to all his P3ers.
“Puddles gives an emotive performance that resonates with all kinds of folks,” says Geier. “The crowd really responds to him. There’s something about a giant sad singing clown that comforts us, let’s us know it’s ok to feel, to show our feelings. It’s a sad and beautiful world, and we’re all in it together, even when we’re totally alone.”
boulevard of broken dreams
Puddles Pity Party Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The boulevard of broken dreams.
Where gigolo and gigolette
Can take a kiss without regret
So they forget their broken dreams.
You laugh tonight and cry tomorrow,
When you behold your shattered dreams.
Awake to find their eyes are wet
With tears that tell of broken dreams.
Here is where you'll always find me,
Always walking up and down.
But I left my soul behind me
In an old cathedral town.
The joy you find here, you borrow,
You cannot keep it long, it seems.
But gigolo and gigolette
Still sing a song and dance along
The boulevard of broken dreams.
Here is where you'll always find me,
Always walking up and down.
But I left my soul behind me
In an old cathedral town.
The joy you find here, you borrow,
You cannot keep it long, it seems.
But gigolo and gigolette
Still sing a song and dance along
The boulevard of broken dreams
The first verse of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Puddles Pity Party describes a person wandering through a street filled with sorrow and shattered dreams. It's a place where people indulge in fleeting pleasures without any lasting joy or fulfillment. The line "gigolo and gigolette" alludes to both male and female prostitutes who sell their bodies for money, without any deeper emotional connection. They numb their pain with physical pleasure, but the next day their broken dreams come back to haunt them. The second verse describes how in this street, people alternate between laughter and tears, never able to find lasting happiness. They dance with abandon today, but tomorrow they wake up with wet eyes filled with regrets.
The chorus then repeats the central theme of the song: people may come to this street seeking joy, but they always leave with their dreams shattered. The final verse is the most poignant. It reveals that the singer has been frequenting this street for so long that they've forgotten their true self, their soul, which was left behind in an old cathedral town. The joy that can be found on the boulevard is fleeting, and one cannot keep it long.
Overall, this song is a melancholic reflection on the human condition, where people are searching for happiness but keep ending up with broken dreams. It paints a vivid image of a street where people indulge in temporary pleasures to distract themselves from their internal pain, but they can't outrun their emotional turmoil forever.
Line by Line Meaning
I walk along the street of sorrow
I walk along a path filled with sadness and despair.
The boulevard of broken dreams.
This path is full of people who have given up on their dreams.
Where gigolo and gigolette
This path is also filled with people who sell themselves to survive.
Can take a kiss without regret
These people can give and receive physical affection without any emotional attachment.
So they forget their broken dreams.
They use these physical connections to distract themselves from their failed aspirations.
You laugh tonight and cry tomorrow,
The highs and lows of this path are extreme and unpredictable.
When you behold your shattered dreams.
When you face the reality that your dreams will never come to fruition.
And gigolo and gigolette
Even the people who sell themselves are not immune to despair.
Awake to find their eyes are wet
They wake up with tears in their eyes.
With tears that tell of broken dreams.
These tears are a symbol of their shattered hopes and aspirations.
Here is where you'll always find me,
This is where I choose to be.
Always walking up and down.
I walk this path constantly.
But I left my soul behind me
I feel like I've lost a part of myself here.
In an old cathedral town.
In a place where my spirit used to feel alive.
The joy you find here, you borrow,
The happiness you feel here is only temporary.
You cannot keep it long, it seems.
It's difficult to hold onto any kind of positivity on this path.
But gigolo and gigolette
However, the people who sell themselves still try to find moments of enjoyment.
Still sing a song and dance along
They still try to have fun and find some pleasure.
The boulevard of broken dreams.
But this path is still full of people who have given up on their dreams.
Writer(s): H. Warren, A. Dubin
Contributed by Audrey O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@PuddlesPityParty
Happy Birthday, Tony Bennet!!!
@england670
Great cover, but more fun!
@ThomasPurcell
I would like to go to sophisticated club, drink an adult beverage and then dance a tango to this song with a complicated woman.
@RiNNYPINO96
it takes two to tango, are you interested?
@1lightheaded
+Ar Pr Until it was perfected it could take between 10 to 13
@shannoncooney8771
Liberty Never Sleeps (❤ complicated woman)
@desmondmurphy449
Ah, if only such places still existed, and women knew how to tango. Clubs these days are anything but sophisticated.
@labtechsuperstar
Argentine or International style Tango? ; ) And clubs today have such tiny dance floors...that are usually sticky from spilled drinks and jam packed with people doing the 'white man's shuffle'.
@ofmega1
I've asked my wife to hire Puddles for my birthday. She claims that she would rather leave me than hear Puddles. I'll hire Puddles myself and consider the attorney a wise investment!
@Jess404
Seriously... if my fiancee didn't like Puddles, well... my house would be pretty lonely (unless I could get Puddles to come commiserate with me!)