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Monday, April 15, 2002

By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

Like many hilarious musical artists in history, Hungry Bill is caught between promoting what a funny, entertaining guy he is and worrying that people may mistake the Amish getup on his album cover or the pancake-eating contest at tonight's release show -- not to mention songs with titles as inspired as "I Am an Amish Jitney Driver" -- as an indication that his music may be somewhat less than serious.

"I'm not a sideshow freak," he says. "Yes, all my songs are funny. I don't have any songs that aren't meant to be funny. But they're not the wacky 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer' thing. I think 'Like an Idiot, You Stood by Me' or 'I Am Suspicious,' 'Amish Jitney Driver' ... I played 150 times in a year and a half and construction workers laugh at them. I get booked at this club in the South Hills and construction workers, they'll come out and say, 'Hey, sing that 'Like an Idiot' song and dedicate it to my first wife."

It's a funny song that makes good on the humor in the title.

"When I was in prison, you came to visit me," he begins, "like an idiot."

The studio audience he gathered to record his latest album, "Live! at Mr. Small's Funhouse," explodes into laughter when he hits that line.

In fact, they laugh their way through nearly every song, from Hungry Bill oldies as timeless as "Ian, Wake Up, Your Hair Is on Fire" to "I Am Suspicious," a song that begins "If you think that you're being watched by your local police department, you probably are."

Again, the audience explodes on cue, which, of course, is exactly the sort of reaction the singer was hoping to capture when he booked the night at Mr. Small's.

"If you have a good crowd -- not only in numbers, but new people who are open to my sense of humor -- you have a great night," he explains. "You have some older fans who give you the claps and support you need and new ones that are experiencing my lyrics for the first time so you get those guffaws and giggles and chortles and moans. So that's what I wanted to capture. I think my songs in a studio setting are a little sterile. Especially when you're doing funny stuff, it's better to have a recording where other people are laughing. The person who listens to it, they hear other people laughing and they think, 'Oh yeah, it is funny.'"

And the newer songs, he says, are getting even bigger laughs.

"I think that I was always funny," Bill admits, "but when I wrote my original stuff, it was a little weird and sometimes distant to people or not as accessible -- stuff like 'I Feel Unusual.' Funny, but not funny to everyone. Not that my music now is funny to everyone, but now, at least, it's funny to more people."

Dressing like an Amish guy is funny, too, but that's the sort of thing he's worried may mislead you into thinking he's a novelty act.

"I dressed once Amish for the Halloween show of Carnival Poetica at Club Cafe," he says. "They said it was a costume thing, but I was the only one in costume. Then, I did it once at the Rivers Club for some weird function. And I did it this time. So that's three times in a couple years. A lot of times, I look like my clothes are from American Eagle when I play."

He put the Amish image on the cover as a hook to grab you.

"I think 'Songs by Bill Pelger' and a sober picture of me sitting in my office [he's a lawyer] wouldn't attract as much attention," he says, "as this crazed Amish man."

His fascination with the Amish dates to childhood.

"My dad was a long Sunday drive guy," Hungry says. "After church, you could pile in the Bonneville and find yourself in Amish country very easily. I have some books and literature on them, and I think they're great people.

"But to me, the incongruent angle of Amish rocker or Amish race car driver is funny. I like when they slip a little from the fold or the order, because we're all human. Not to the extent of the guy who bludgeoned his wife, or the guys that were dealing cocaine, but the little stuff -- like the stories you hear about the Amish guy who has the '64 GTO in the garage that he works on and takes out. So I thought that billing myself as an Amish rocker was funny. But to people who know my music and actually listen to it, there's a substance to it. The Amish thing is just a hook to get them in the door."

Tonight, the door is at the Lava Lounge, 2204 E. Carson St., South Side, where Hungry Bill releases "Live! at Mr. Small's Funhouse," with not just a show but also a pancake-eating contest rematch with Phat Man Dee (who also performs, in addition to Tommy Amoeba). The festivities begin at 9:30. Admission is only $4 and may include what's left of Hungry's "Amish regulation pancakes."