Episode 4: The Gene Pool Story (Part 2)

In this fourth episode of The Gene Pool Show, Gene tells (another part of) his life story to Studio C's Andy Miles, and performs one of his songs. He talks about moving to Chicago in 1983, and to "desolate" Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1989, at a time when "you could not pay someone to come to a party from Manhattan." While living there, Charles Mingus' daughter connected him to Rolling Stone cover photographer Mark Seliger. Gene colorfully reminisces about the work he did assisting Seliger on photo shoots of Seinfeld's Michael Richards, the singer Beck, and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Drew Barrymore. Later Gene had a role riding his unicycle as a bald clown in the Seliger-directed Natalie Merchant video "Kind and Generous." He tells the story of how he learned to ride the unicycle he found in the garbage and how he came to be known as the can man, wearing a suit made of beer cans to promote the cause of curbside recycling in New York City. The can suit brought him local fame, landing him in the pages of New York magazines and, once, in police custody; late in the episode, he tells that story.