Philanthropy Technology & The Performing Arts

Bill Cooper is a mild mannered, temperate tonsorial alteration expert by day, a consummate nightclub performer by night, and is well worth waiting for the several annual San Francisco performances he graces us with when his busy schedule allows.  Once dubbed a ‘hoofer’ by yours truly, and ever eager to live up to his billing, Mr. Cooper has a lot to strut and does it with grace, ease and hilarious style.  He has an uncanny way of personalizing each number he seduces and shares with his audience, making the arrangement something he gives to the audience like a sensual dessert.

 In his most recent annual gig at the Plush Room, Mr. Cooper once again proved that he knows the material that works best with his style and timing.  He put a show together this time on the theme "My Summer of Love, Not Yours!"   This concept is a perfect setting for Bill’s wry, perhaps sly works better here, humor and he adds his unique collection of standards and to his rich, warm and sophisticated voice.  He brings a firm understanding of the America songbook and aided by his long time arranger and accompanist, Barry Lloyd, no one offers a broader selection of composers like Cole Porter, Sammy Cahn, and Jerome Kern, Jule Styne and Carolyn Leigh, Bob Merrill and Bill Solly.  Songs like “I Could Fall in Love,” “You Fascinate Me So,” “Without a Song,” “Where Are You,” “That’s My Boy,” and “How Little We Know” are each made richer and more emotional as Cooper weaves his courageous and hilarious life story into and around each of these wonderful songs. 

In succinct, moving and witty snapshots we come to know a bright, tuneful, searching young man around the time of the summer of ¹67, which for Cooper was all about teenage angst and the crippling fear of being unacceptable.   Coming to his own conclusion that he was "notorious and at once invisible", he found recognition and self approval in music and the great vocalists he adored like Frances Faye, Kay Thompson and Dolores Gray to which he later added Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney and Barbra Streisand.  Cooper always presents carefully crafted, well-written and rehearsed show’s that are intimate, personal and filled with love, gratitude and emotional honesty. His appearance is innocence personified, cherubic cheeks, trim mustache, and gap-tooth smile, all enhanced by his dancing eyes and flitting hands. Few cabaret stars have the voice and style to carry it off a show this diverse and demanding, and backed up by another genius in Barry Lloyd, Bill Cooper does it handily and with great grace and charm.  A wonderful blend of acting and song styling delivered by a consummate performer, Bill Cooper is a must see any time he is performing near me.