Tuesday, August 04, 2020

John Pirolli aka Buddah (1950-2020)


On Thursday July 30, we lost John Pirolli. I never knew him by that name (on Facebook, he called himself Daemon Magus). He was better known as the intentionally misspelled Buddah, a poet  and would-be manager of Fire of Prometheus, whose numbers included local legend Bill Barnum.

According to fellow member Mic Cusimano, Buddha took to managing Fire of Prometheus and helping them get gigs at places like Usen Castle at Brandeis University. By the time I met Buddah, he was heading up the equally eclectic Barnum and Buddah Poetry Circus, up for a Cambridge Poetry Award back in 2003.Talking to him and others gave me a crash course on what the Boston/Cambridge poetry scene was like before I became involved with Stone Soup Poetry in 2005.

From 2003 to 2004, Buddah was in the Stone Soup audience a number of times on the open mic along with Ryan "Ratt" Travis and a host of other veterans. As I took over Stone Soup, he and others seemed to have already transitioned outside of Boston.

The photo above is from Stone Soup's Jack Powers memorial reading shortly after his passing on October 25, 2010 at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery. It is the only one of Buddah I possess. Thankfully, Cusimano recorded when Fire of Prometheus reunited at Stone Soup on October 5, 2009. Buddah sat in the front row as he watched Barnum, Cusimano and the rest to perform old hits and give tribute to their one-time manager.

You can view performance highlights via Cusimano's video below (and wince any time I try to look and sound professional). Sadly, any photos or video I had taken that night appear to be lost to the ether. I blame it on that old Buddha magus energy.





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