We were lucky to catch up with Brian Kidd recently and have shared our conversation below.
Brian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
The important thing to understand about my journey as the Unipiper is that there was no grand plan or particular vision behind it. Instead, it was the result of simply following paths and pulling strings that were of interest to me and seizing upon even the most seemingly dead-end opportunities. The first step down said path was responding to a flyer which I happened upon during college advertising “Free Bagpipe Lessons”. While intriguing, the idea of playing bagpipes seemed almost too farfetched to be any real possibility, but the simplicity of the words on the page were reassuring and invited a reassessment. I had not previously considered playing bagpipes or really thought that much about bagpipes at all, however something about those words on that piece of paper awoke something deep inside my brain, and in that moment, I realized that “Free Bagpipe Lessons” were exactly what was missing from my life. For the next 2 years, I voluntarily spent my Saturday mornings waking up early to learn the difference between various archaic terms like leumluath and taorluath, and squeeze air through various bits of animal hide, wood, and plastic in hopes of making it all squeak correctly. To what end though, I hadn’t the slightest idea. In the midst of my newfound Saturday morning piping rituals, I would stumble upon, quite literally, the other key ingredient to my future creative success. It was while cleaning out the storage closet of my university’s pep band that I would find a well-loved unicycle in the dumpster I had been, until that moment, filling with old sheet music and broken trombones. Like the bagpipe flyer from before, this unicycle too, triggered something deep in my subconscious, and before long, I had not one, but two brand new, full-fledged hobbies, each vying for my time. And for several years, I contently split my time between these vastly unrelated pursuits. That is, until one day, when thanks to an overly inquisitive coworker, I was forced to answer why I couldn’t combine my hobbies into one entirely new hobby. It was when I failed to come up with a satisfactory answer that I was forced to entertain the possibility that I had been missing out on something greater than the sum of a unicycle and some bagpipes. As it turned out, I had indeed been depriving myself, and the world, of an entirely new form of entertainment – one that would soon prove to have a shocking amount of creative, and viral potential. While I am forever grateful to my obnoxious coworker for giving me the nudge, I also regret not seeing the obvious potential sooner. The two biggest lessons that I have taken from this journey are therefore 1) Listen to your gut, and 2) Don’t be afraid to use your talents and skills in new and seemingly nonsensical ways.
Brian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
From quirky museums to naked bicycle rides, Portland, Oregon is a weird place and likes constant reminders of that fact. It doesn’t take very long to find the city’s unofficial motto, ‘Keep Portland Weird’, slapped on a bumper sticker, or painted across the side of a building. It’s hard not to see then, why a kilt wearing, unicycle riding, and flame spewing bagpiper would fit right in. Except, I didn’t just fit in, I was lovingly embraced, so much so in fact, that the Unipiper was crowned Portland’s Best Local Celebrity not once, not twice, but 7 years and counting. With city sponsored trips around the country and even abroad, the Unipiper became Portland’s unofficial ambassador of weird. And with that attention, came opportunity. It wasn’t long before what had started as an extremely fun hobby turned into a successful small business, with support coming in many forms, including appearances everywhere from birthdays and weddings to conventions and half-times. Any event looking to offer a uniquely Portland experience was an opportunity for the Unipiper. As Portland’s national profile grew with the popularity of shows like Portlandia, Hollywood soon took notice of the Unipiper, resulting in appearances on shows like America’s Got Talent, The Gong Show, and most famously Jimmy Kimmel Live! Licensing deals and commercial opportunities followed, with Unipiper sightings popping up on postcards, water bottles, and more. Alongside rain, trees, and Sasquatch, the Unipiper had become an icon of the city and the living embodiment of the entire “Keep Portland Weird” movement.
Reflecting on the joy and success of my Unipiper journey in 2018, I sat down to think about the path ahead and wonder whether I could leverage my position to enact some positive change in the city I called home. The answer I arrived at was a resounding ‘yes’ and I immediately started work on what would become Weird Portland United (WPU), the only 501(c)(3) dedicated to Keeping Portland Weird. Throughout my travels and from talking with other creatives, I had begun to see parallels between the situation in Portland and other historically ‘quirky’ cities, like Austin, TX and San Francisco, where skyrocketing costs had displaced much of the cities’ vibrant arts communities, resulting in a rapid loss of local character and identity. With my high profile standing in Portland, I felt uniquely qualified to highlight everything we were at risk of losing. To accomplish this goal, I would return to my signature formula and throw in another hobby on top of the unipiping combo – craft brewing. By partnering with a local brewery, Gigantic, we would create Unipiper Hazy IPA. Proceeds from sale of the beer would go to Weird Portland United and support its mission to celebrate the city’s unique innovative culture, amplify its creative expression, and incubate an even weirder future. In its first year, WPU would give out over $5,000 in creative grants, establish the Weird Portland Hall of Fame, and unite the weird community in a way like never before. Today, the Unipiper continues to bring laughter, joy, and confusion to a city eager to crack a smile, while WPU, through its efforts with Gigantic Brewing, still strongly advocates for Portland to remain a place where creatives can thrive with nothing more than a unicycle and a set of bagpipes.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In 2024, I was invited to perform the national anthem for a televised match of the Portland Timbers Major League Soccer team. Unfortunately, however, the bagpipes have a very limited musical range of just 9 notes, not enough to accommodate ye olde Star Spangled Banner. Lucky for me, I also play trumpet, and even though I had not done so in close to two decades, I would regularly solo the national anthem back in college. I made the suggestion then that I could open the game on the unicycle, swapping the pipes out for the trumpet. While this would certainly be outside of my comfort zone, I was not particularly concerned about it because I had been practicing daily for several weeks leading up to the game. The big day arrived, and sound check went off without a hitch. When it came time, however, for the big moment, a tidal wave of nerves, the likes of which I had never felt, came crashing down on me just as I had let out the first notes of the song. I somehow managed to hold everything together, though just barely, through the gallant streaming, but when it came time for the rockets, there would be no red glare. My lips were a trembling mess, compounded in the moment by the movement of the unicycle, that would simply not produce anything that could remotely be considered music. Despite this, I stayed atop the unicycle with the horn pressed up to my lips, fully resigned by now to the fate that lay before me, blowing what little air I could muster through to the bitter end. Somewhere around the ‘proof through the night’ something amazing happened, and suddenly the crowd, numbering in the tens of thousands, were singing along and riding this runaway train with me, carrying me all the way to the station and finishing with a round of rapturous applause. At the time, I did not fully realize the significance of what had just occurred. All I knew was that I felt about one foot tall and that I wished I could teleport back to my seat so that I would not have to walk past the judging eyes of the crowd. Following this, one of the worst experiences of my life, I made a heartfelt apology on social media for letting everyone down. I was not prepared for the response this post generated. I received thousands of supportive comments and direct messages from people mostly sharing similarly mortifying moments from their own lives. Others wanted to let me know that they thought my performance was one of the most punk moments in Portland history. It wasn’t long before the Timbers responded to the growing discourse themselves, with what I thought was the least likely possible outcome, by inviting me back to perform a second time! That performance turned out exactly how I had hoped the first would and the crowd cheered just as loud. While this was certainly a personal triumph, I was shocked by the number of people who, while congratulating my accomplishment, expressed genuine preference for the first performance. This was further reinforced when the official Timber’s fan club produced a Unipiper patch commemorating my first visit to the stadium. The whole experience taught me a deep lesson in the value of being honest and open, two skills far more valuable than blowing a horn and riding a unicycle.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Like they were for so many others, the COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns presented a major disruption and challenge to my business model, forcing me to rethink what was even possible, with live performances and in-person gatherings having filled up the bulk of my Unipiper calendar. Clearly, I would be making a shift to outdoor appearances only, however, it was the personal struggle of planning a birthday during lockdown that provided the spark of inspiration for what would come to define my life during this time. With everybody now stuck at home, I would simply bring the party to the people, and thus was born, the Unipipergram! For a standard fee, folks could summon the Unipiper to their residence, or send the Unipiper to a loved one. Upon launch, what was completely unexpected was the overwhelming response and subsequent demand for Unipipergrams. Within the first day, I had received over 200 inquiries for Unipipergrams, forcing me to adapt on-the-fly and add a new form-based system to my website to handle the influx of requests. What I had assumed would be the start of a period of relative inactivity and downtime for the Unipiper quickly turned into the busiest year of my life, as I dove headfirst into this new market and demand I hadn’t realized even existed. By responding to a personal need with a new offering and being adaptive, I had pivoted my business in a way I could not have predicted, and in the process, experienced some of the most rewarding moments of my career as people opened up to me with gratitude and smiles for being a memorably bright spot in an otherwise unforgettably dark time. To this day, Unipipergrams remain one of my most popular offerings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.unipiper.com
- Instagram: @theunipiper
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/theunipiper
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/theunipiper
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-unipiper-portland
