Bill was born 31 years ago in a cabbage patch but was plucked early when the winter frost failed to go away by mid-April and threatened to wilt his baby green leaves. He was raised by hobbits somewhere in Middle Earth before going off on his own to Pepperland. There, he had a tumultuous relationship with Tom Thumb’s daughter before she dumped him, citing that he was too big and kept absentmindedly sitting on her while watching TV. His one desire in life is to be someone else. Anyone else.
No, that’s not at all true. What is true is that Bill has a sick sense of humor. He has always enjoyed being a bit of a comedian and making others laugh, but can also be completely serious when the situation merits it. He is a simple man who doesn’t live in a fancy manner. Bill got into wrestling at a very young age. His family all loved wrestling and watched it religiously then(Now, not so much. Sign of the times, I guess.). His earliest memory is giving his father the Superfly Splash off the couch at age 3. Bill still enjoys watching wrestling, even if he is often less than thrilled with the sum of its’ parts. He also loves movies and music as well as reading a good book on a rainy afternoon. Speaking of books, Bill’s main goal in life is to become a professional writer, which is coming slowly but surely. At this time, Bill is currently working on his first novel, Healer, and has a screenplay in progress, Separate Checks. He also periodically posts film reviews, wrestling related stuff and original comedy pieces on his blog, Bill Up Close, as well as provide weekly entertainment here on the Wrestling Roundtable website.
Interests: Writing(fiction and criticism), wrestling, making fun of idiots who love to put their feet in their mouths, comedy
Favorite Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Producers (1968), King Kong(1933), West Side Story, Yellow Submarine, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Freaks, A Christmas Story, so-bad-they’re-good flicks, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (1965), many widescreen film epics, most Disney animated classics, most Clint Eastwood, most Woody Allen, most Martin Scorsese, most Oliver Stone, any Marx Brothers, all Charlie Chaplin, the Three Stooges shorts, Popeye shorts, Looney Tunes shorts, Tom and Jerry shorts, Laurel and Hardy, the James Bond series, the Pink Panther series, the Star Trek series, the Die Hard series, 10, SOB, Skin Deep, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, select Robert Altman(especially M*A*S*H, Brewster McCloud, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, California Split, Nashville, 3 Women, Secret Honor, Tanner ’88, The Player, Short Cuts, Gosford Park, A Prairie Home Companion), Once, Haunted Honeymoon, Ghostbusters, the Police Academy series, The Wild Bunch, Almost Famous, Superman(I. II & Returns, fuck the others), the Batman series(except the disaster with George Clooney), Good Night and Good Luck, Apocalypse Now Redux, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Monty Python films. This is barely scraping the surface.
Favorite Books: Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook, The George Carlin Quadrilogy(Brain Droppings, Napalm and Silly Putty, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? and Last Words), Mick Foley’s autobiographies, A Lion’s Tale, To Be the Man by Ric Flair, Bill Clinton: My Life, The Plot Against America and Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth, Moby Dick, Harry Potter series, anything Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Stephen King or Lawrence Sanders
Favorite Music: The Beatles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are the top of the heap. This includes group and solo works. Todd Rundgren, Traffic, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Chase, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Cream, Three Dog Night, Brasil ’66, Gram Parsons, John Cale, James Taylor, Dave Mason, The Everly Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, Santana, Tommy James and the Shondells, Tommy Roe, Alice Cooper, Leonard Cohen, Badfinger, The Monkees, Nellie McKay. Again, barely scratching the surface here.
Favorite TV Shows: Good Eats, South Park, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Maltin on Movies, NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles, Monty Python, Dragnet(B&W and color versions), Wanted: Dead or Alive, Family Guy(the first five seasons only), ALF, classic SNL, Superman, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, classic Siskel & Ebert, At the Movies, Danger Mouse, Sesame Street(1969-88), Mr. Ed, Veronica Mars, Mork & Mindy, Crime Story, Family Ties, The Electric Company (original), The Simpsons (Seasons 1-13 only), King of the Hill, The Golden Girls, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Taxi, Star Trek, Star Trek: the Next Generation, the Munsters, Iron Chef Japan, among many. I’d include WWE TV, but they’re too uneven.
