BRuce Dickinson smiles as he appears on Zoom at the start of an interview.
The Iron Maiden frontman sits in a Florida hotel room preparing for his ‘An Evening with Bruce Dickinson’ tour, which will take place at The Orpheum on Tuesday, March 1.
It’s not a concert, but a chat with fans about his list of accomplishments, all told with humorous stories.
A true polymath, his accomplishments include airline pilot and captain, aviation entrepreneur, beer brewer, motivational speaker, podcaster, film scriptwriter, twice-published novelist and New York Times Top 10 bestselling author, radio presenter, actor television broadcaster, sports commentator and international fencer.
“It’s a show that’s been developed over a number of years, really — since I wrote an autobiography and started road testing the show,” Dickinson said. “People thought they were getting a promotional event about a book. What they were actually getting was a tryout for a one-man show, which is how I evolved it to where it is now.
Now, he said, was the perfect time to bring it to the movies. “An Evening with Bruce Dickinson” is easy to adapt in these pandemic times.
“As soon as things seemed to open up, we thought we’d bring it to theaters, with the help of the promoters at Live Nation, who do the theatrical side of things, not the musical side of things,” did he declare.
The 90-minute show is in two “unequal halves”. It starts with how a “pimply kid from a town no one in the world has ever heard of gets to wear the world’s most ridiculous pants to the biggest heavy metal band in the world,” he said. he declares.
” How is it going ? These are largely first experiences. Birth is one. So, I start with something that is common to everyone and it goes from there: adolescence, being in an English boarding school, a place where you could meet Boris Johnson, if it were a few years later.
Fans understand, he said, because it’s something they have in common.
“They’re going to recognize their own wacky things,” Dickinson says. “What mistakes have you made, audience? How come you’re not here, you know? That’s it. It’s a mildly semi-satirical look at how we ended up where we ended up.
Dickinson said the second half of the show is written by the audience, based on comments they write on index cards.
“They can write whatever they want,” he said. “They can write questions. They can comment on anything. I collect them all. I basically arrange them in a sort of intermission improv scenario.
As he does this, the audience watches the video for “The Writing on the Wall”, Iron Maiden’s 2021 single, on the big screen.
“I wanted to premiere it in real theaters,” he said. “Because of COVID, we never got there, so people have to watch it on YouTube, which is good, but sucks.
“When you have something that’s really cool,” you want to show it off in the right way.
“I thought, damn it, I’m going to America, let me take it with me,” he added.
“It’s the Dolby version with the big sound system with the sound effects. You can hear the motorcycles. You can hear the boots on the ground. People have never seen it on the big screen. So, during the intermission, I go to arrange the cards and, in the meantime, here is what I did just now.
“When I come back, it’s a Q&A with a twist.”
“An Evening with Bruce Dickinson”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1
OR: The Orpheum, 842 S. Broadway, Los Angeles
COST: Tickets start at $29.50
INFORMATION: 1-877-577-4386, laorpheum.com
