“Well, they tell me of a pieman in the sky
Waiting for me when I die…”
With the tears of a mournful clown, we are saddened to report that Pieman Mike passed away a few months ago. While people remember Mike Braunthal primarily as the Pieman, he was also a musician, a poet, a professional gardener, and a generous friend.
Today, we’re celebrating his life with the premiere of a video clip that showcased his music talents, as he assembled a performance of a special song that was designed to be part of a documentary project I’m quite attached to.
Yes, it’s THAT special song written by Richard Berry and performed by PieMan Mike and the Palo Alto Jazz Band!!
Mike had this thing where he loved to get his face splattered by whipping cream pies thrown by beautiful women. He labelled himself “pie-sexual.” He first felt excited about such things when he was a young kid watching some films by the Three Stooges. It all seemed a bit goofy to me, but who was I to judge?.
“Pie-berspace”, coined by Mike, was a unique cream-splattered world promoted with t-shirts, buttons, video and swag for his supporters. By the fortitude of his promotional skills, he even got mentioned in the “Encyclopedia Of Unusual Sex Practices.”
Championing his involuntary baldness, Mike had a distinctive “avant-garde” look that he took to the stage, performing improvised pie throws in the middle of rock ’n’ roll shows, doing occasional photo spreads in fashion magazines and even some acting in a few independent short films. Herb Caen – San Francisco’s legendary newspaper columnist would sometimes mention Mike’s escapades.
Speaking of which, here’s another short video we created – starring Mike and produced by yours truly. This particular film is entitled “Downo – the World’s Most Depressing Clown“. This is also being premiered online for the very first time.
WARNING: the language in this film is a bit nasty and not fit for young ones.
Rest in peace, Mike Braunthal
May 16, 1952 – July 5, 2025.
We’re going to miss you, my friend.
– E.P. of LouieLouie.net
(* with big thanks to the late Jimmy Cliff for the inspiration of the first words on this little obituary for our friend.)
Reference Links:
Pieman.com (his official webpage – even thou he never used a computer)|
Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices (Wikipedia)
Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices (AbeBooks)
Mike was my friend for 40 years. He had many talents drumming ,
poetry, downo the clown ,the pieman. I went with him on many
pieman shows in SF and many women would pie Michael.
I was glad to be his friend
Gary Altman
Leave a reply and to your friend Mike a good pie good bye! Good show right e o! Oh, where have all the good clowns gone?! And how bout that mighty drumset?! Oh yeah! Signed, Broke Shields rep. for Calvin Slime
Ah this sadens me. I had not seen him in close to 30 years but allways enjoyed seeing him. Mike was a unique individual for certain. He struck me as rather polite, and quite funny. In the mid 1990’s we were both part of a small fine dining group of super eclectic weirdo san francisco freaks. We would meet once a month to eat at Stars, Greens, Posterio, Indigo etc. he was the only one of us to always have a different and nice looking lady with him as a date. I had big old dread locks at the time, kind of the polar opposite of mike. we would also be joined by a friend who did tibetan imports and another who had helped popularize the Manson print shirts etc. an extreme group of intelligent oddballs half of which smelled like a hashish factory. it tells you a whole lot about the place by how they treat a group of 8 or so super weirdos that did not fit the usual profile of their clientel. Before that i only knew him as someone who would show up at some big party with a bunch of pies and would tarp off a area and do his thing??? He was so clearly enjoying himself that i had thought wtf & what ever gets you through the night. The pie was a pretty good litness test i suppose as it would show how people would react and give clues as to how they might handle weirder stuff. Really a very interesting cat whom i wish i would have gotten to know better. May he rest in peace.
Pieman changed the energy in the room🎸Optimistic honest & hilarious, his torch burned bright and true. Long live his spirit in all who were fortunate enough to have met him.
Thank you, Eric, for honoring his legacy