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… After all the
years I’ve found
My occupational
hazard being my
occupation’s just
not around.
—“A Pirate Looks at 40”
by Jimmy Buffett
KAT B R AZ (L A’ 01 , M S L A’1 9)
job to devote more energy to the piano bar. From the very
beginning, Barker knew he wanted to create a community
of friends with his show.
“Most piano bars are so impersonal,” he says. “They don’t
care about who is there that night. They just care about
how much money you brought and how to separate you
from that money. They play songs twice as fast or cut them
in half to cram in more requests. I wanted to do things differently. Being in Glee Club was fundamental to teaching
me what’s important about being an entertainer. You look
someone in the eye; you take time to be present with them.
You don’t just say hi and move on to the next person.”
Barker established early traditions for his show that he’s
stuck with all these years. He likes to arrive early to chat
with people who’ve come to hear him perform. He doesn’t
take tips during his first hour — “People love free stuff! Give
them a free song!” He plays straight through the entire time
— “Taking a break would be like hitting the brakes.” And he
ends every night with the same song — “A Pirate Looks at
40” by Jimmy Buffett.
“One time about 10 years ago, after I’d finished playing for
four hours and 45 minutes straight, I had ended the show.
And a guy came up to me with $100 and asked me to play
two more songs. I told him no. That’s the song I’d ended
every show with since I started this gig. And I wasn’t about
to change that now.”
Regardless of the size of the audience, Barker puts the
same all-consuming energy into every performance. And
there have been some quiet nights over the years. Barker
recalls one year, during a severe snowstorm, there wasn’t a
soul in the bar at 10:00 p.m. The crew was just about to lock
up when a group of snowmobilers arrived in the parking lot.
“All of the sudden, we had a 20-person party. It was so fun.”
AN ENTERTAINER AT HEART
“I’ve never had a business card, but if I did, it would say
entertainer, not musician,” Barker says. “I admire musicians,
but that has never been my calling. My calling is to bring
people together. Bring them a little joy. Help them disengage
from reality for a couple of hours. Maybe form a new bond
with a significant other or a lifelong Boilermaker friend.”
It worked for Barker. His wife, Sabrina (Lake) Barker
(HHS’01) walked into the piano bar on August 13, 1999 —
Barker’s uncanny memory for dates is nearly as impressive
as his musical recall — wearing a gray sweatshirt, ponytail,
and no makeup.
“She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen,” he
PUR D U E A LU MN I . O RG
says. “Throughout the entire night, I kept thinking ‘I really
want to talk to you, but I don’t ever stop the show.’” Sabrina
was still there at 1:00 a.m. Barker gathered the nerve to
introduce himself, and they ended up driving to the Purdue
Airport, where they talked until dawn. “I was trying to think
of somewhere romantic at 2:30 in the morning,” Barker says.
“All I could think of was Top Gun. I thought we could watch
the planes take off. But there is nothing happening at the
Purdue airport at 2:30 in the morning.” The couple celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary in June.
In March, Sabrina, an elementary school teacher, became
Barker’s producer as he began streaming shows live from
his basement after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Neon
Cactus to temporarily close. For Barker, it was an opportunity to give back to the fans who have supported him. Nearly
14,000 people tuned in to watch that first week. He hit his
peak attendance — 105,000 viewers — during a Senior Week
show honoring 2020 grads. That’s when Traci Rombalski
(M’98) tuned in from her home in Orlando, Florida.
“It’s probably been 12 years since I’ve seen Bruce perform live,” Rombalski says. “So it was great to have the
show streaming to my TV, cocktail in hand, rocking out.
It was fun to see Boilermakers everywhere chiming in
to say where they were watching. It was like one giant
reunion. Bruce never disappoints. He is so over-the-top
personable. The show is never about him. It’s just about
everyone having fun.”
Barker had every intention of returning to the Rusty
Bucket and celebrating his 25th anniversary at the Cactus
in November — “I’m rounding up and counting it! I’ve
never been good at fractions.” But on September 2, the
Cochrans announced the nightclub was closing permanently. Barker spent the previous day packing up his
piano, his wall of photos, and the various memorabilia
Boilermakers have gifted him over the decades.
“This is not the way I wanted it to end,” Barker says. “I
wanted to have a big going away party. I wanted to hug
everybody. I wanted to be able to look you in the eye and
say ‘thank you.’ I am a proud Boilermaker, and you Boilermakers have given me the most amazing life. I don’t want
it to be goodbye. I just want it to be until we meet again.”
—KAT BRAZ (LA’01, MS LA’19)
TOD BALDWIN (LEFT) and
Bruce Barker (HHS’94) of the
Neon Cactus piano bar perform
a basement quarantine show
honoring 2020 graduates in May.
BARKER BY THE NUMBERS
A self-professed nerd,
Barker kept statistics on
his performances at the
Neon Cactus:
• 3,204 shows
• 1,212,400 people attended,
enough to fill:
-Ross-Ade almost 18 times
-Mackey Arena 79 times
-Elliott Hall 187 times
• 224,280 songs (70/show)
• 12,816 hours of singing
FA L L 2020
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