My name is Geoff Zimmerman … I’ve lived in Chicago for about the past seventeen years … I’m originally from Wisconsin … I was born in Madison … But we moved away from there pretty quickly … We moved to Mississippi when I was about a year and a half because my dad was in the air-force … So … we did move around quite a bit … I lived in Colorado … South Dakota … even Germany a couple of times … and the always kept things interesting … lively … Moving was always an interesting process … but it was also … you learned to adjust wherever you went … Everybody … wherever we moved … were in the same boat … We loved on bases a lot … the kids I went to school with were military kids for the most part … it was always an interesting process … having to uproot once every three or four years … and go to someplace completely different … but it was also an adventure … You meet a lot of different people … being in a lot of different situations … and I got to see a lot of different places in the world where I probably wouldn’t have gotten to see … The first time we moved to Germany … I was five years old … I kind of knew what was happening … Of course … it became obvious to me when not everybody spoke english … It was a bit of a change … but when you’re young … you adapt to things … It was whole different world to what we were used to … It was interesting to go through that type of experience at that point in my life … We did quite a bit of traveling the first time we were there … we went through … a lot of towns in Germany … went to some of the nearby countries as well … we want through a little bit of France … and Spain … Belgium … the Netherlands … that kind of thing … But yeah … we did a fair amount of traveling … I got to see some interesting sites … The Neuschwanstein … the castle they modeled the Disney castle on … it was kind of like a wonderland … Of all the places we lived … I really enjoyed Germany … it was probably my favorite place out of all of them …  we also lived at the Air Force Academy for about four years … Colorado provides a lot of interesting scenery and a lot of fun hikes when you’re a kid … you’re pretty much loving in the foothills of the Rockies … When I was younger … my parents put me in music … Earlier in my life I started taking piano lessons … when I was seven … eight years old … That kind of set me on … a musical track … I always enjoyed music … I grew up singing a lot … by myself … and in choirs … that kind of thing … Sports? … My favorite sport ended up being swimming … the freedom of the water … I’ve been swimming in one form or another from a very early age … I learned to swim at a very early age … and it’s something I enjoy … I did a lot of pretend playing when I was a kid actually (laughter) … I was interested in all kind of fantasy stories … and that kind of thing … I went in that direction at a very early age … started reading science fiction and fantasy … when I actually started reading novels like … Madeleine L’Engle … she wrote A Wrinkle in Time … one of my early favorites … and Susan Cooper … The Dark is Rising series … all of these things that are now being made into movies … I liked exploring my imagination a lot when I was a kid … and early attempts at writing as well … considering the craziness of what could be … Music? … Oddly enough I listened too a lot of a cappella when I was in high school (laughter) … because I was in choir … and it’s a fun form of music to participate in … one of the greatest experiences … some of the greatest experiences I’ve had performing … have been in choir … and in small groups where your voices just blend … it’s kind of a magical moment … where everything comes together after rehearsal … I also, listened to a good amount of classic rock … oh gosh … like Credence Clearwater Revival was a big one … Steve Miller band … Of course you had your Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix … when I got into college … Pink Floyd and that kind of thing … By the time I got into high school … my dad retired my freshman year of high school … half way through my freshman year … so … I had to move at that point … we moved to Green Bay Wisconsin … I went to high school there … so … I finished up pretty normally after a bumpy road school wise … In high school … I did some musicals … they had a star competition … regional and state competition … the called “Forensics” at the time … essentially they had play scenes … they also had speech … radio … a whole bunch of different categories … We usually participated in the play acting … where you just select a scene out of play … and try to go through it … A lot of the musicals were bigger productions … I got into them … sophomore … junior … and senior year … After high school … I went to Millikan University … I auditioned there for musical theater … and initially went there for musical theater … oddly enough I thought I could do musical theater and pre med … to satisfy the what if category … but the pre med fell to the wayside pretty quickly … as did the musical part of the theater … as it turned out … I shouldn’t say that I’m not a good dancer … but I take a lot of practice (laughter) … I’ll Put it that way … Oh … Milliken … it’s in Decatur Il … Living in central Illinois? … It was really odd … they had … what’s called … the Milliken bubble … because Decatur … in and of itself is not the most affluent of towns … it’s a very industrial town … and when I went there … there were some areas of town that weren’t so safe … and Milliken University happened to be right in one of those areas … but it was an interesting thing to go to school … because the campus was very concentrated … at the time I went there … there were only about 2500 students there … about the size of my high school … with just a lot more buildings … you could essentially walk one or two blocks a way from campus … in any direction … and it was a little bit of a different world … It was interesting in that respect … and also … I lived in the area for about a year after I graduated as well … just kind of wandering around … mentally … that was were we did a lot of driving around in the countryside … because that’’s one of the things you can do when you have access to cornfields … and that’s about it … There was a lot of driving around and listening to music … and enjoying whatever we had at the time … It was interesting going to city that was surrounded by so many small towns … It was kind of strange … you’d hear about the rumors of the KKK chapter that’s still going on … in the town that’s thirty minutes south … or something like that … It was kind of a strong contrast when you get down to it … It was a very liberal campus … especially being part of the theater school … which was a pretty significant part of the student base … I really enjoyed it … there was a lot of creative exploration going on at that point … The program at Milliken had a lot of flexibility … you can start auditioning for shows right away … in fact you’re expected to audition for their Black Box theater … the student produced area … you have to go to the auditions for every single one of those plays your freshman year … and they make sure that you do … just to get the experience … and it was a good experience … After college? … Like I said I spent a year in Decatur just kind of bumming around … I was done with college … and that was the question … what’s next? … I knew I wanted to move up to Chicago … it was just a matter of  … getting into the place where … where I was ready for it … whether I liked it or not … when I first moved up here … I lived in the suburbs for three or four months … and then moved into the city … because … that was the easiest path … I had a friend … I had to sublet a room … it made for a good transition … And moved into the city with the full intention of starting to audition … and then just getting sidetracked for a very long time … Actually … it was probably about ten years before I started seriously auditioning … I try to define that period in my life where … I guess I had a lot of steam to blow off … It’s like you hear … your twenties are your second childhood sometimes … I don’t know … and for me … that’s what it amounted to … I had a lot of growing up tp do in that period … When I first moved to the city I lived in Buena Park … which is just north of Wrigleyville … I lived there for a couple of years … until I moved in with a friend of mine in Ukrainian village … I stayed there for a few years as well … The first time I decided that I had to get serious about my life … I was living in Logan Square … There was … all of the sudden … this urgent need to have direction in my life … to have … what I thought of at the time … to be a person of consequences … I guess is how I put it in my mind … where … I had to be at a place in my life where decisions mattered … or … that the stakes were higher … I actually started taking theater classes again … just to get my feet in the water … I stumbled across … through friends of mine that worked in restaurants … that I still work at … that were taking classes with Susan Hart and Geoffrey Carlson … they do Shakespeare classes in Chicago … and they’re very … very good teachers … It was finally at a point … where I was in a class situation where I had instructors that were really focusing … more deeply on what I was doing personally … and … they … weren’t allowing any bullshit … They were not allowing anybody to half ass it … or to try … it was a matter that … you’re on stage … you’re doing something  … so do it … It was a really lively process from the get go with those two … they really inspired me to get back into theater … a lot more then I had been … Now? … I’m actually less in the theater realm right now … my partner in love and life … Sio … is a fellow performer … and she’s actually inspired me to branch out a lot … she does burlesque performance … and is just a really ambitious performer as well herself … very lively … so … she’s encouraged me to explore more … not really being involved in a play so much … as a production … where your stage time is more your own … you are performing … a lot of time somebody else’s material … but at the same time … you’re so much more directly interpreting it for yourself … I’m getting into a little bit of that … a little bit of acting in the vaudeville sense of things … like silent acting … that kind of thing … also reconnecting with my musical side a lot more as well … getting into singing and performing … vocally … which is something I haven’t done a lot since college … honestly … I’ve kept the practice up … musically … I’m pretty much there … But the performance side … It’s fun to explore that again … in much more a solo branch this time … I’m still completely open to acting … of course … but I’ve got a little bit of a wider base now … On judgement… It’s amazing how judgmental people can be now … from both ends of the spectrum … I know … for example … burlesque is becoming main stream art form … It’s becoming much more approachable by a much larger public … do in no small part to the amount of work the community has done … over the past years … It’s always interesting to see the kind of crowd that shows up … at any given show … straight burlesque or variety … It’s interesting because you always get this interesting cross section of the people that are … just trying it out for the first time … and the people that might not know the community where they’re at … but just going out for a fun time … thesis what they know … and the people who are part. Of the local community and are supportive of it throughout a lot of different venues … It’s always interesting … bringing it up in conversation … just to see peoples reaction … It’s not something that I’ve shed away from … but it’s interesting to see … I suppose … some peoples hangups … when you throw a couple of different art forms together … you have burlesque … and within that … you have dance … you have the art of the tease going on … and how people play with that … and then you see peoples outside reaction … “Oh my gosh … they’re taking their cloths off” … and then you fast forward into the world itself … how you have people who revery much traditional … and there are people who are very much progressive … and how they have their differences with each other … It gets to be … sometimes depressingly political … peoples various reactions to it … It just seems … with the environment we’re in now … acceptance is no longer the go to … sometimes even within an artists community … It’s good to see the people that like to explore the boundaries … turn tradition on it’s ear … but also to be able to use that tradition … and pay homage to it … I use social media … a little bit as a networking tool … I’m on Facebook … but apart from LinkedIn … that’s the only method of social media that I access on a regular basis … I’m not on Instagram … although I do actually have a hashtag … of Jeffy_poo … I was dubbed Jeffy Poo … first by Sio … and it’s sort of caught on with several performer friends we have … That’s kind of my performance name at this point (laughter) … whenever I’m in the realm … I use Facebook … to keep up with some old friends … and to keep professional contacts … theater groups that I’ve worked with in the past … That’s about it … when it comes to facebook … I might even be called a little bit of a voyeur … just because I don’t post very much … If I have a photo that I enjoy … or that I feel I want to share … I’ll do the happy birthdays …and all that kind of stuff … It’s not often that I’m consistently posting on Facebook … we all get our validation from various places … and I’m not passing judgement on anybodies need for society … With Sio … it was friendship and relationship pretty quickly … In the near future … I’d like to do more performing … I’d like to do a lot more of the singing aspect of my performance … just because it’s something I enjoy so much … a lot of traveling … I got to see a fair amount of places … I won’t say the world … because you can see a lot of it … and still not see very much of it … I would like to further my exploration … planning where to go next …  I would like to do more performance in the vaudeville genre … and the variety shows … I think there’s a lot to explore there … I guess explore is the key word …