When he's not entertaining hundreds or thousands of fans of The Menus, lead singer and mayhem maker Tim Goldrainer performs for a much more intimate audience in Greater Cincinnati.
In nursing homes.
"I just want to make people happy, man, particularly in the senior world, because they really, really need it," says Goldrainer in the short film Goldie published Wednesday on The New Yorker's digital channels as part of the magazine's award-winning New Yorker Documentary series. See it here.
"I want to make them feel like they're somewhere else, to bring them back to a simpler time, and make them forget that they're living in a nursing home," he says.
Filmmaker Billy Miossi — who directed WCPO-TV's Cincinnati's Uncle Al documentary last year — edited and directed the award-winning 12-minute film about Goldrainer doing his one-man show at several area nursing homes. The scenes are cut with Goldrainer's outrageous antics for The Menus — skateboarding on stage, popping overhead balloons with his trademark high kicks, crowd surfing over hundreds of fans, and wearing wild wigs, tutus, tank tops or no shirt at all.
"My dad gave me the best advice ever: 10 or 10,000 people, give the same show. Give them the best show you possibly can," says Goldrainer, who lives in Delhi Township near Miossi.
Goldrainer started his unusual day job after his mother moved into West Park Nursing Home due to dementia. When she would fall asleep, the crazy rocker would pop into nearby rooms and break into a Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin or Nat King Cole tune.
"I'd sing a song and watch them just kind of melt," says Goldrainer, who has been performing standards since 2001 with pianist Greg Dastillung in their band Curly and the Q-Balls.
"My whole perspective changed. I said, 'I'm going to go 100 miles an hour with this. I'm going to go big.' Why would they not deserve it?" he says in the film.
Two or three times a week, he energetically performs The Goldie Show on the senior circuit, in addition to more than 150 shows a year with The Menus.
He hugs and kisses the women. He takes selfies with the audience, many of them in wheelchairs. Some of them sing along. In the film, cinematographer Gary Hughes shows Goldrainer getting a standing ovation — by just one elderly gentleman.
"To me, to play music at any level, whether it be with The Menus in front of thousands of people or a nursing home, it's exhilarating. That's my joy," Goldrainer says in the film.
Goldie, which premiered at the 47th annual Cleveland International Film Festival in April, was honored as best documentary short in the One-Reeler Short Film Competition this summer. Miossi says there will be no local screening for Goldie; it will be available exclusively on The New Yorker platform.
