Pink Man

This article is about the Californian performer. For the photo set by Thai artist Manit Sriwanichpoom, see Manit Sriwanichpoom § Pink Man.
Not to be confused with Pink Guy.

Pink Man
Pink Man "pleasing" onlookers
Born
Michael Maxfield

1961[1]
Leominster, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Known forpublic unicycling performances

Pink Man (real name Michael Maxfield) is a local celebrity from the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be seen riding his unicycle around the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. He gets his name from the shocking pink unitard and cape he wears while he performs impromptu unicycle tricks in public places—spinning, engaging in sudden stops, riding down the street at high speeds, and carrying people on his back.

Maxfield was born and grew up in Leominster, Massachusetts, where he discovered the unicycle at age 13. He moved to San Francisco at age 19, and then to Oregon. While in Oregon, he started performing on his unicycle under the name Jester Max. When he moved back to Leominster years later, he found himself spending hours dancing on his unicycle, and pedalling around town, garnering a front page story in the Worcester Telegram. He moved back to Oregon, where he sought out a new unicycle persona; on a whim, he purchased a pink Lycra unitard costume from a dancewear catalog. The new outfit proved extremely popular, and an onlooker at the University of Oregon campus dubbed him "pink man".[1][2]

Pink Man has performed in Oregon, Los Angeles, Houston, the San Francisco Bay Area, New Jersey, New York, the Pacific Northwest, Jacksonville, Vancouver, Paris, Tokyo, and Germany.[1][2][3] His Tokyo and Paris trips were sponsored by computer-game designer Will Wright, who calls Pink Man "the only real superhero I know".[1]

  1. ^ a b c d Hassell, Ashley (January 28 – February 3, 2009). "Gritty in Pink". SF Weekly. San Francisco: Village Voice Media. pp. 12–17. ISSN 1060-2526. Archived from the original on February 3, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2009.
  2. ^ a b Dix, Jennifer (May 30, 2002). "Pink Man returns to Berkeley in multimedia show". Berkeley Daily Planet. Berkeley, California. p. 1. Archived from the original on June 27, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2009.
  3. ^ Lionna, John (August 28, 1997). "In the Pink". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. p. B1. ISSN 1060-2526. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2009.