Profile - Mike Geier

"Don't confuse activity with achievement" is Mike Geier's slogan. At the very least, Geier is active. The 6-foot-8-inch singer not only leads jazz-swing-pop-rock-country-R&B outfit Kingsized, but performs with tiki band Tongo Hiti, dances with burlesque troop Dames Aflame, re-creates the King for the annual Elvis Death Day celebration, and leads a band in Cartoon Network's "Sunday Pants." Oh yeah, and he plays birthday parties and weddings.</
Geier has been performing since the late '80s, initially with the Useless Playboys, and in '96 he began Kingsized. For Polynesian-infused Tongo Hiti, Geier plays a ukulele, which is Elvis in a Blue Hawaii sorta way. Check out the big man strumming a little guitar Thursday nights at Trader Vic's.</
Playlists vary: "If I'm at the Earl doing a rock show, I might play Nick Cave or Claire Campbell of Hope for Agoldensummer."</
No, the energy source motivating Geier's jam-packed schedule isn't a case of Red Bull. "My wife, Shannon Newton, is the one that keeps it all rolling," he says. Newton manages Kingsized, as well as the band's wedding gigs, and leads Dames Aflame.</
Geier engages in the culinary arts during his downtime, comparing his two passions: "[I] cook different things, but because [I'm] cooking them it creates a common thread; there are distinctions between jazz and blues, but [I'm] cooking them all." Geier, along with writers Hollis Gillespie and Michael Beniot, will be guests on the Turner South "Home Plate" cooking Show this month.</
Recently, Geier wrote two songs for his favorite TV show, Adult Swim's "12 Oz. Mouse."