Sir Ivan: Peaceman, the Quest for Super

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to buy whole buildings with a single check. Ivan Wilzig -- or as he likes to be known, Sir Ivan -- is an eccentric guy. He wears a meticulously tailored "peace cape." He owns a castle in the Hamptons where legendary parties rival those seen in the movies. He lives a life described to me like Dudley Moore’s Arthur without all the drunkenness. He is focused on his music and his image. I run into him everywhere, and he always has time to chat. Despite the legendary wealth, Eyes Wide Shut castle, and the eccentricities of his caped attire, Sir Ivan is a very accessible guy. He’s keenly aware that walking around in a cape with a sequined peace sign on it will provoke a response -- often “That guy's nuts.” I wonder who is more nuts ... Ivan or the fools who chain themselves to desks every day to pay for 500 square feet with a refrigerator and a TV. Ivan Wilzig is certainly out there, and instead of sitting on piles of money on a beach somewhere, he gives a lot of it to charities and spends a lot of time entertaining people. His Sir Ivan character is making music about peace, man.

Your father was an Auschwitz survivor, and you come from a very wealthy background. Money is certainly a large part of your life.
Yes, my father lived the American dream after surviving the Holocaust.

You’re not a banker anymore. When did you make the decision that you weren’t going into the family business?
I was in the family banking business for 20 years. And in 2000, I recorded my first dance record—a remake of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which had never been done before in history. No one had ever remade any Beatles record, let alone “Imagine.”

You gave it to me at the Shore Club in Miami, by the pool.
That record was signed to Tommy Boy, by Tom Silverman himself, the owner of that label, and it was released one week before September 11. Timing-wise, I had an eerie feeling ... the reason I made the record is because I saw the world going downhill very fast, and there were a lot of things in it making me sick to my stomach, reading the news every day. And I had to pick, what is going to be my first song ... with that Holocaust background, I decided becoming a singer late in life as a profession was going to have a lot more meaning than just singing for entertainment’s sake. It became more singing to heal the world, and therefore I felt that that song “Imagine,” the lyrics to “Imagine,” best described my own personal philosophy and view of the world. I felt that a new generation should be listening to those lyrics and other songs from the Sixties that were of political/social importance.

You have a 15-song album coming out, and you’re timing that release with the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.
On August 15, 2009, I plan on launching my charitable foundation, the Peaceman Foundation, at a major party at my castle in the Hamptons that will be a fundraiser—and that happens to be the exact 40-year-anniversary of the concert.

Let’s talk about your relationship with nightlife. I’ve known you a very long time, you’ve been going to my clubs, you’re a man about town. Tell us about your castle.
The castle is in Water Mill, which borders Southampton and Bridgehampton.

You’ve thrown tons and tons of parties there over the last year.
I’ve had it for 12 years, and it’s been a great party venue for many different causes. It’s not only one of the most beautiful homes in the world, but its detail and the architecture ... it’s so powerful, when you look at it, its so beautiful, and so ... it has a great amount of sex appeal. It’s a sexy home.

You’re known as an extremely sexual person—it’s part of your mystique, and it’s true, when people talk about you, they whisper behind closed doors, there are rumors and innuendos ... tell my readers about this side of you and how it drives you.
Well, I have an eye for beautiful women, and I like my parties to be themed, because once people dress up for a particular theme, they get more excited about it, it makes it different than all the other parties.

Tell me about the themes and creating excitement.
I transform my home into the greatest, most exclusive club in the world. I try to attract a variety of people, and sometimes I don’t even know who’s going to show, what it’s going to be like—half the fun is not knowing exactly how it’s going to turn out. But it has the special lighting, the special sound systems, it has the ability at that party to swim in one of the most gorgeous infinity-edge pools with flaming bowls on both sides. So the entire castle becomes illuminated and flickers like a giant candle. It’s like an adult Disneyland, and with the jacuzzis and the sauna and the game room and the billiards and the video screens ... it’s more than a home, it has anything and everything anyone could possibly dream of and enjoy at a party.

You’re a guy that has everything anyone could dream of.  What’s missing; what are you seeing? What is driving you to have these parties, to create music and give to the world? Is there a hole in you that you need to fill, or is it just that you have more time on your hands that you know what to do with?
I have a lot of energy, and I have a lot of heart and a lot of soul. And when you combine those three, you can do great things. Especially if you add a little bit of intelligence and a little bit of talent ... so if you can achieve greatness in your lifetime, then I think it would be a waste of life if you didn’t go for it. In my particular case, I was never able to seek that dream I wanted—which was in the entertainment business—because I chose to be around my father, who had all this family murdered by the Nazis. So by postponing my dream of going into the entertainment business so that me and my brother and sister could be around him to make up for the loss of his family members, it got delayed, so the expression is “better late than never.” I thought that as long as I have my health and have the energy, and now I have more contacts in the world having lived longer and being able to do whatever I want with my life, I could devote all of my time and energy to the passion I didn’t get to devote my time and energy to when I was younger.

I see that you were on Who Wants to Be a Superhero? and The Fabulous Life Presents: The Hamptons, and now you’re talking about a pilot called Peaceman, which is based on your life and the album.
I had to make a radical, sharp change from the conservative banker to the creative artist. Everything about me had to be extreme. I went from the most conservative clothing that you can wear—pinstripe three-piece suits carrying a briefcase—to an outfit, or a costume, or a meaningful expression clothing-wise that would show that Ivan Wilzig, banker, no longer existed, and that Sir Ivan, the recording artist who sings about peace and wants to bring peace, exists. Since I thought that John Lennon was like a prophet, and the lyrics to “Imagine” were like a prayer, my original new style to show to the world was actually a Jesus-like Middle Eastern caftan. I was performing in these white robes, I was going out to openings, red carpets and things—I had them in every color. But after September 11, I could no longer walk on the streets of New York wearing Arabic-looking caftans. Family and friends said, out of respect for those who lost loved ones, I would be inciting trouble or violence. So it was not the right time to be looking like a Middle Eastern prophet because they were going to ask, “Is he a peace prophet, or is he an Arab sympathizer terrorist?” I had to develop a new outfit/persona, so since I was singing about peace, I decided to design a cape with a peace sign on the back and a medallion on the front, and people started calling me Peaceman. My charity became Peaceman, and everything became about Peaceman. My intent was not to be a superhero, but as soon as you put a cape on and people start calling you Peaceman, and he’s out there to do good.

Well, I personally don’t know many people who wear capes.
Let me tell you when it comes to the capes. It turns out, in history—I chose it because it was about my music, because of what I wanted to bring to the world. But it turns out the only cape-wearing singer/musicians in the world that were known for wearing capes were James Brown and Elvis Presley. So I’m thinking that maybe the greatest African American singer and the greatest white singer of all time ... If I could follow in either of those footsteps, I would be quite happy.

Are you eccentric? What are you? How do you think people perceive you?
Well, most people don’t think out of the box, they don’t leave the box, they’re much more followers than leaders. If you want to be a leader, what makes a leader is somebody who is different than the rest of the troops—he has to be smarter, more powerful. If you want to be the best at what you do, you stand out from the pack. And a lot of people look at me, saying, “This guy stands out of the pack. Whatever pack he’s in. There’s something different about him.” But I think people think—different bad, or different good? It depends on your personal view of the world and how open-minded you are.

You’re pushing yourself.
Yes, it has to do with the enjoyment I have, the pure enjoyment I have, in entertaining others, bringing pleasure into their lives, putting excitement into their lives, making them laugh, making them smile, making them cry. I like being a creative, artistic force, something that I told you I was unable to do as a banker. I like to apply that—I feel that it is in my blood to pour out in as many different ways as possible.

You lived this banking life, and this musician-philanthropist life ... is there a third act?
Well, this one was only a matter of when and where I’d be able to express it, because I’ve been singing since I was five years old. This one was inevitable, right time, right place, right producer.

So in ten years you’ll go back to being a banker?
No, no, no, that is something I did simply because of family. An emotional obligation to my father. He had a tragic life. I wanted to alleviate his pain by being around him, he enjoyed that, that gave him pleasure ... and then I got the opportunity, and it got to the point where the bank was sold, and I was able to fly.

Not with the cape, right? You’re not going out a window?
[laughs] No, not literally ... figuratively. I am not going to jump off a building.

Do you hover above the bed at times?
No, I don’t even do that. I don’t claim to have any magical or supernatural powers.

So that third act?
Final stage, last stage, if and when I ever run out of energy—maybe a book of my life’s experiences, lessons, thoughts, suggestions. I was a European intellectual history major at the University of Pennsylvania (’73-’77), and I think that when push comes to shove, I will ultimately be seen as a philosopher, and my philosophy will be my legacy.