Butterick first became well known in the 1980s for booking and later managing the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge, a venue that melded the performing arts with music and drag, and which helped define the East Village drag, gay, punk, and art scenes in the 80s. It was at the Pyramid, where Brian developed his Hattie Hathaway alter ego. A name both derived from his grandmother Hattie, whose name he found embroidered on an old suitcase after her death, and for Nancy Kulp’s Miss Jane Hathaway character on the 1960s CBS sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.
Brian expanded his work both as a producer and a performer throughout the 80s and 90s and was a founding member of the inventive musician/artists’ band 3 Teens Kill Four (3TK4), an early Pyramid mainstay that featured Brian, Jesse Hultberg, Julie Hair, Doug Bressler, and, in their early years, David Wojnarowicz, with whom Brian had a deep romance and creative collaboration in the late 70s and early 80s.
The group performed throughout the 1980s, and then began playing together again in the 2010s. He also joined the Blacklips Performance Cult after inviting the group to perform at the Pyramid. In the 90s, Brian co-produced Jackie 60, a legendary Tuesday night party held weekly at the Meatpacking District dive club, Mother.
Following Mother’s closure in 2000, Brian continued his lifelong love of the written word, music, and performance through the following decades at venues including Rapture Café, the Three Penny Opera revival at Studio 54, Club Cumming, and the Howl! producing events and exhibitions and being the artist, provocateur, and magnet for connection that has inspired generations of creators.