On this spooky edition of SNAPSHOTS, our guest today is bringing another round of laughter, fun and possible mayhem with their upcoming tour Witches and he is making a stop on our nation’s capital on October 24th at the Comedy Loft of DC. With over 39,000 followers on Instagram, this QWERTY here US nominated comedian who brings his spooky comedy hour Witches back to North America starting this September.
This show is a mix of stand up and original comedy songs about his favorite pop culture wishes. Who knew that witches could be a such a comedy tour? We’re gonna find out in just a bit. In fact, he describes himself as “a gay Bo Burnham, the painted green and doing drag.” You know what? During this interview, I’m gonna see if that’s true or not, but nonetheless, I’m here to talk with comedian Tim Murray!
What’s up, Dean, thank you so much for having me.
I’m so glad to be talking with you. And the reason why I said I wanted to see if this is true about Bo Burnham, because I’d interviewed him six years ago for his directorial debut of Eighth Grade. So I had a great time talking with him.
I freaking love that movie.
Me too.
It’s so good. He’s truly such a genius, and he did a lot of Edinburgh friends too, which is where I’m starting this, this little tour off nice well,
I’m so glad to hear it. Well, for those who have never heard of Witches, your comedy tour, which is going for another go round, describe the show and the origins of it show.
So, the show is all about the LGBTQ experience and how we discover our powers when we find our coven of queer friends. And it’s an hour of stand up and original comedy songs all about witches. So, it’s like a very Halloween themed, ridiculous over the top comedy show. It’s a little hard to describe, I always say to people, but I think audiences have been loving it. It’s just a great time. I also improvise a song about witches in it. It’s kind of just like I’m firing from all cylinders. I’m doing drag, I’m singing, I’m doing stand-up. Yeah, it’s really mayhem was a good word to describe it.
Hey, mayhem is a perfectly word to describe witches, especially since it’s a different type of comedy show because it’s a Halloween theme, which is a rarity. So why did you pick a Halloween theme for a comedy show?
I’ve just always loved witches. I’ve always had a thing about them. I saw my friend Matt Rogers Christmas show a couple years ago. Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang do the Las Culturistas podcast. I saw Matt’s Christmas show, and it was like an entire hour of musical comedy all about Christmas. I just remember leaving being like, “why am I not doing something like this?” I came up in musical theater, but then I transitioned to stand up, and I love doing comedy live. But is there some other version of what I do that isn’t just set up punchline jokes. I love being weird. I love being unique. I love having a show that no one else in the world could do.
And that’s what came out of me when I went to write this. I was like, I want to come up with, like, a fully fleshed out show entirely for the September and October months, like a spooky fall vibe that’s also comedy. I’m just really proud of it. I feel like I’ve created something that truly no one else could do. So it feels cool to be like, Okay, I’m giving people the Tim Murray experience of like, everything I do that I haven’t made in one show.
I’m glad you’re being a trailblazer, because I have been to a drag Christmas show many times, but I’ve never been to one where it’s Halloween themed, so I’m glad that you’re bringing that on board.
Yeah, and I like to say I’m like, I’m not a drag queen. I am a stand-up comedian, but I threw I am doing drag in the show, but don’t expect good drag. It’s I. I like to say I am a stand-up comedian first and foremost, and I am putting on drag because I thought, sometimes you watch like, straight male comedians just wearing, like, what they would wear on the street, or, like a suit or whatever. I was like, I want to give these people a little something extra, a little something more. I’m going to put on a going to put on a show, what more can I do?
So there’s a little bit of magic in the show, a little bit of reveals, a little bit of just kind of a little bit of everything. I wanted to make this like, if I can go balls to the wall and make the best show I can, what does that look like? And for me, it was like getting in the full drag Halloween passion for the over the topness of it all.
That’s great to hear! You mentioned moments ago that you fell in love with witches for a long time. Describe the first time and your first encounter with witches in this has taken you from liking witches and being exposed to witches to making it as part of your stand-up routine.
I was like five years old when I saw my sister is, like, a lot older than me. She was in the eighth grade, and they did Snow White at our school. And I remember going and watching whoever was in her eighth-grade class play like the evil queen who turns into the witch and just leaving there. I was taking every dark piece of clothing I could find in my mom’s closet and draping it over me and pretending to be a witch. I was like, “Okay, I’m a little unusual. I’m not pretending to be the prince. I’m not even pretending to be Snow White. I want to be the freaking witch.” I think ever since then, I was always just fascinated with like, what is that about queer kids that they love pretending to be the weird thing, the unusual thing, the thing that’s kind of the outcast. Then I realized, like, “Oh, of course we want to do that, because we feel like that all the time, so we relate to it more.”
I remember reading that you mentioned in one of your videos on Instagram that the best character in Wicked, which is one of my favorite musicals, is Nessa. You know, I have my reservations about that, so I want you to tell us why you feel Nessa is the best character.
Okay, I don’t really think Nessa is the best character. It changes. That answer changes every show. So, okay, if you see the show on a Tuesday, it might be different on a Wednesday. It depends on my mood, because I’m so obsessed with Wicked unhealthily which you’ll discover in the show, right? I do love that she has one of the best songs in the show that’s completely cut from the album, and I hope is in the movie. I feel like every time I listen to that album or watch the show, or think about it, I have a new favorite character. And in Witches, I give Doctor Dillamond the goat like a full-on solo song he deserves in the show.
That’s great to hear. When did you realize that you have the gift of comedy, and you want to spread it all over the world?
I first did stand up in the fourth grade in the talent show school. I come from, like, a big old Irish family where if you want to talk at the dinner table or hanging out with your relatives, you better have a story to tell. You must try to make people laugh. You must demand attention, otherwise you’re just going to get walked all over by all of them. I think from an early age, all of us in my family just have that gregarious nature of like you better figure out how to talk in front of people, and then, from an early age, I just really loved writing. I loved writing and creating stories, and I love making people laugh. So that was really when it started, and then just kept, I kept, like, a little journal with me forever that I always was like writing down.
How long have you had this journal?
Well, this is a sad story. I had it from like junior high all the way until I was a sophomore in college. When I was a sophomore in college, someone broke into my car and took my book bag, which had the journal in it, so I lost it. I was only like nineteen, but being like, so crushed by it that I was like, it’s all gone. Every idea that ever had written down is gone, which is so silly to think about now, because it’s like ideas come and go.
And you realize now as a stand up, that you write like 10 ideas, and maybe one of them is good, and the rest of them can kind of throw away, but it kind of crushed me at the time, and I didn’t do stand up again for almost a decade after that. I got more into improv, which I love, and is a big part of Witches as well, because I just love being on the fly. And I think subconsciously, there was a part of me that was like, “well, no one can ever take this from me. No one can ever break can ever break into my car and take these words like this is coming up off the top of my head.” Then when I turned thirty, I jumped full force back in the stand up.
Well, so glad that you were able to recapture the glory of stand up and performing and you’re taking over the world slowly but surely. Who are your comedic influences?
Do you know Meg Stalter?
No, I do not.
She’s on the show Hacks, and she really blew up on the internet during the pandemic. She’s truly one of the funniest people alive. John early is big for me. Cola Escola. Those are the people my age and in my sphere that I just I watched. I’m like, “Wow, if I could be like you, that would be the dream.” And then people that, like I watched growing up that really make me laugh. Wanda Sykes is so huge for me. I love John Mulaney. I love Amy Schumer,
And then what really, really made me laugh when I was a kid, that still kills me is Reno 911 is one of those shows that I could just put on, like, I will always be laughing at this.
With going on with the political climate these days. Do you feel comedy is still in a particularly good place nowadays?
Yes, comedy is honestly more important than ever. It’s so valuable to let yourself play, laugh, and decompress. And if you don’t have that, you’re not going to be mentally well. If you don’t let it, go of stress for a little bit and laugh a little bit. So, it’s always my intention to take whatever people are currently feeling and help them feel relaxed and seen.
I do a lot of crowd work in my show, and my goal with that always is to make you feel like you’re in my living room hanging out with me. I’m not like an insult comic by any means. I want to make you feel uplifted. I want to make you feel like, okay, if I got a babysitter or got the night off from work and took my night to go spend with this person in this theater. I’m paying money and I want them to give me a show. I want them to make me feel awesome. So, it’s always my goal to try to give people the best show possible.
Politics are just a reflection of what we’re going through as a society. So as a stand-up comedian, it is our responsibility to talk about that and reflect that, which is what witches is. It’s about the queer witch hunt, especially as it’s related to like me being a an openly gay teacher, and how this rhetoric has been spread, that adult queer people should not be openly themselves around younger people. For my teenagers, I teach teens sometimes, and a lot of them identify as queer. It sickens me that this idea has been spread that I should be anything but myself in front of them, because for me to hide who I am in front of them. Would truly teach them shame, and that is not something I’m going to be a part of.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Speaking of crowd work, you mentioned moments ago, you recently did a live series of shows, starting with Columbus and it ended up going south. which is part of the show to normally, talk about that experience and that wonderful presentation, and will we be able to see it.
So, there’s only like a little bit I can say about it, because some of it’s still a little hush hush, but I will say we filmed a crowd work special in all six of those cities. And it will be part of a larger project. Keep your eyes peeled for that. I went around with my comedy friend, Michael Henry, and we did an entire hour of just crowd work, so no plan material, talking to the audience in six different cities. We filmed the whole thing with three cameras. I think it’s gonna cut together to be spectacular and funny. I’m extremely excited about it.
If you ever do the crowd work again, please be sure to bring it to DC. That’s all I ask.
I mean, crowd work is always a huge part of my show. This is my fourth time playing the DC comedy Loft. I love it so much. Twice with Michael Henry and once with Witches. And I’m proud of the show that I bring back to DC and that people come back to see me, because I know they know they will get a different show every time, even if they’ve heard some of my planned jokes before, there’s so much of my show is crowd work and on the fly. And it’s important to be like feel spontaneous because I want everything that I do feel fresh.
If you want to check out Tim Murray’s Witches, He’s going to be here one night only, Thursday, October 24th at the Comedy Loft of DC. For more information, to purchase tickets, go to dccomedyloft.com or to see if Tim’s going to come to the city near you, go to https://timmurraycomedian.com/
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