Actor Tim Behrens calls his time on stage “the velvet ride.”
“I’m body surfing on waves of laughter, riding the laughs,” Behrens said.
Behrens is predicting a laughter tsunami when he plays the part of Pat McManus and more than a dozen other characters in the stage version of McManus’ first book, “A Fine and Pleasant Misery,” Saturday night at Everett Theatre.
McManus is well-known as a humor writer from his columns in Field and Stream and Outdoor Life and his 12 books, of which he’s sold 7 million copies.
McManus uses his childhood memories of growing up in rural Idaho. The central theme of the two-act play “A Fine and Pleasant Misery” is a boy overcoming his fear of the dark.
Behrens said he uses few props and bases the success of the shows on igniting universal experiences in people’s minds.
“I’m just there and the audience is there with me,” Behrens said in a phone interview from Spokane. “There’s no new hat or anything. I just change my body and voice and then people have to use their imaginations to create these scenes.”
One five-minute segment takes place entirely in the dark so there’s nothing but the sound of Behren’s voice and that velvet ride.
“It’s remarkable,” Behrens said. “Sometimes the laughter is so loud, it hurts my ears.”
There’s another skit in which a boy goes hunting for his first deer. No one wants to go with him because he’s armed, so he’s forced to ride his bicycle. He gets the deer, attaches it to the bike, but guess what? The deer wasn’t really dead.
Behrens said he doesn’t describe the bike. But after one performance a kid in the audience ran up to Behrens, looking as if he had to pee, and grabbed Behrens’ leg.
“He said, ‘I have a bike just like that,’ and that was a clarifying moment for me,” Behrens said. “This humor ain’t about us, it’s about the audiences’ imagination. … it’s about what is going on in their minds.”
Behrens wasn’t always so comfortable riding the laughter wave. When he first started doing the McManus comedies 25 years ago, all that laughter was downright nerve-wracking.
“In the beginning I would be like, ‘Would you please stop laughing, I’ve got to finish this story.’ I was so nervous,” Behrens said. “It wasn’t until show number 100 I just let it happen. I was finally relaxed enough to say, ‘I’ll just have to let them laugh.’”
Behrens was attending Eastern Washington University in Cheney when he met McManus, who eventually became Behrens’ adviser.
“After I wrote for Pat, he took me aside and said very nicely, ‘I want to tell you as your adviser that I’ve read your stuff and I really think you ought to stick to acting.’”
Behrens did write for the Spokesman-Review but left and founded Center Stage Theatre, which he runs when he’s not touring.
Behrens, who said he’s somewhere near 60, said the McManus comedies appeal to audiences 9 to 99, are much loved by the hook and bullet crowd and anyone who enjoys good writing.
“It’s just a joy to do,” Behrens said. “It’s a clean show and how many shows do you know where you laugh that much and it’s still a clean show?”
The McManus Comedies are being presented by Artbeat, a Washington nonprofit. Arbeat president David Shaw said Behrens keeps the show fresh after more than 800 performances.
“I’m a snob from New York and we brought him into the Northshore Performing Arts Center in Bothell,” Shaw said. “I sat in the back row with my arms folded, but then I was laughing hysterically. This is irresistible.”
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