Tim Murray is seeing clearly now.
A comedian who grew up in Sandusky, Murray is on the phone only a couple of days after getting LASIK surgery – offered to him by folks who’d seen his “big bifocal glasses” on
his TikTok videos in exchange for making one about the experience.
“I was like, ‘Oh, heck yes!’” Murray says. “I’m seeing better (than with glasses), which is wild.”
That’s only a small part of what’s been a busy time for Murray since
we chatted with the funny fellow a few months ago, right before he headed off to Scotland to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
“Oh, my God, crazy — that feels like a lifetime ago,” he says. “It was great. Things have been awesome. I am, like, so tired and finally kind of recovering (from performing in) 25 cities – something like that – since the last time we talked.”
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Courtesy of Tim MurrayThe Los Angeles resident is on the phone from New York City – which has become a second home of sorts because his husband, Michael Bullard, is performing in yet another stint with the Broadway production of “Aladdin” – to talk about an upcoming hometown show.
Murray will perform his “Tim Murray is WITCHES” on Dec. 3 at Harlequins Coach House Theatre.
“‘WITCHES’ is my original hour of comedy where I do stand-up, original songs and improvised songs about my favorite witches throughout pop culture and explain why gay people are obsessed with witches,” he says. “And it has a through line of growing up in Sandusky, Ohio, as a little gay boy (when) all the other kids (wanted) to be kind of typical straight-culture things – athletes or Superman. I always wanted to be witches.”
His vision for the Sandusky performance isn’t 20/20 but what he calls “80/20” – 80 percent of the show he normally would do, with the other fifth made up of tweaked or different material. Some of that editing he chalks up to not wanting to pepper the show with references only younger folks would get, but then there’s his concern that “some of the more overtly gay jokes” may not be right for that crowd.
It’s a tricky balancing act.
“I don’t want to do a lesser version of the show for the queer people who do live near Sandusky who are going to see it,” Murray says. “I want to give them the ‘WITCHES’ show they deserve. There are, you know, gay people and lesbian people in town who want to see this show about a gay person who grew up here, so I want to give them the full ‘WITCHES’ experience.
“But, as a comedian, I know there are certain jokes that are not going to land within the community. It’s not that I don’t want to have conversations with people. Honestly, I’m always open to having convos with people. I just want to protect my own material that I know is good and that I know lands with a specific audience.”
Again, though, “80/20” is just a vision. Unlike with a past performance at Harlequins of a work-in-progress ‘WITCHES,” when he had only about 45 minutes in total and was preparing for his first trip to the well-known Edinburgh affair, he has enough stuff to read the crowd and adjust on the fly at this point in his career.
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Courtesy of Tim Murray“I have tried these jokes out at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York, and I have watched them bomb in front of people in their 60s from Oklahoma, Nebraska or Germany – whatever – so I know what jokes with hit with a wider array of people versus what jokes will hit with, like, a really specific crowd for the most part.
“And sometimes I don’t,” he continues with a laugh. “Sometimes I find out when I’m up there, and that’s part of the journey, too.”
Originally, the vision for the show had it taking place at a reopened Sandusky State Theatre, but as the historic venue remains closed after a storm in June 2020 caused extensive damage, Murray had to point his broom elsewhere – for now.
“I’m doing this to kind of wrap up my ‘WITCHES’ tour before the new year, and I wanted to do it around (the release of) the
‘Wicked’ movie for the community and a little closer to Halloween time,” says Murray, who loves the stage musical based on the “Wizard of Oz” prequel novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” and can’t wait to see the film adaptation. “And then my plan is to do a different show – I’m hoping to bring in a bunch of other famous comedians and Broadway stars to do, like, a ‘Tim Murray and Friends’ show in the coming months.”
While Bullard –
whose wedding to Murray was featured in a New York Times story – will be done (again) with “Aladdin” by the time of the Harlequins show, it is to be determined whether he will be able to make the trip to Ohio. Regardless, plenty of friends and family will be part of the audience.
“That is what I’m looking forward to the most,” he says. “I’m excited to show the community this updated, refined version of (the show) and to showcase how much I’ve progressed since doing it last.
“This show is about a little gay boy who grew up in Sandusky, Ohio, finding his power, and I think a lot of people in that room are people who helped me find that power and who raised me or taught me at Sandusky High, so it’s really special doing it there.”