So what does Carol Burnett have to do with murder mystery dinners?
All my life I’ve wanted to be an actor. I have always loved the idea of being someone else, being someone other than me. Turns out I’m a mediocre stage actor and cameras don’t love my face. Eh, it’s a fact of life. So be it. I found my calling with improv anyway. That I am very, very good at. I found that as a comedic character in a murder mystery I could be bolder, funnier, sexier, and gutsier. I was willing to try just about anything to get a laugh. And I did. How cool is that?
For many years I had a murder mystery dinner theater company. We created comedic mysteries that followed a sequence of events but otherwise our dialogue was completely improvised so we could truly pull the audience into the mystery and get them involved. While you knew what was supposed to happen, you never really knew what would happen. The audience was also a character in it’s own way. They exuberantly threw themselves into the spirit of the game so we often found ourselves winging it as we allowed them to play with us and then regrouping to make sure we got out the important scenes crucial to solving the mystery. It was SO MUCH FUN.
My most favorite characters were inspired by Carol Burnett. I love that woman! I love Tim Conway! Harvey Korman! Vicki Lawrence! I just love ’em all. Their hilarious characters, the way they played off of each other, the FUN they had – and even the bloopers when they cracked each other up – well, their creative and comic genius inspired me every time I performed in one of my murder mystery dinners.
In our Next of Kin murder mystery game I played Savannah Sugarbaker. Eunice in Mama’s Family inspired that character.
Here’s a blooper clip I found from the Carol Burnett Show that I know you’ll enjoy:
Don’t you want to have this much fun? You can! Take a look at our murder mystery dinner themes here, watch more Carol Burnett and Friends videos on YouTube and make some memories with your own murder mystery night.
P.S. I never get tired of watching Tim Conway’s Siamese elephants story. Snerffffll!