{"id":123244,"date":"2024-09-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/05\/tim-murray-will-cast-a-spell-on-you-with-his-show-witches\/"},"modified":"2024-09-05T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T12:00:00","slug":"tim-murray-will-cast-a-spell-on-you-with-his-show-witches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/05\/tim-murray-will-cast-a-spell-on-you-with-his-show-witches\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Murray will cast a spell on you with his show Witches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Actor\/comedian <strong>Tim Murray<\/strong> is ready to bewitch you as he brings his spooky comedy hour <em>Witche<\/em>s to a city near you starting this month. The show is a mix of stand up and original comedy songs\u00a0about his favorite pop culture witches.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Witches<\/em>,\u00a0Tim uses songs and stand-up mixed with hilarious personal\u00a0stories about growing up a closeted,\u00a0yet feminine\u00a0boy, who tried\u00a0hard to pass as straight to avoid being burned at the stake. He\u00a0will have you howling at the moon,\u00a0cackling at his\u00a0jokes, and crying (but hopefully not melting). Throughout the show, he celebrates\u00a0famous sorceresses throughout herstory including The Sanderson Sisters from <em>Hocus Pocus<\/em>, the teen coven of <em>The Craft<\/em>, Angelica Houston\u2019s Grand High Witch from <em>The Witches<\/em> and, of course, Elphaba from <em>Wicked<\/em> and uses their stories as a parallel\u00a0to the queer\u00a0witch\u00a0hunt.<\/p>\n<p><em>Witches<\/em> received raves from critics, including 5-star reviews from Entertainment Now, North West End, Broadway Baby, and Broadway World at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023. Murray took the show on a sold-out tour to 18 cities in the United States and Canada. Witches was nominated for an Off-West End Award for Best Fringe show, Murray was shortlisted for the Comedian&#8217;s Choice Award and WON Best Musical Theatre Show of the Fringe from Entertainment\u00a0Now. In addition, Playbill also named the show a Pick of the Fringe. Recently, Tim won The New York Queer Comedy Festival, which is a year-long competition against hundreds of other New York comedians.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tim is a viral sensation with his TikTok sketch comedy videos,\u00a0including his popular series <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@tmurray06\/video\/7173363795882986798?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cEvery Conversation\u00a0In LA\u201d.<\/a> <span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">He has performed stand-up all over the U.S., incl<\/span>uding SF Sketchfest, The Brooklyn Comedy Festival, and DragCon, and has been a regular on the Bowen Yang &amp; Matt Rogers\u2019 Las Culturistas LIVE podcast episodes and his own podcast\u00a0Slumber Party\u00a0on iHeart radio.<\/p>\n<p>We chatted with Tim about his bewitching show, his comedy influences, and what\u2019s next for him in our exclusive interview. \u00a0And while we didn\u2019t burn him at the stake, we did put him in the hot seat for the Socialite Seven. Get to know this talented and wickedly funny performer.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"perfmatters-lazy-youtube\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d-GWjCylcaI\" data-id=\"d-GWjCylcaI\" data-query=\"start=15&amp;feature=oembed\" onclick=\"perfmattersLazyLoadYouTube(this);\">\n<div><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/d-GWjCylcaI\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"YouTube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Witches Preview for fringe\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d-GWjCylcaI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>I did a little deep dive, and I found out you hosted my absolute favorite thing that happened during COVID, which was the <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wXqIZhVxOeI&amp;t=354s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods <\/em>reunion.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Oh my God, thank you so much. That was like the most random, amazing thing I could have ever done.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>I&#8217;m a big fan of Lena Hall, so I was just excited to see her.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She&#8217;s everything, and fun fact, she&#8217;s the reason that it happened. I asked them all to do it, and then in the group chat she really rallied them and was like, you guys, come on, we have to do this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did <em>Witches<\/em> come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have always been obsessed with witches in pop culture. As a little gay boy, I think most little queer kids watching <em>Wizard of Oz<\/em> are like, okay, well, what&#8217;s going on with that green evil witch? She&#8217;s the most fun one. Her and Glinda, you&#8217;re like, well, I need to know them and when <em>Wicked <\/em>came out, I was 16. And I just remember being my gayest, most me self as an older kid and being like, okay, this is my personality. It\u2019s developing right now, listening to <em>Wicke<\/em>d.<\/p>\n<p>I started in musical theater and transitioned into stand up and then this show really was my kind of amalgamation of everything that I do and I was like, okay, if I want to do a musical stand-up show, what is my way in here? And I just got the idea to make a Halloween type of comedy show. And, literally, every time I sat down on my computer, I just started to write about witches, so it all just kind of came together like very quickly and fluently.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I wanted to ask you about your experience in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival. What was it like to take your show there?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So scary.\u00a0 Especially for an American, I would describe it to people as like, if you were going to do a Fringe Festival in Philadelphia, you&#8217;d probably have some friends or family or people who know people in Philly or New York City or D.C. or Pittsburgh, who could train in and see you. But in the UK, we don&#8217;t know anybody. So, you&#8217;re truly showing up, hoping that people will come. And for a lot of Americans, people don&#8217;t come. Some of my friends would play to like four or five people a night, sometimes less than that.<\/p>\n<p>You really have to just get on the street and beg people to come and hope that reviewers come to your show and hope that they like it. And that word-of-mouth spreads. I took such a huge financial leap going there and doing that \u2013 and the fact that people got it and it really paid off and people came to see it was an amazing, terrifying, incredible experience.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1052\" height=\"1504\" alt=\"Tim Murray Witches Tour Dates\" class=\"wp-image-102882 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster.jpeg 1052w, https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster-800x1144.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster-860x1230.jpeg 860w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1052px) 100vw, 1052px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1052\" height=\"1504\" src=\"https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster.jpeg\" alt=\"Tim Murray Witches Tour Dates\" class=\"wp-image-102882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster.jpeg 1052w, https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster-800x1144.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tourdate-poster-860x1230.jpeg 860w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1052px) 100vw, 1052px\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p><strong>I want to get a little bit into your background. Who were your comedic influences?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>People ask this a lot, and it&#8217;s interesting because there has never been a gay male stand-up comedian as a household name. So, for me, it was like Carol Burnett in <em>Annie<\/em>. I mean, I&#8217;m kind of a hodgepodge, I&#8217;d say. I love Norm Macdonald, I love Wanda Sykes I, I loved Janeane Garofalo as a young boy, but also like Caroline Rhea and <em>Sabrina the Teenage Witch<\/em>, I just remember her comedic timing being so fun and funny to me. And my ultimate is Lisa Kudrow in <em>Friends<\/em>, for me it was all about timing. It was like, okay, that is my my aim in comedy is just figuring out the rhythm of things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When putting together a show like Witches, what was your creative process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I had been doing a lot of stand-up and I just tried to write as many hard jokes, I call them, as I could. I would just write about the gay experience and about witches. Amy Schumer always says what I think is very true for me too, which is like, she&#8217;ll write a full page of an idea and then of that whole page, one joke will come out of it. So that was kind of how <em>Witches <\/em>worked too.<\/p>\n<p>I would try to think of pop culture ideas that I love, like the movie <em>The Craft<\/em> or <em>Sabrina<\/em> or <em>Bewitched<\/em>. And then, I thought about what the game is for each of these pop culture things. Like for the <em>Sabrina<\/em> one, it was like, okay, caregiver witches, but their game is that Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda really want to let their hair down and have sex and do drugs.<\/p>\n<p>And then, I wrote just my more generalized songs that aren&#8217;t about any one specific pop culture thing. I would still think of the game, like, okay, if I&#8217;m a witch, what do I have in common with a witch? For example, I hate being around children and when they&#8217;re on an airplane it&#8217;s like absolute hell for me and everyone around me and I have that in common with a witch so there&#8217;s a song called \u201cI Hate Kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>You do a lot of crowd work and I always admire comedians that can do crowd work and pull it off. How are you able to do such good crowd work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, thanks. That, I think, is my one natural gift that I just have been given in life. And I guess the training I had for it, my 10,000 hours, was just growing up with a very social mom, a very extroverted mom, and like learning from her how to just talk to anybody.\u00a0 And to me, crowd work should feel like how I am off stage.<\/p>\n<p>So, like the same way I would banter with a barista when I&#8217;m getting a coffee or chatting with a friend is how I want to be up there. I want to make you feel like you&#8217;re at lunch with me or you&#8217;re in my living room and we&#8217;re kiki-ing and partying. And the other side of that answer is my improv training.<\/p>\n<p>I went to UCB and they really just teach you and give you a really great structure for how to really listen to people and remember what they&#8217;ve said and then turn that into something. And so, there&#8217;s that element of it and I think I have a unique spin on crowd work, which is that I don&#8217;t really like to roast people. It&#8217;s not really my vibe. I like to uplift people and sometimes hit on them. I want the audience to feel really good. Well, knowing that I&#8217;m in control.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<p><strong>You&#8217;ve written all these songs for the show, and I always ask musicians and artists do you have a favorite out of the songs that you&#8217;ve written for <em>Witches<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, my favorite is \u201cDr. Dillerman&#8217;s Lament\u201d, which is the goat character from <em>Wicked<\/em>. It&#8217;s as if he got a big solo in the show, and the song&#8217;s all about if he was coming out of the closet as his big storyline in <em>Wicked<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When I was in grad school, I wrote a paper about horror movies and how the villains in horror movies were bonded to the LGBTQ community in the fact that both were considered \u201cothers\u201d. Did that idea play into the creation of <em>Witches<\/em> at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Absolutely. To me, that definitely is a huge theme with villains, and then witches even more specifically. It&#8217;s like witches have this thing about them that they&#8217;re supposed to hide from everyone, no one&#8217;s supposed to know that they&#8217;re a witch most of the time. And then, as their story goes on, they usually discover that this thing that they hate about themselves, that they have to keep a secret, is actually what makes them powerful and special.\u00a0 And that&#8217;s, I mean, the gay experience, for sure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Besides Elphaba, I&#8217;m sure that&#8217;s the favorite, but do you have another favorite witch out of all the witches in pop culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It changes a lot, because I really just love so many of them. I love Bette Midler and Hocus Pocus. Yes.\u00a0 I love Sabrina, but right now my favorite is probably Nancy from the movie <em>The Craft<\/em>. \u201cWe are the weirdos, mister.\u201d Yeah, that movie is just so feminine and so 90s. It&#8217;s so fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<p><strong>You have done so many things \u2013 you do comedy, you perform music, you act. Is there something that you like doing the most?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My favorite thing is to musically improvise a song in the show. I usually take an audience member&#8217;s story about a witch, and that is when I feel the most fulfilled. I&#8217;ll never forget the first time I ever did musical improv, I was like, oh, this is what I was born to do. It just feels like so right for me. It&#8217;s my favorite thing to do. Audiences usually lose their minds for it because they&#8217;re like, whoa, he&#8217;s making this up on the spot. That&#8217;s my favorite thing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now, you had done, and I&#8217;m sure it was a COVID project, but you did a podcast called <em>Slumber Party<\/em>. Do you have any plans to bring it back?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not as of now. I loved doing it, but it&#8217;s so much work. And, full transparency, I think people were starting to see me as the Broadway guy. And I really want people to know that yes, that is a big part of me and I love it, but I&#8217;m a stand-up comedian first and foremost. I think if I were to do another podcast, I would want a co-host that I could really banter with because I&#8217;m sure you know what this is like, but it&#8217;s hard to just talk to strangers all the time. You know, it was hard to feel totally dropped in and totally myself and I just started to feel like okay, this is getting really exhausting. I really want to make sure that I\u2019m loving whatever it is I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I don&#8217;t know how much you can talk about it but I do know you&#8217;ve got something coming up that Trixie Mattel is involved with. Can you tell me a little bit about that and when we can expect it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t say too much about it. You can expect it soon-ish.\u00a0 And yes, Trixie Mattel and D\u2019Marie Productions are co-producing a TV show from Michael Henry and myself about us going to different cities and figuring out what is gay to do there while we&#8217;re doing our stand-up.\u00a0 And I guess all I can say is look out for a press release in the future.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tim Murray Answers the Socialite Seven<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><em>What is your biggest pet peeve?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>People talking and not listening, like people who talk a lot and don&#8217;t listen when you talk.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Who would your fans be surprised to learn that you are a fan of?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, that&#8217;s such a good question. Probably Jim Gaffigan. I think there are some straight male comedians that are truly funny. I saw him on New Year&#8217;s Eve a few years ago and he was so amazing. Yeah, someone like that who\u2019s so not in my pop diva, witchy, gay culture world, but like is just a genius. Or like Mike Birbiglia.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If they made a movie of your life, who would you want to play you<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Oh Joe Biden. \u00a0I don&#8217;t know. Someone really hot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you could wake up in the morning with a superpower or talent you don&#8217;t already possess, what would you want it to be?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would want to be able to fly just so I could not be in traffic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What are three things you can&#8217;t live without?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Idina Menzel, coffee and Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is your idea of perfect happiness?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Laying down on my couch watching <em>Traitors<\/em> with my husband and not having to stress about ticket sales.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is the best piece of advice you&#8217;ve been given?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My husband always tells me when he watches me do stand up, don&#8217;t lean back on your heels. He&#8217;s like, I can always tell when you feel confident up there, and you&#8217;re physically leaning forward, and you have them in the palm of your hand. And so now, literally, if I start to feel like I am not feeling confident up there, I literally, physically shift my body weight, and it really does make a confident difference in my attitude and I could feel my show getting better.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s one of those things where it&#8217;s so hard not to take their immediate validation to heart but it&#8217;s like, okay, the joke doesn&#8217;t land.\u00a0 You just can&#8217;t let it push you back on your heels and then start to back away from them. You just have to double down and go further and if the next one doesn&#8217;t land you just have to keep going until you get them back on your side.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<p>To get more information and tickets for Tim Murray\u2019s Witches tour, click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timmurraycomedian.com\/pages\/shows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE<\/a>. Keep up with Tim on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tmurray06\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@TMurray06\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@tmurray06?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TikTok<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>SL RECOMMENDS<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em><strong>Like most websites, Socialite Life uses affiliate links where available, which means we earn a little commission if you click through and buy something. Also, as Amazon Influencers, we earn from qualifying purchases.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"aawp-disclaimer\">Last update on 2024-09-05 \/ Affiliate links \/ Images from Amazon Product Advertising API<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/socialitelife.com\/tim-murray-will-cast-a-spell-on-you-with-his-show-witches\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=tim-murray-will-cast-a-spell-on-you-with-his-show-witches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actor\/comedian Tim Murray is ready to bewitch you as he brings his spooky comedy hour Witches to a city near you starting this month. The show is a mix of stand up and original comedy songs\u00a0about his favorite pop culture witches. In Witches,\u00a0Tim uses songs and stand-up mixed with hilarious personal\u00a0stories about growing up a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-123244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hollywood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}