The C.L.I.C.

First and foremost, the founder of the group, Chris Murphy. Chris grew up in San Jose, where he enjoyed theater and video production beginning in elementary and continuing throughout high school. 

For the past 20 years, the pursuit to further his education and career has taken Chris up and down the West Coast. From studying Meisner Technique in San Francisco, to improv classes at the Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, he’s also taken writing and film production classes everywhere in between. 

His career in independent films and voice acting in video games for the XBox and PlayStation platforms has taken him from Seattle to Southern California. Thus, Chris is known to some as “The Pale Gypsy”. The return to live theater is a homecoming of sorts for The Pale Gypsy, if it’s at all possible for someone like him to have one... (sigh)
 

Meet the Co-founder Matt Taylor who caught the acting bug when he was 14 and portrayed Harvey Johnson in Bye Bye Birdie. A year later, he discovered this thing called improv and was hooked ever since. 

Matt has performed in a myriad of plays and musicals through his teenage and adult years, ranging from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged, The Crucible (Proctor), to Beauty and the Beast (Gaston). Most recently he performed as King Arthur in Spamalot (2017) and Lloyd in Noises Off (2018) at Chico Theater Company

Matt’s claim to fame is co-founding an improv troupe in college, The Shenanigans, that still persists to this day, 15 years later. 

 Matt  is a pie conesiuer, lover of the 49ers, a Wes Anderson aficionado, and player of Paradox games.

Krasel Morales, The CLIC’s first leading lady.   Krasel is a Gemini who loves pizza, dogs, and the chipped rose gold nail polish that has been on her toe for several weeks. 

Krasel is in absolutely no way qualified to be part of an improv troupe, but her cute smile and killer ability to follow the recipe for boxed cake mix, have allowed her to weasel her way into more opportunities than one.   

Krasel landed the small role of Antigone in CSU, Chico's production of Antigone; as well as a 6 week acting course at The Actor's Theatre of Louisville. She has also attended CSU, Summer Arts where she recorded a professional demo reel with the help of Los Angeles acting coaches and casting directors in her Acting For The Camera course, and learned the art of sketch comedy writing and improv in her Chicago Style Comedy course. Although she didn't deserve any of these opportunities, she is incredibly grateful and forever humbled to have partaken in such amazing adventures with such phenomenal people.   

 Growing up, he was inspired by seeing his father on the stage, now he hopes to emulate the joy and laughter that got him interested in the performing arts in the first place. Caleb took up acting in the third grade and since has been in various local productions like “Into the Woods” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and recently “Newsies.” When he was 10 he discovered “Whose Line is it Anyway” and his love for improv began. 

Since then he has practiced however he could, whether starting an improv club in high school, or just playing games with friends at home. That compiled with countless hours watching Monty Python and stand-up comedy have made him thrilled to finally be a part of a show like this. Currently, he is a third-year college student at Chico State where he studies Theatre and the Liberal Arts. 

While not acting or studying, he delights in music from the 60s to the 80s and perfecting the ideal stir-fry. If he can’t make you laugh, he hopes you will at least be delighted with a boy so desperate for other people’s approval it makes you smile. 

Jeremy is a Chico transplant after serving in the Air Force for 10 years and deciding that Northern California is the place to stay. He is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and does not miss the heat whatsoever. He was always the class clown and consistently was sent out of the class for his disruptive behavior. 

After watching an improv comedy show in 2009 he was hooked. Luckily the venue that he went to taught classes and the rest is history. He has an extensive background in long form improv but is well-versed in short form improv as well. 

He loves making people laugh including his wife of 8 years and 4 year old daughter. He is glad to see that improv is here in Chico and hopes to do improv for years to come.

As the youngest child of the Tracy Clan, Kaitlin had to resort to humor as a way to buy her parents’ love and affection. Now, 21 years later, she is the favorable child due to her oh so funny nature. Once Kaitlin mastered being funny, she turned to acting where she played Peter in her fourth grade’s production of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – her peaking moment. 

From then on, she always loved being on stage. Her passion for pretending to be other people and assuming different identities is just one of her few talents. Other talents include: buying things that she doesn’t need, making some mean canned soup, and, most impressively, throwing up a serious peace sign at the most inopportune moments.  

Kaitlin is currently in her final year of college at Chico State where she is studying English Literature and Theatre – her two passions. When she isn’t studying or reading the countless novels that her major requires, she is going to auditions and improv classes, both of which push her out of her comfort zone at all times. Kaitlin plans on continuing her journey into this crazy improv world and eventually taking control and becoming the first female dictator of The CLIC. 

Kevin has been performing improv for over 4 years. He started in high school where he joined Comedy Sportz which is a competitive improv comedy team. He was a captain of his team for the last 2 years of high school. Aside from Comedy Sportz, he was a part of the plays Our Town and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. 

Currently, he is attending @chicostate where he is working on a major in communication design and a minor in theater arts. When he learned that there was a improv group here in Chico, he just had to check it out and he was not disappointed. He looks forward to seeing new faces at our practices and at our shows.  

.Justin was always told by his mother he was a funny one, Justin took this to be more than maternal love doted on a needy, emotionally unstable child and went on to “succeed” as a funny person. 

He studied at the famed Groundlings in Los Angeles, before coming back to Chico as a member of the improv and sketch comedy troupe, Aberrant Behaviors (some of their sketches have over 150 YouTube views!). He was among the first generation of stand-up comedians in Chico and has performed comedy all over Northern California (from Sacramento to Redding). His favorite color is blue. In his spare time, 

Justin is a secret billionaire with superhero technology, hell bend on avenging the death of his entire family and ridding the world of evil in general. One of these facts is not true about him (Hint: his favorite color is green). 

Justin has a Bachelors in Film from Emory University and a Masters of Fine Arts in English/Creative Writing.

Kaileen found theatre at the age of four when was forced into an Easter play at church. From then on, the theatre has taught her everything she needs to know in life including, but not limited to, the profession of prostitution, the value of civil service and the virtue of chastity. 

Kaileen first dabbled in improv during high school and continued to work on her skills as she studied theatre arts @chicostate . Her life’s goal is to be half as competent and funny on the improvisational stage as her younger brother. Kaileen has been relentlessly preparing for #improvfest by taking online classes in Kung Fu, Indoor Whale Watching and Bar Tending. She is feeling spontaneous and ready to.... improvise! 

 Corey has been toiling away in totally hip obscurity for the last 15 years, doing standup comedy since 2004 in the SF Bay Area, Las Vegas, and Northern California, performing everywhere from Burning Man to strip clubs to the legendary Purple Onion in SF.

Today he lives in Chico and works as a Substitute Teacher, a perfect job for him since he only owns a single pair of pants. He also writes screenplays and paradigm-subverting manifestos. He's been abducted by aliens, lived in a haunted house, went to the ultimate hippie college, and been hunted through the streets of Oakland by the Hell's Angels – and lived to write jokes about it all. 

Tyler is a local to Northern California, a business owner, and a Chico State student. He got his start performing in 5th grade as the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol. Tyler retired from performing for many years till he found CLIC. After taking an Improv class taught by @jerblove05 Tyler is now ready to take the stage. It’s a Wonderful Improv Show will feature two sketches written by Tyler. So come see Tyler this Sunday night at 7pm. 

Breanna a maker of fine garments and equally fine jests. Her background in comedy is informed by her many and varied life experiences. Experiences such as: becoming a nationally ranked fencer at the tender age of 13, attending a strict religious cult school in the woods, and battling fowl while testing water quality in New England. Bree’s witty banter and comedic spidey-sense comes in handy here at the CLIC! She now plans to expand her comedic arsenal by moving down south with her long-time-love-man and fellow jokester, Nick Fawcett. If you wanna catch Ms. Roberts before its too late, come check us out this weekend at the CTC and The Studio 561!

Not even Jason is sure why he found himself performing improv.  All he can say is his first exposure to it was drunkenly watching a marathon of the British Whose Line Is It Anyway? at 3am in 1991, and was hooked to the genre ever since.  Jason got his first taste of performing comedy when a friend put his name on the sign-up list of an open mic without his knowledge or consent.  His performance was so awful and the experience so terrifying that he decided to keep doing it anyway.   Jason has accomplished extraordinary feats in the name of improv and comedy in the fair city of Chico.  In 2015 he founded Open Mic Comedy at the Studio Inn, a weekly show that he hosted until 2017 and that still thrives sometimes to this very day.  In 2016 he founded and led the Cousin Cephus Improv Project, a very funny troupe that held together for a year and a half and has the distinction of having their debut performance, at the venerable Chico Women's Club attended by actual paying customers!  Jason spent the money he made from the show on a cinnamon roll and most of a haircut.   When Jason is not improvising on stage, he is improvising his life, because screw routine.  He has discovered the gym, and occasionally uses it.  He is a karaoke buff as well as a connoisseur of board games; in fact he might have the largest collection of Cards Against Humanity you've ever seen.  Feeding him food also makes him happy.

Nick, a Chico and Paradise native, matriculated at Chico State where he earned a degree in International Relations and French. Both of which he now uses in his stage performances and improvisational comedy with us at the CLIC! Nick was an early member of the troupe only to leave months into our formation to study classical acting techniques in London. Now that he's back he has been using his newly found skills to bring mirth and convulsive-cheer to his fellow Northern Californians. Nick and his partner-in-improv, Bree Roberts, are in the process of moving to Southern California to further pursue their craft. So come catch Nick, Bree, and the rest of the CLIC this weekend!

Meridith is a member of the The Short Timers and The Lady Bits improv troupes. Come see Meridith this Friday at the Chico Women's Club at 7:00PM.

Meridith literally fell into CLIC last fall as a student. After much perseverance she was delighted to be asked to join the group. She always has a unique perspective and as a child she trained invisible dogs.

Her Father was a huge influence in getting her to perform after subjecting her to many years of musical theater.

A native Washingtonian, she’s made Chico home for 24 years. When she’s not busy refining her craft, you’ll find her trimming and coloring at Hair Is.

Improv has been challenging and refreshing for her as you never know what’s next.