Mick Napier
Acting
Biography
Mick Napier (born December 12, 1962) is an American director and improvisational theater teacher. He is the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre and a director at The Second City. He has directed Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Nia Vardalos, Andy Richter, Jeff Garlin, and David Sedaris Napier directed the Comedy Central Cable Ace nominated show Exit 57 and the Troma film Fatty Drives the Bus which also featured notable Chicago improvisers and actors still living and working there today, including Susan Messing, Joe Bill and Mark Sutton. In 2008, Fatty Drives the Bus landed on several cult top ten lists such as Liberal Dead which wrote, "...a weird cross of 70’s era exploitation and comedy rolled up in a nice little blasphemy laced package." He founded The Annoyance with the philosophy that training improvisers to be individually powerful is the best way to support those with whom one improvises, an answer to the Yes, And philosophy, which he found led to weak, polite improvisation more often than powerful, good improvisation, a subject that he elaborates on in his book, Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out. In August, 1999, Napier contributed to R. O’Donnell’s TV show R. Rated, which aired midnights on Fox, Chicago. It included several of his animated shorts and other video works from the Annoyance Theater featuring himself, Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live), and Stephnie Weir (MADtv). Napier's wrote his handbook guide for students of improvisation, Improvise:Scene from the Inside Out in 2002. In it, he challenges 'The Rules' of improv that many students first learn. Napier argues that these 'Rules' are not only not helpful, but actually destructive to the process of creating good improv. Adhering to 'The Rules' can leave improvisers powerless to play, and as such, does not necessarily mean that it will lead to a good scene. In this book, Napier suggests that a different approach is essential to creating good improv. Napier argues, rather, that improvisers should 1) Do something, 2) Check out what you did, and 3)Hold onto what you did. In 2008, he directed a revival of the classic Annoyance show Co-Ed Prison Sluts: The Musical, the longest running musical in Chicago. Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones expressed the cultural impact of the show stating, "A lot of people, the very same people who now dominate comedy, television and even how many Americans get their politics, took comfort in how “Co-Ed Prison Sluts” attracted nightly lines that stretched for a full Chicago block. For 11 consecutive years (take that, “Wicked”). And so they stuck around here, and built a scene." Napier is an Artistic Consultant to The Second City and recently directed their 50th anniversary mainstage show. He has directed several other revues, notably including "Red Scare" and "Paradigm Lost" for which he received a Jeff Award. He also teaches Advanced Improvisation at The Annoyance, the final level of the improv comedy training program.
Known For
Carmy, a young fine-dining chef, comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. As he fights to transform the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.
The Bear
After being rejected from every medical residency program on his list, Dr. David Tracy scrambles to perform 1750 hours of clinical therapy out of his garage to become a licensed therapist before his $500,000 activate and destroy his life.
Shrink
When a career criminal's plan for revenge is thwarted by unlikely circumstances, he puts his intended victim's son in his place by putting him in prison...and then joining him.
Let's Go to Prison
A down-on-his-luck memorabilia dealer looks for redemption by reuniting with his sixth-grade teammate, NBA legend Steph Curry.
Mr. Throwback
Exit 57 was a 30-minute sketch comedy series that aired on the American television channel Comedy Central from 1995 to 1996; its cast was composed of comedians Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert, Jodi Lennon, and Mitch Rouse, all of whom had previously studied improv at The Second City in Chicago. In 1999 Sedaris, Dinello, Colbert and Rouse would also create the Comedy Central show "Strangers with Candy". Humorist David Sedaris also served as an additional writer for the series, sharing a single onscreen credit with his sister as "The Talent Family". The show's producer, Joe Forristal, had also served as executive producer for The Kids in the Hall. All of the sketches in the series are implied to take place in the fictional suburban setting of the Quad Cities. During the show's memorably cryptic opening sequence, the cast members are seen standing next to a broken down car on the highway. Soon they are picked up by a passing driver, who changes the radio station at the mention of a serial killer, and takes Polaroid pictures of his increasingly uncomfortable passengers. Growing suspicious, the cast demands to be let out. The car is then seen pulling off the highway at Exit 57.
Exit 57
A shady lawyer attempts a Christmas Eve crime, hoping to swindle the local mob out of some money. But his partner, a strip club owner, might have different plans for the cash.
The Ice Harvest
Take a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a revue at Chicago's legendary Second City, the most influential sketch comedy troupe in America and the launching pad for the careers of some of comedy"s biggest stars. Future Saturday Night Live stars Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch are among the cast members seen preparing this particular revue, Paradigm Lost. The improvisations and collaborative nature of the Second City style are show n in detail. Second City alumnus Jim Belushi hosts. "A documentary about The Second City ought to be, foremost, funny, and this one meets the test"
Second to None
Oh no! It appears as if Satan isn't going to fill his soul quota this month! So of course, he turns himself into a tour guide and takes a bus-load of unsuspecting tourists on a ride down the highway to hell.
Fatty Drives the Bus
A seasoned call girl is offered a way out of the business if she uncovers a blackmail ring in a house of prostitution. An alcoholic ex-school teacher takes a job watching security cameras in the same house. There, he befriends a 13 year old boy left behind years before by his mother.