EDGE Interview: Out Comic Tim Murray Rides a Broomstick for Touring Show

Almost immediately upon returning from a very successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, comedian Tim Murray hopped back on the broomstick for his current national tour of his critically acclaimed one-person show, "Tim Murray is Witches!" Part stand-up, part musical, "Witches" explores Murray's experience growing up gay in Ohio and how important his identification with witches became.

The LA-based comic began his career as an actor doing parody musicals in New York and London, as well as a couple of movies. But once he decided to get serious about his real love, stand-up comedy, he headed to LA where he has been working as a comic ever since. And like every successful working comic, Murray spends much of his time on the road.

With "Witches," he's a one-man tour operation from booker to sound, lights, promotion, and contract negotiations. Whether it's a beautiful theater like Miami's Arsht Center or the backroom of a gay bar in middle America, Murray is, in his words, "busting his ass," to make his dreams come true. And every time he steps on stage in green face makeup and full witch drag, Tim Murray knows that he's found his coven.

Recently EDGE had the chance to chat with the comic as he began the tour which ends of November 23 with a stop in Murray's hometown of Sandusky, Ohio. Upcoming dates include Denver (Sep 28), Miami (Oct 4), Tampa (Oct 6), Chicago (Oct 8&9), Louisville (Oct 11), Los Angeles (Oct 15), Boston (Oct 17), Philadelphia (Oct 19), Washington DC (Oct 24), Columbus (Oct 25), San Francisco (Oct 29), Provincetown (Nov 1&2), Atlanta (Nov 16), and Sandusky (Nov 23).

For ticket information, click here.

EDGE: What is "Tim Murray is Witches!?"

Tim Murray: It's an original hour of my comedy about witches and why gay people love and relate to them. It features eight original comedy songs, plus an improvised song based on an audience member's story and stand-up about witches.

EDGE: Why do you like witches?

Tim Murray: I'm actually obsessed with witches. I think it's because when you're a little queer kid you gravitate toward them. There's something about that person they have to hide and then they discover it's actually what makes them special. There's also a fabulousness about witches, the nails and the hair and the costumes. But mostly I think it's the power they have, this incredible power that they think something bad is actually something really right, which is so gay.

EDGE: You grew up in Ohio. What was it like being a little gay kid in Ohio?

Tim Murray: Um, bad. It was like Urkel's theme. I loved growing up in Ohio. I still love going back there. They are honestly genuinely, truly nice people, salt of the earth people, but the culture around there was that being gay was the worst thing you could be. I went to Catholic school and every single boy in my grade was on the football team. We had to wear uniforms but on game day they got to wear a button up shirt and tie, a special outfit. I was the only boy who didn't get to dress like that. It was like a scarlet letter, looking and feeling so different than the rest of them. I still remember sitting at the boy's lunch table, hating it, wanting to sit with the girls. I remember thinking one day I'm going to get out of here and be myself.

EDGE: Were you openly gay at the time or at least aware of your sexuality?

Tim Murray: I've known I was gay since I was about four years old. I remember watching the movie "Beauty and the Beast" and when Gaston puffed up his chest and you could see his chest hair saying to the little girl I was with, "that was my favorite part." She said, "you shouldn't tell people that." I remember that all of my girlfriends had celebrity crushes.

EDGE: Who was yours?

Tim Murray: Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid from the WWE. He was a wrestler. I used to watch all the wrestlers; they were everything to me. I didn't come out until I was 18, when I left home.

EDGE: How, how did you get from Ohio to a career in comedy?

Tim Murray: I was in college at the University of Miami, Florida and I say Florida, because there's a Miami University in Ohio. I studied theater and from there moved to New York where I started doing a lot of parody musicals, UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) improv, and internet comedy videos. When I turned 30 I moved to Los Angeles and started whole hog doing stand-up.

EDGE: Is LA a better comedy town for fledgling comics than New York?

Tim Murray: That's such a good question. No, it's a great city for comedy but you should come to LA after you've cut your teeth somewhere else. When you're ready, it's a great city for opportunity. There's amazing comedy here, and amazing shows. But I just lived back in New York for five months this past year and I was reminded of how much stand-up you can do there. It's a city where people want to go out and see stuff. There's more opportunity to hit these mics and do these shows in New York, whereas in Los Angeles, it's a little less frequent but there's more opportunity to make real money and do other jobs. A lot of stand-ups transition into TV writer's rooms, or they're actors and they're on TV where they're getting paid a lot more money for a job that is a lot easier. I think stand-up is the hardest thing you can do and the scariest. New York kind of forces you to do it more which helps you get good at it.

EDGE: Do you do stand-up in addition to your show?

Tim Murray: I do stand-up most of the year, and honestly, "Witches" is part stand-up show and part original comedy songs. It has more of a narrative, but it is, for the most part, a stand-up show. And I'm in full drag.

EDGE: Is it performance drag or do you do drag regularly?

Tim Murray: It's performance drag for this show only. I don't call myself a drag queen, but I love it. I wanted to give this particular show more than just me with a microphone doing stand-up. It's a full show and I'm in full wicked witch drag complete with costume changes and reveals.

EDGE: Is this show specifically targeted to an LGBTQ audience?

Tim Murray: Yeah, I wrote this for LGBTQ people. The idea is why do queer people love witches? And the through line of the show is that you become comfortable with yourself and your powers when you find your coven. The people you watch "Drag Race" with, or go to brunch or bars with, or have a shorthand with you, other queer people become your coven. That's when you really start to become the powerful person that you are.

EDGE: You just came from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. There's a lot of festivals out there, aren't there?

Tim Murray: There's a lot of festivals. People don't know much about Edinburgh in America, but it is the, capital T-H-E, biggest arts festival in the world. The city goes from 500,000 people to over a million for just a month. It's an unbelievable place. I was competing with 3300 other shows. Nearly every inch of the city gets turned into art. There are people doing stand-up in the back room of bars at 10am until the middle of the night. They turn the entire university into theater spaces. You could be in this classroom with lighting boards watching someone like Hannah Gadsby. That's where she was discovered. She was in the giant theater next door to me this year. I would always try to get people leaving her show to come to mine.

EDGE: You have to get your own audience?

Tim Murray: That's the hard part about it. You have to flyer the streets and convince people to come. I don't have a big following in the United Kingdom so I'm, literally, on the street pitching to people who have no idea who I am. There's nothing harder than walking up to a bunch of gay guys and tell them you think they'll like this show. We gay guys think we are curators of culture so a lot of time I would get "no thank you" with a bit of an attitude. In my head I'd be saying "But I wrote this for you." Women really carried me through that festival. When I work in the States I have a bigger gay following that come to my shows here and in Canada. That's really special to me because the show is for them and they're the people who resonate most with it.

EDGE: Do you go to Edinburgh primarily for exposure?

Tim Murray: Yes. I always say everybody loses money at the festival. I had a successful show. I had a hit show. And I lost money. It costs so much to go there, put yourself up in an apartment, promote the show, get posters, and rent the space. I went with the hopes that I would get great reviews which would give this show more life in the United States. The real hope is that you become Phoebe Waller-Bridge and your "Fleabag" gets picked up as a TV show. Or "Baby Reindeer," that started there.

EDGE: You also won the New York Queer Comedy Festival, tell me about that.

Tim Murray: It's a huge, year-long competition for queer stand-up comics in New York. You go to the Broadway Comedy Club and the Greenwich Village Comedy Club for the different rounds. You get a 5-minute set and after each round a couple people get passed on to the next round until eventually there are about 30 of us in the finals. There were some really funny people in it and the judges were producers, casting directors and seasoned performers. And I won! It was cool, really cool.

EDGE: I can't believe I'm going to ask you this, but who is your favorite witch of them all?

Tim Murray: The Wicked Witch of the West. It doesn't get any better.

EDGE: That's cliché. Come on.

Tim Murray: Laughs. I know, but that's the truth. She's iconic for a reason. "Surrender Dorothy." Come on, it just doesn't get any campier.

EDGE: Let me guess, is your favorite musical "Wicked?"

Tim Murray: It is up there for me. I am obsessed with it, but my favorite musical is actually a musical called "Urinetown." My parents took me to see it when I was about 12. My dad has always been anti-establishment and anti-commercialism. He thought it looked interesting. It was one of the first shows I saw where it didn't end well. I love dystopian future stuff. I think it's genius and funny. It has this Monty Python element.

EDGE: Are you looking forward to the upcoming "Wicked" film?

Tim Murray: I'm honestly thrilled. I think it looks really good. I think it would be foolish of them to try to make the musical as is into a movie. Jon M. Chu is a genius director. I think he's turning it into more of a fantasy "Lord of the Rings" looking "Harry Potter" type of big, huge spectacle world. Cynthia Erivo is going to be great. She's an amazing actor and Ariana Grande is no light weight. She can really sing and she's underrated as funny. People think Glinda needs to be a beautiful blonde soprano. No. It's vitally important to the story that she is funny. And I think Ariana is going to crush it.

EDGE: If you could go back and talk to that little boy in Ohio, what would you tell him?

Tim Murray: I would say it's going to be okay. You're going to find your people and all this stuff that feels really hard right now, you will turn into something great. You're going to create something really special from what feels so isolating right now. It's going to be good, kid, really good.

EDGE: I have to ask you one more question. The mullet – is it for the show or just your personal style?

It's not for the show. I started cutting my own hair during the pandemic when we couldn't go out. I went on YouTube to find out how to do it. I find cutting my own hair really therapeutic, like gardening, and I save a lot of money. We were going to be stuck inside for a long time and I've always wanted to try a different style so I thought, "Let's give this a go." And I'm still doing it myself.

For more on Tim Murray, //www.instagram.com/tmurray06/visit his Instagram page.