Cast
Deb Maclean Producer/Director/Performer
Deb began her improv comedy career in the late 1970s in Los Angeles, performing in venues like The Improvisation and the Odyssey Theater, where she once made Leonard Nimoy laugh really hard. She performed improv with the much-celebrated comedy group Shock of the Funny in New York in the 1980s and 1990s and founded Lunatic Fringe in 1997. Deb also performs two original solo shows, Motherhood and Other Desperate Acts and Losing It…and Taking It Back. She teaches improv workshops for all age groups, provides entertainment for private events, and performs weddings – comedic ceremonies a specialty! She is the only known improv comedy director in the tri-state area with an MA in Slavic linguistics. During the final fight scene in Rocky IV, you can hear her yell in Russian, “Punch him in the nose! Hit him in the ear!”
Paul Murphy
Paul has been onstage almost constantly since he played the Roslyn Clock Tower in the 1st grade. Favorite roles in New York include Finnegan in Finnegan’s Wake; Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor; and 42 parts (including the Duke of Wellington’s Nose) in Kenneth Koch’s 1000 Avante Garde Plays. In New Jersey and regional theatres he has played many roles, such as Niels Bohr in Copenhagen at Luna Stage; First Man in the Chandler adaptation Trouble is My Business at Portland Stage; Karl in The Good German; Mack Now in Jim Lehrer’s Kick the Can; and Estragon in Waiting for Godot. He is a founding member of Lunatic Fringe. For Helen.
Harvey Chipkin
Harvey's improv career was launched when his wife Janet pulled a Lunatic Fringe flyer off the window of Karl's Appliance Store. He has been performing with Lunatic Fringe since 2003 after studying improv at Deb Maclean’s workshops. He has also taken improv classes at a number of New York schools, including Upright Citizens Brigade, Magnet Theatre and Second City. He appears regularly at Sunday Night Improv in New York. Harvey has appeared in several films, including The Legend, produced by Fulton Street Films, a runner-up in the Midnight Madness film Festival in New York; and Ensemble, a documentary about his Second City class. Harvey is a freelance writer specializing in travel.
David Groveman
David was born and raised in New Jersey and owes his improvisational roots to Reflections (Bergen County) and further seasoning to Mission Improvable and The Studio Upstairs (Upstate New York.) David is also a writer who busies himself between plays, screenplays, novels short stories and poetry. He has written several plays that have been performed in New York and New Jersey, published multiple short stories and is working towards finding a publisher for a large collection of illustrated poems. David works with game publisher, Nerdy City and has been a contributing author on the highly successful ReMemorex and Commandroids games.
Brooke Hoover
Brooke hails from Louisiana by way of Brooklyn and she thanks the Lunatics for welcoming her to Jersey. Brooke is a professional actor, which is just a snobby way of saying she can't wait tables to save her life. Her television credits include several episodes of Law and Order: SVU and ABC's What Would You Do? along with feature and short films. Brooke has her own works going on as well including two one-woman shows, a web series and a short film. She's passionate about helping rescue animals including her own puppy mill rescue Pomeranian, Annie. www.BrookeHoover.com