Tag: Shows

Walter’s Rule #1: HAVE FUN but never at another’s expense!”

This Gaithersburg, Maryland native has 30 years of professional credits in international theater (Off-Broadway, regional, touring), TV, Film, commercials, music and comedy. Walt Frasier has been seen in costar roles on NBC’S BLACKLIST, SHOWTIME’S BILLIONS, USA’S ROYAL PAINS, CBS’S BLUE BLOODS, and NETFLIX’S LILYHAMMER, NICK’S NAKED BROTHERS BAND. Walter got his TV/FILM/ON SCREEN start doing commercials and sketch comedy bits on Late Nite with David Letterman, MTV’s STANKERVISON, and more recently TruTVs Friends of the People and HBO’S Pause with Sam Jay. Walter’s first professional job was a five month run of Pirates of Penzance at The West End Dinner Theatre (Alexandria, Virginia).

20+ YEARS IN COMEDY

Walt Frasier co-created the show EIGHT IS NEVER ENOUGH in the later days of 2002. By 2003, the troupe played it’s first college gig at University of Maryland, College Park, toured it’s first school district in Farmington, CT and made it’s corporate gig debut near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. By 2005, the troupe was performing 10-20 shows/weeks including daily gigs and an off-Broadway run in Times Square NYC, and long runs at The NY Improv, Laugh Factory, and since 2011 at the Broadway Comedy Club. In addition to performing Improv Comedy, Frasier served as MC, Pianist, and casting director for as many as four companies at a time touring schools and events.

EDUCATOR

Walt Frasier is a busy teaching artist, from directing Broadway shows at high schools and middle schools to teaching improv to executive teams and leaders at major Fortune 500 companies. In the mid to late 1990s Frasier directed shiws like Fiddler on the Roof, Much Ado About Nothing and Bye Bye Birdie at Montgomery County High Schools. After moving to New York, he continued as a school show director. (Also music director in a few schools, as he started college life as Trumpet/Piano player music major). Since 2003, Frasier has been leading Improv workshops at schools. In 2009, Frasier served as Director of Education for the Comedy Hall of Fame. He opened his Times Square Comedy School in 2011. In 2019 his student Carolyn White was named funniest kid in America by Keenan Thompson. In 2022, his student Saloni Singh followed in Carolyn’s foot steps. Meanwhile, his student Myra Beji appeared on Disney Plus, in The Quest. And if you do not know Sway Bhatia yet, you will. Now starring in Disney’s Zombies, Sway had a major role on Mighty Ducks series, and a series regular on HBOs Succession in addition to numerous other credits.

CORPORATE TEAM BUILDING & ENTERTAINMENT

Walt Frasier lead his first corporate team building workshop in 2003. But it wasn’t until 2015, when Frasier absorbed the findings of Project Aristotle (Google 4 year study into successful teams) that he truly became a corporate team building specialist. Clients include Google, Mercedes Benz, META /Facebook, TikTok, JP Morgan Chase, Accenture, Morgan Stanley, Twitter, Roblox, Rimowa, EI Digital, Accenture, Datadog HQ, Milbank, BING/Microsoft, Band of America – Merrill Lynch, Home Depot, Ernst & Young, Johnson & Johnson, Louis Vuitton, Coach, UBS, BDO, AMEX, Master Card, Macy’s, 360i, IBM, GM, Kraft, UNILEAVER, HBO, Prudential, Convene, Conference Board and many more… (NYC DOE VENDORS).

Walter also leads improv comedy shows, murder mystery shows, trivia nights, and more.

Author

In 2004, a panelist for Montgomery County Schools Arts in Education auditions suggested Frasier should write a book. Frasier used the 2020 quarentine times to finally fulfill this prophecy. Frasier now has books on Improv, Stand Up and Sketch Comedy designed as text books for k12 schools. QUIT YOUR DAY JOB is Frasier’s road map to be a working artist. And ALIENS, WITCHES AND GHOSTS OH MY is Walter’s first fictional work.

Education

Frasier attended Germantown & Laytonsville Elementary Schools, Gaithersburg Junior and Senior High Schools (Senior Class President 1990), Montgomery College and Catholic University. Additionally, Amalfi Opera Festival, New York Opera Forum, Crittenden Opera Studio, HB Studios, Broadway Dance Center and numerous private coaches in DC, NYC and Italy.

DMV Community Involvement

Before college, Frasier was a musician, active in school and community bands (Browningsville, Montgomery Village, Yellow Springs, Pit Orchestra for various community theater s – Damascus, Rockville etc). After turning to theater and opera at Montgomery Colllege, he continued community involvement, now on stage, at the Victorian Lyric Opera (Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe), Frederick Players (Fiddler on the Roof), and Metro Players (A Man for all Season, as Henry VIII, Georgetown). As a singer he worked at The Cathedral of Saint Matthew (Dupont Circle), The Basilica (Catholic University), Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist (American University Campus), and Holy Trinity (Georgetown) as well as numerous local churches. His first professional theater job was a five month run of Pirates of Penzance at The West End Dinner Theater (Alexandia, VA) and before moving to New York, directed a few shows at Richard Montgomery High School and consulted for shows at Gaithersburg High School.