The Matrix Theatre Company Presents DYING IS EASY...COMEDY IS HARD 9/27-10/25

Lisa James directs writer/actor/comedian Nick Ullett in Dying is Easy... Comedy is Hard at The Matrix Theatre on Mondays at 8 pm from September 27 through October 25.

With songs, slides and irrepressible wit, Ullett takes the audience on a roller coaster ride through existence. Dying is Easy... Comedy is Hard originated two decades ago at the 13th Street Theatre in New York's Greenwich Village. But the show that started out as an autobiographical account of Nick's arrival in America as one-half of an English comedy team during the swinging '60s morphed into something else entirely when fate stepped in, altering his life with a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Nick incorporated his fight against cancer into the show, never shying away from the reality of the battle - but always mining the humor that kept him going. The result is stimulating, funny, and thought-provoking theater from a "Brit" who has been described alternately as an "Anglo-American Spaulding Gray" and "an egomaniac who can't shut up."

"This show is absolutely terrific," says the Matrix Theatre's Joe Stern, who invited Ullett to perform on Monday nights after he saw a reading. "It's very funny, and it's not at all sentimental. In fact, I can't tell you the ending because it's so hysterical."

Nick Ullett first came to the U.S. in 1964 as half of the English comedy team Hendra and Ullett. For the rest of the '60s the duo performed all over the country, opening for Lenny Bruce, appearing seven times on The Ed Sullivan Show, and under contract to NBC for a year. As an actor, Nick has appeared on Broadway in Me and My Girl (as Gerald, the ultimate British twit) and in Loot. Off Broadway credits include Tooth and Claw (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Laughing Matters (Primary Stages), The Importance of Being Earnest (Samuel Beckett Theatre) and Cole Porter's Gay Divorce (Carnegie Hall). California audiences have seen Nick on stage at the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, Greenway Court Theatre, and the Zephyr, among many others. Some of his most memorable roles include the Pinball Wizard in The Who's Tommy at Hollywood's Aquarius Theatre, the pirate jailer in Stephen Speilberg's Hook, one of the more bizarre of Murphy Brown's secretaries, and as an irritant to Tim Allen on one of the final episodes of Home Improvement. As a writer, Nick has seen two plays produced by EST-LA and has written for network television. Radio listeners may recognize his voice as a commentator on NPR's "All Things Considered."

Lisa James is the recipient of multiple "Best Direction" awards, including for Palladium is Moving (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, LA Weekly, Drama-Logue); Richard Dresser's Better Days (Drama-Logue); the West Coast premiere of Little Egypt by Lynn Siefert, with John C. Reilly and Valerie Mahaffey (Drama-Logue); and The Visible Horse (LADCC, Back Stage Garland). She directed the L.A. premiere of The Water Children by Wendy MacLeod for The Matrix Theatre Company, for which she was nominated once again by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and the show received four LADCC Awards and a Back Stage Garland award. Ms. James directed Justin Tanner's Bitter Women, named one of the top ten productions of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times, for which she received yet another LADCC nomination for direction. Other directing credits include the world premiere of the critically acclaimed Seltzer Man by Richard Krevolin, starring David Proval, at the Tiffany Theatre; the premiere of Beth Henley's one act Tight Pants; the premiere of Billy Aronson's The News for Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon 2004-The LA Project; the West Coast premiere of Rona Munroe's Bold Girls, again for The Matrix Theatre Company, and the world premiere of Justin Tanner's Oklahomo!. Lisa directed the world premiere of a new musical, Little Egypt-The Musical, based on Lynn Siefert's play, with music and lyrics by Gregg Lee Henry, starring French Stewart and Sara Rue, first for The Matrix Theater Company, and again at the Acorn Theatre in New York City as part of the 2007 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Dying is Easy... Comedy is Hard opens for press on September 27 and continues through October 25. Performances take place every Monday at 8 pm. All tickets are $15.00. The Matrix Theatre is located at 7657 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046. To purchase tickets, call 323.852.1445. For more information, including directions and parking, go to www.MatrixTheatre.com.

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