111. Ira Liss

Photo to come! (I forgot to ask Ira for one and am scheduling this to post late at night, sorry)

For almost 40 years, Ira Liss has performed as actor, improviser, pianist, singer, songwriter, show host, interviewer, performance poet, entertainer and more.

He began his onstage career in NYC, doing standup comedy, singing his original songs at cabaret venues, joining several theater improv companies, and working as an improv actor/company member of a murder mystery dinner theater that presented shows at dozens of venues all over Manhattan.

He has acted in several plays in Colorado, most notably as co-creator, co-director, and actor in an original musical, Breaking Open, which was performed on the Front Range and in NYC.

He’s performed his one-man shows, Piano, Poetry & Passion, on the CU-Boulder campus, at the Dairy Center, and as part of the Boulder International Fringe Festival, where he won an Audience-Choice Award.

Currently, he hosts a monthly variety-talk show called, Boulder Tonight (directed by Hektor Munoz), featuring guest artists who perform their original works and are interviewed about their life and art. The show also features house band, Black Market Translation – the band of Punketry, a monthly, musical/poetry event.

He performs his original works, mostly improvised, with freestyle musical band, Art Compost & the Word Mechanics, in a Sunday evening time slot called, the Jam Before the Slam, at the Mercury Café in Denver.

On Sundays, he can be seen playing piano and improvi–sing arrangements of American Songbook melodies of the last century in the Mercury Café’s main dining room.

He has served as piano accompanist for Red Thread Playback Theater as well as several musical improv theater groups.

Video recordings of his various performances can be seen on his YouTube channel, @TheIraLissShow (https://www.youtube.com/
@TheIraLissShow/playlistb).