Avery Schreiber

Avery Schreiber. . , A Comedic Actor Inspires Laughs, and a Theatre , In 1948 it was an auto body shop. Forty-five years later it became a landmark theatre, with an outdoor patio stage, the masks of comedy and tragedy welded onto its wrought-iron gate, and in the lobby a framed photograph of the man for whom the building was named , Avery Schreiber. , Schreiber was a gifted improv comedian and veteran of the "Ivy League" of improv comedy, Chicago's The Second City. He was a friend and mentor to theatrical improviser Linda Fulton, who was inspired by Schreiber after answering an ad in the late 1990s and being invited to attend classes with Avery. They both would belong to a comedy troupe called Moving Targets (with Schreiber being the artistic director) which performed on occasion at the Bitter Truth Playhouse on Magnolia Boulevard. Schreiber encouraged Fulton to follow her passion and teach improvisation to young people, which she did, with her Total Improv Kids program. It was at the Playhouse where Schreiber would last work with Moving Targets before passing away in 2002. , After being sold in 2003, the Bitter Truth Playhouse's new owner allowed Linda to keep the front as a theatre and school. So on July 1, 2003, she officially opened for business, naming the new theatre in honor of her late mentor and friend, Avery Schreiber. With the help of her husband Richard, the Fultons would later go on to purchase the entire theatre. The Avery Schreiber Theatre went on to become a flagship and anchor for the growing NoHo theatre arts community. And Fulton's Total Improv Kids became the only all kid improv show to open Off-Broadway in New York. , On July 1, 2013, exactly ten years after forming the theatre, and a couple years after the passing of her husband Richard, Linda made the tough decision to close the doors. Her Total Improv Kids program would be moved next door to the Sherry Theatre and the Avery Schreiber Theatre would be converted into a restaurant. But the Schreiber's impact and legacy in the NoHo Arts District will not soon be forgotten. , A Mustache Helps to Make a Career , Schreiber was a self-described "class clown" who honed his performance skills in an entertainment unit in the U.S. Army. He struck a vein of comedic gold in the 1960s when he joined forces with comedian Jack Burns. After their Second City performance hit New York, the pair's comic sparks earned them a coveted spot on Jack Paar's television program. In their signature skit, Schreiber plays a cab driver stuck with Burns as a motor-mouth passenger. , It was that mini-forest of a mustache, along with his wildly curly black hair, that made Schreiber's face as memorable as his comedy. People who never saw him on stage came to know him in the 1970s, in commercials for Doritos® brand tortilla chips where Schreiber plays a variety of characters who get rattled as everyone around noisily eats the snack. , Making a Mark Two by Two, and Solo , Burns and Schreiber had broken up by 1972, when they reunited for a benefit in Los Angeles, and the next year, they debuted a summer variety series called The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour, on ABC. It featured guests like George Carlin and Ike and Tina Turner, regulars Teri Garr and Fred Willard, and future Saturday Night Live wunderkind Lorne Michaels as a writer. , The duo also recorded comedy albums, among them the politically tart, The Watergate Comedy Hour, with skits like "The Break In" and "Special Investigator." , Schreiber also appeared in such films as Mel Brooks' Robin Hood, Men in Tights, and in television sitcoms and dramas and on game shows, using his unmistakable mustache and rotundity to great effect , although he once told the Los Angeles Times that inside that girth, "There's a Cary Grant ... trying to get out."