Acting
Barry began acting a very young age. His portrayal of a Mexican Jumping Bean in a grade 6 Christmas Play was lauded as “Visionary…a new spin on an old classic Christmas tale”. Unfortunately, being in the spotlight at such a young age burned him out, and he retreated from the theatre scene, much to the chagrin of his tens of fans.
It wasn’t until the age of 40, when a mid-life crisis kicked him square in the junk, that he decided to return to the stage and started to volunteer at The Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary.
Upon getting involved, he has appeared on stage as an improviser in their weekend shows, as well as numerous semi-scripted Theatre for Kids productions. The natural progression for him was to step into the Director’s shoes and now helps to produce some of these same productions.
Branching outward for fun, Barry has appeared in a number of background roles for TV, film and webseries: Playing “Unnamed Soldier #7” in two WW1 Canadian Heritage Minutes as well as “IRS agent, who didn’t make the final cut” in Fargo, season 3 to name just a couple.
Training
Barry has been extremely luck to train at the world renown, Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary, Alberta.
Founded by Keith Johnstone over 40 years ago, this theatre has trained some incredible comedians and improvisers, with an alumni list too long to mention here…well, ok a few. Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney from The Kids in the Hall; Dave Lawrence from FUBAR; and Andrew Phung from CBCs Kims Convenience. Many many others have performed on stages throughout the world and on TV and film.
For Stand-up Comedy, Barry performs in many of the Open Mic and Comedy clubs in the Calgary area and uses his stage time to hone his comedy bits to a moderately laughable level.