Mary Nealy

At the time, his mother, Mary Nealy, was surprised.

He had always been shy before that.

"As soon as he got on stage he was completely different," she says.

He stuck with acting and played supporting roles throughout his high school career.

Shy or not, he always liked making people laugh and would risk embarrassment to do it.

When he joined the National Honor Society in high school, the club made him wear a dress to school as an initiation.Just to prove he could, he added a wig, makeup and jewelry, his mom recalls.

Mary Nealy says her son's antics were easier to tolerate because he kept up his grades and held down jobs.In fact, his day job now is a compliance analyst for Washington Mutual.It gives him evenings and weekends free to perform in the theaters in and around Seattle.

Nealy majored in theater at Western Washington University in Bellingham, where he performed with student sketch groups and more dramatic school productions, such as Shakespeare.

He always found comedy more fun, though, especially writing it.

"I like comedy," says Nealy."I like laughing.I like making people laugh."

After graduating in 1995, he moved to Seattle, and in 1997 formed a comedy sketch troupe named "Up in Your Grill" with three friends.

Four years later, the group broke up because two members got married and moved away.So, he and the other remaining member, Val Bush, recruited some more actors and formed "Flaming Box of Stuff."

Nealy says it's getting harder to find "fringe" venues that will experiment with sketch comedy, so the troupe tours.They have visited cities and festivals all over the country, including the New York shows and Chicago, the cradle of many early Saturday Night Live comedians.
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Nealy gets paid for some of his performances, but he hasn't made money off his comedy career yet.

Still, Nealy hopes someday to have a career in comedy.His ideal job would be writing for a TV sitcom.His favorites today are "Arrested Development" and "Everybody Loves Raymond."

He likes "Saturday Night Live," but considers the comedy too "safe."For example, his troupe has guidelines against celebrity impersonations and movie parodies.