It was just one off-hand comment, but it changed the course of Katie Visser’s life forever.
“(Associate professor of English) Valerie Laken was my committee chair, and I was going through the thesis project process at UWM,” Visser said. “She asked, ‘Did you know that the stuff you’re writing is coming off like it’s supposed to be performed? Did you know that?’ And I was like, no! I didn’t! That changes everything.”
The more she thought about it, the more Visser liked the idea of writing for stage or television. She began to do her research. Where did screenwriters get their start? Where did they work? How could she get there?
“I basically cold-Googled the writers in the credits of the shows that I loved at the time,” she said. “Almost all of them, unanimously, were trained up and came through the Chicago comedy scene.”
With her new master’s degree in hand, Visser went to Chicago to study comedy writing at the fabled Second City. Then, she went to Los Angeles and found her calling.
Going onstage
Today, Katie Visser is a writer, performer, and filmmaker, but perhaps most importantly, she’s the co-founder and co-host of a monthly variety hour called “The Non-Fiction Show.” The show is gaining popularity and features poets, essayists, storytellers, and a live musical act.
“And then we have the segment that makes us different from other variety hours going on around town,” Visser said. “Each month, we have an expert. We find someone who is an expert in either a really niche industry or topic to, in an entertaining way, educate the audience and let them go home with some knowledge they didn’t have before.”
The Non-Fiction Show has featured astrologers, magicians from The Magic Castle, a professional wrestler, and even a Jim Henson puppeteer.
Visser said anyone can appear on the show, but the rule is in the name: Every piece performed must be nonfiction.
“(Co-host Julie Pearson and I) were seeing all of these variety hours in town where everybody was doing improv or was a character on stage,” Visser said. “We want people to be their vulnerable selves on stage, and they are. They really show up, and the audience really responds to that.”
The trick is finding talented people. Visser and Pearson do their own booking and regularly haunt Los Angeles’ arts showcases and open mic nights to scout performers. They recruit through word-of-mouth and host open calls to bring a variety of people onstage for the variety show.
In addition to booking, Visser and Pearson also handle all of the behind-the-scenes logistics: reserving venues, marketing, press, and everything else needed to make a show run smoothly. They both perform regularly as well. Their efforts have paid off.
“There’s a lot of comedy shows happening in LA, and I think we’ve got a very specific niche. Our performers like working with us. We’ve really hit a groove,” Visser said.
Working off stage
While The Non-Fiction Show is enjoying success, Visser still has her own artistic dreams. In 2023, she completed her first short film, a lesbian romantic comedy called “Flirting,” and is in the process of submitting the work to film festivals.
(The film, Visser said, started as an assignment from her therapist, who asked Visser to address her anxiety around dating by writing a scene where two people flirt with each other. Visser completed the exercise and then realized she had the beginnings of a good script. “I got no closer to my dating goals, but I did write a film and then make it,” she joked.)
She’s also worked in television as an assistant and in the writers’ room for some television projects, as well as with a production company that made pitches to Amazon Studios. She’s starting to follow in the footsteps of the writers she once Googled, though Visser laments that screenwriting is a tough industry to break into.
In the meantime, she has been growing her portfolio. Her work includes pilots for television shows and scripts that have placed well in screenwriting competitions. Her latest project draws on her work from The Non-Fiction Show.
“I do comedy, comedy essays, and comedy nonfiction in the show. I’ve been writing these pieces for a couple of years now, and I’ve got a good half a manuscript’s worth of essays that come from life,” Visser said. She’s working on turning that into a full manuscript. It’s a reversal of Professor Laken’s observation all those years ago, Visser added with a smile. This time, the pieces she wrote to perform are meant to be read.
Midwestern roots
Visser has firmly established herself in Los Angeles, but she’s never forgotten her Midwestern roots. She grew up in Milwaukee and attended UWM because it was close to home. She’s a two-time graduate, earning her bachelor’s and then her master’s degree in English.
“The longer I was at UWM, and the more I focused on my major, the better an experience it was. It was incredible,” Visser said. “I loved the faculty. I had great professors and mentors the whole time. … Valerie Laken taught me how to write, honestly.”
She has advice for today’s students: “Gravitate toward what you like and what’s fun for you. Let it light you up and guide you because goals take forever to reach, and tons of it is deeply unglamorous. Do the stuff that you really love, which is fun for you and will carry you through all of that work.”
In the end, you’ll have something amazing to show for it. Visser is excited to be able to show her work, and one of her dreams is to someday take The Non-Fiction Show on the road and perform in the Midwest.
If that happens, she said, UW-Milwaukee will definitely be a stop on the tour.
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science