"ranney"

“ranney” most recently portrayed Hedley in the Nevada Conservatory Theater production of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. He was in The Bomb-itty of Errors productions in St. Pete (2002 & 2005), Chicago, Dublin, London’s West End, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Stage Award for Best Ensemble). Notable Tampa Bay performances include Lucien in The Boys Next Door, Lincoln in Topdog/Underdog, Toledo in the USF production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Boy Willie in Center Theatre Company’s The Piano Lesson. As a director-choreographer, he has successfully mounted challenging original work including Avant-Bard (Acrosstown Repertory Theater), Maxwell, and The Birds, A Musical Adaptation (PCC Players). He is developing the one man show, Unsuitable: The Dark and Honest Comedy of Bill Hicks (starring David M. Jenkins) as a Jobsite Job-side project.

“ranney” was the premier comedian at Laff Tuesdays at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in the 90’s, has shared billing with such talents as Paul Mooney, Bill Bellamy, Ricky Harris and Martin Lawrence, and was chosen as one of the few comedians for the Apollo tribute to the late great Robin Harris. Lawrence has featured all over the East Coast, including Ybor City’s The Improv, Coconuts Comedy Club, and Side Splitters, and he has headlined Greenbelt’s The Comedy Connection, Dublin’s The Comedy Cellar, London’s The Comedy Store and Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms and Gilded Balloon Nightclub. “ranney” won the Universal Poets competition of Florida in 2000 and was nominated Best International Poet 2003 by the Farrago Poetry Group of London. He has opened for REO Speedwagon, Disco Inferno (Thelma Houston, Peaches & Herb, and The Sugar Hill Gang), Eddie Griffin, and Kathleen Madigan. “ranney” is the stand-up comedy instructor for Patel Conservatory. He has presented five one-man shows in the last seven years, including And the Horse You Rode In On, Cufflinks and Jolly Ranchers for Dummies, and The Chicken or the Egg. He is currently working on his next two solo performances – a tribute to stand-up legend Redd Foxx and his latest night of comedy entitled A Laugh Supreme.