Short Bio:
For introductions and programs
Melissa Bowler is an improvisor, clown, and stand-up comedian with 21 years and counting of professional stage experience. (Over 2000 live shows!) In her workshops, she uses comedy to lower defenses, illustrate concepts, and facilitate discussions on personal and professional development.
With experience working with groups ranging from ages 5 to 90+, Melissa has taught students, working professionals, and retirees alike. Her engaging workshops combine games, storytelling, and group discussions to create an original learning experience. She works with various organizations, schools, and businesses across the United States and tailors her interactive keynotes or intimate workshops to accommodate specific learning goals and crowd size.
Longer Performance Bio:
For those of you into this sort of thing
Melissa's first taste of performance happened at 3 years old when she joined her mother on stage dressed as 'the pilgrim child' next to 'The Pilgrim Lady' who visited local first graders telling the story of the first Thanksgiving. As she grew, she began to put on plays with her neighborhood friends, charging parents and siblings 25 cents to see the shows. She continued performing where she could, being a part of school bands for 8 years and joining the debate team in high school. After winning a set design competition her senior year, she auditioned for the musical it was to be used for and got to design, paint, and perform on a set she designed. (A 10ft comic book with multiple turnable pages)
At Providence College, her passions grew- graduating with a degree in Humanities. She got to study a variety subjects: Sculpture, Performance Art, Sociology, Theater, Art History, and Development of Western Civilization- all of which stimulated her fascination with how art impacts culture.
While a college student, Melissa volunteered for three years at her former elementary school to direct and organize their fourth grade theater productions. In her sophomore year, she joined the campus improv team, ‘Rejects on the Rise.’ This group sparked a long term love affair with improv comedy and gave her the confidence to try stand-up comedy beginning in her senior year. (Stand-up was her talent portion of her entry into the Miss PC pagent- she got 3rd)
Upon graduating, Melissa found herself performing stand-up multiple times a month and organizing an independent comedy group, Inside Jokes. This group opened an underground comedy club where they performed and original sketch, improv, stand-up and a capella parody songs. She soon joined other local improv troupes in the area including, Improv Jones, Unexpected Company, and Out of The Gutter Comedy (now The Portuguese Kids). She was also working as an emcee for many events including fundraisers, film festivals, and comedy shows.
She attended graduate school at Rhode Island College studying Theater Performance and Society- a program focused on how to use performance to create social change. She left that program about half way through as her comedy career began to grow and demand more of her time. She was now performing stand-up and improv multiple times a week, headlining local shows and opening for national acts in venues such as Catch and Rising Star, and Comedy Connection. In addition to being one of the volunteer producers for the Providence Improv Fest, she was also traveling to improv festivals around the country including fests in NYC, NY, Philadelphia, PA, and Austin, TX. In 2008, she began independently teaching improv at Perishable Theatre in Providence. (Now one of the homes of AS220).
As an actor, Melissa was cast in many local shows and got to work with such groups as The Elemental Theatre Collective, The Gamm Theatre, Theater of Thought, and The Wilbury Theatre Group. She also volunteered as a performer and director with The Manton Avenue Project. During this time, she was also a member of the Empire Revue, a variety show in Providence. There she was a writer and performer for sketches and songs in their live shows and sang on several of their recorded albums.
To fund her lifestyle of making very little money in performance, Melissa has also had a variety of jobs (often more than one at a time) She's worked as a dishwasher, food prepper, bed maker, waiter, math tutor, and a behavior therapist for disabled teens working on social and vocational skills. She got her first, full time, salaried job as a promotions director for 101.5 WWBB and 93.3 WSNE radio stations in 2006. There she learned how to organize events, record commercial spots, run contests, and assist on-air talent in content writing. She later got into medical acting which combined her love of performance with a more steady paycheck. In this work, she portrayed patients, doctors, nurses, or emts in various scenarios designed to teach communication skills or medical protocol in rare events.
In 2012, she co-founded the Providence Improv Guild (PIG) - a non-profit improv school and stage originally housed at the Southside Cultural Center. Over her years with the organization, she served as their Artistic Director, Executive Director and board member. She was also a regular performer, teacher, and coach, as well as author of curricula for the organization before leaving in 2024.
Connecting Through Comedy- her original, interactive workshop and speaking program began as a short improv workshop designed to teach empathy to sales students at Bryant University. In 2014, after years of honing, she presented this curriculum at a conference in Miami winning an award for Best Practices in Teaching. This conference appearance launched Melissa's client based from the New England area to all over the United States. The curriculum now has 15+ hours of content and continues to grow as Melissa works with new fields and specialties. She has presented it to crowds as large as 650 and has been able to scale it to one on one coaching sessions and virtual programs. She has adapted this program for school age kids- from K-12, undergraduate and graduate students, working professionals, and retirees. Some of the fields she has worked with include sales, medical, human resources, podcasters, food service, education, childcare, and engineers. She has also worked with many companies and universities including Harvard, RISD, Brown, AT&T, CVS, Lifespan, Bryn Mawr, Tufts, and Montefiore Medical.