Bio
Shane Portman graduated from the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University with a BFA in Theatre. His favorite roles include Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jim Burroughs in Joined at the Head, and Buster Keaton in The Rest Stop.
Shane completed the long form improvisation training program at iO Chicago and was cast in the Harold Team, The Chorus, with whom he performed at the Del Close Marathon.
He was also a founding member of The Animal Club Sketch Comedy Collective whose live and film sketches were seen around the country for seven years at venues such as Carolines on Broadway, The Austin Film Festival, The San Francisco Sketchfest, Seattle Sketchfest, Chicago Sketchfest, Sketchingham, and The Second City’s Donny’s Skybox.
In Chicago, he also wrote, produced, and co-starred with Kirk Mason in the play, The Story of Francis and Wild Gil, A Francis and Wild Gil Story, at the Gorilla Tango Theatre. Centerstage Chicago said Shane and Kirk were “guileless and childlike, charm[ing] the audience as the title characters. [There were] wonderful, near-silent sequences of physical comedy. I couldn’t help grinning at how perfectly it all fit together.”
Shane lived in New York City for the past two years making short films with folks like Positively 4th Street and his sketch comedy group, Krampus. He was Gary in the farcical bromance webseries, Guy Friends, was cast in his first commercial, and played a homeless man in the modern silent film, Silent City.
Shane also writes a series of short stories called Allister Cromley’s Fairweather Belle or Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups to Tell. In NYC, he collaborated with directors Scott Illingworth and Jess Smith to bring them to the stage. In 2010, he orchestrated fundraisers in Pittsburgh, Chicago, NYC, and LA using the stories to raise money for individuals who had come across hard times.
In 2011, Shane moved to Los Angeles! He is working at a chocolate shop just like Lucille Ball did.
He is currently part of a new video sketch collective whose temporary name is Potluckers. He and writing partner, Dave Droxler, recently finished Buster, a play about Buster Keaton’s life and hope to produce it in New York. And he’ll be producing more Allister Cromley fundraisers in LA and across the map soon.
Photos: The Animal Club Sketch Comedy Collective, Blog personality Allister Cromley, cast of the silent film one-act The Rest Stop, members of Improv Olympic Team The Chorus.
