Dudley Riggs

Dudley Riggs became a circus performer, comedian, and theater founder whose career connected vaudeville practice with audience-driven stage comedy. Flying Funny is his memoir of growing up in a multigenerational circus family and developing the performance ideas that led to the Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis. The University of Minnesota Press released Flying Funny in 2017 with the subtitle My Life without a Net and a foreword by Al Franken. Riggs began performing as a child, learned aerial and comic work, and later experimented with what he called Word Jazz and Instant Theater. His Minneapolis company became a durable home for satirical sketch and improvisational performance. The memoir concentrates especially on the circus years and the early formation of that theatrical method. Riggs’s account thus links physical performance, touring entertainment, entrepreneurship, and collaborative comedy, preserving the experiences behind an institution that influenced generations of performers in the Twin Cities.