Tim Behrens performs "Poor Again, Dagnabbit!"

Tim Behrens

Tim Behrens comes from an acting family. His dad, Frank Behrens, was a talented radio and TV actor, well known for his voices. Frank also wrote material for several comedians, including Tony Randall and Don Knotts, for many years.

Tim’s mom was a working actress for 60 years! Her stage name was Amzie Strickland. Amzie guest-starred on more than 600 TV shows, everything from I Love Lucy to the Andy Griffith Show (Miss Rosemary plus 3 other appearances) to ER. Indeed, her resume reads like a history of television.

Growing up in a household of two actors, Tim avoided acting like the plague...until some moment of deranged alchemy got him on stage for the first time at age 32. Then he actually studied acting with a series of great teachers.

Tim and Pat celebrated 24 years of touring the McManus Comedies in October 2016.

Career & Education Timeline

1992-Present
Professional Actor performing and touring all of the Pat McManus Comedies throughout a 23 state and two-province region.

Founded, along with wife, Leslie Ann Grove, Penguin Productions, a partnership that tours the McManus shows and presents other entertainment events as well. The Comedies are one-man shows written by Patrick F. McManus, one of the most popular humorists in this country, having sold more than 5 million copies of his 24 books. Tim plays 45 characters in these shows and people laugh so much it often hurts Tim's ears! More than a half million people attended one of his 1,600 public or 200 private or corporate performances.

2009-2012
Business Manager, Marketing Director, performer and writer during three summers for the Rockin’ B Ranch on the WA/ID border. Helped the Cowboy Supper Shows expand its base and increased audiences by up to 50 percent over previous years.

Actor Tim Behrens as the bear in "The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw"

2003-2008
Founder, Artistic Director and Managing Director of CenterStage Dinner Theatre and Ella’s Supper Club (a Jazz Club), Spokane, WA. Tim and his wife established and managed CenterStage and Ella’s as a 501c.3 nonprofit corporation. Wrote the annual $1 million budget, directed many of the shows, supervised most of the staff and wrote and directed grant applications and other fundraising projects.

1989-1992
Director of Library Sales, and Reader of Audiobooks, Books in Motion, Spokane, WA. Won numerous awards including best audio book of 1990 for his reading of Huckleberry Finn, awarded by both the Library Journal and the National Librarians’ Association.

1984-1990
Managing Artistic Director, Centre Theatre Group (CTG), a non-profit theatre company, Spokane, WA. Innovative theatre programming in a dinner-theatre environment. In addition to directing and managing the business of the company, Taught numerous classes and workshops in acting, stagecraft and playwriting for youth ages 12 to 20.

1983-1986
Finished BA at Eastern Washington University. Studied acting with Professor Gene Engene. Worked on Master of Fine Arts, Eastern WA University, Creative Writing. Also co-founder and editor of the Spokane Art Paper. Taught both creative writing and journalism as an MFA candidate to undergrads at EWU.

1982-1985
Feature Writer and Arts Reviewer, the Spokane Chronicle and the Spokane Spokesman Review, Spokane, WA. Winner of numerous journalism awards from the Inland Northwest Society of Professional journalists. Winner of the 1983/84 first place award for Features writing by Chapter 10 (AK, WA, OR, ID, MT) of the Society of Professional Journalists for a series entitled “Portraits of the Palouse.” Was the art critic for the Spokesman Review for two years, and the music critic for the Chronicle, and then occasionally the Spokesman, for two years.

For two years, was the assistant to Albert Salmi, professional actor when he moved to Spokane from Hollywood in 1983, Albert first taught at the Spokane Civic Theatre and then at Gonzaga University.

1980-1982
Economic Development Specialist, Washington Energy and Employment Resources, Spokane, headquartered in Spokane, WA, and serving all of Eastern Washington. This was a nonprofit organization founded to carry out and manage a huge National Demonstration Grant (developed by Senator Warren Magnuson) in the fields of alternative energy, youth employment and community service.

1974-1980
Social work for two large nonprofit social service organizations in Oakland, CA. Originally Project Director for PAE (Projects to Assist Employment) and then Administrative Director, at OCCUR (Oakland Citizens Committee on Urban Renewal). This was a unique introduction for the world of nonprofit corporate management. At one time, for more than 2 years, Managed 11 separate projects with a total of 300 employees. During this time, wrote and co-crafted grants (government, corporate and private foundation) that were funded for more than $6 million.

1971-1974
University of California, Berkeley, studies in English and Mathematics (Finished BA Degree At EWU in 1994)

1965-1970
Student, translator, research specialist in Paris, France.
Attended and received Certificat d’Etudes (2 years) from Alliance Francaise, and an additional Certificat d’Etudes from the University of Paris, at the Sorbonne. After language training, Tim worked as a bilingual secretary for the Department of Plant Physiology at the Sorbonne for two years.

Also, from 1966 to 1967, Tim studied and became proficient in the music of the Dumbek, the Arabic hand drum, in Tangier, Morocco.

Photo of Pat and Tim at Pat's house in Spokane WA

Pat McManus (left) with his indentured actor Tim Behrens (right).