Life & Work with Karen Bell-Brege & Darrin Brege

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Bell-Brege & Darrin Brege.

Hi Karen & Darrin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
Hi! Thanks so much for having us! I’m Karen (a good Karen) and this is my husband, Darrin. We just celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary, and to say it’s been a wild, creative, fun, laughter-filled ride would be an understatement. We met at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak when Darrin walked in to audition for my improv troupe. 

Going back to the beginning, I think about how improv seriously changed my life…I had studied improv at Second City in Chicago and had the amazing experience of studying with Paul Sills – one of the founders of Second City. But, at the time in Michigan, there wasn’t any improv. So, a stand-up friend of mine (Gilda Hauser) and I decided to start the very first Michigan improv comedy troupe. Mark Ridley, the owner of Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, said he would let us perform at his club every Tuesday night. 

It was a slow start. We would do gigs for free and pass out free passes to our show every week. At one point, we needed more troupe members, so we held an audition. There was a huge turnout. One of the auditioners – Darrin, walked in looking quite wild. He had long hair down to the middle of his back, was wearing black and white lizard cowboy boots, and a black leather Harley jacket. He had just moved back from Los Angeles, and he didn’t fit in – but when he got on stage, he was hilarious. So, we picked him to join our troupe. 

Word of mouth spread, and eventually, we began to fill the Comedy Castle every Tuesday night with up to 400 people. One night after a show and two weeks after the audition, the troupe went out. Darrin started doing some voice impersonations, and I joined in – I had done them on numerous radio commercials, and Darrin was just a natural (with probably over 50 voice impersonations that he can do). I’m pretty sure that’s when cupids arrow struck, and we immediately began dating. 

At the time, I was working as a corporate Communications Specialist. Darrin was applying for an art and animation job at a company in Ann Arbor that was producing computer games for children for the likes of Disney, Hasbro, and Universal. He got the job, and we ended up doing voice work for many games for those companies. Following that, from the voice impersonations that we did onstage, Darrin was offered the comedy voice impersonator job for a sports radio station. 

However, running an improv troupe in the ’90s in Michigan wasn’t easy. Our troupe was the first, and it was long before improv was a household word. We did everything we could marketing-wise to get known. Our show was fun, funny, and edgy. Those were the days nobody took themselves so seriously, and we could be bold and do anything and say anything, and people loved it. It was ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’ on steroids. Not so sure how it would go over now…Besides performing improv, we did hilarious skits that we wrote. In fact, one was so funny that one night Darrin and I were watching Saturday Night Live, and we couldn’t believe it when one of our long-running sketches was on the show. Our sketch on TV on SNL! It turned out that when Second City started in Detroit, some of the players would come to our show, and then one of the Detroit Second City players became a writer on SNL. 

We became more popular and began doing a lot of corporate, heath care, and association gigs. We would do a show and I would speak on the importance of humor in our lives and work, and then we would train the audience in improv. Darrin and I were having a blast. We were loving what we were doing and burning the candle at both ends – between our day jobs, our weekly shows, side gigs, and radio along with acting in some television commercials – thrown in the mix. 

On the personal side of things, within three months, we were living together, and within six months, we were engaged. Before long, we found out that we would be having the love of our lives, our son Mick. Once Mick came into the world, we knew that something had to give, and it was my corporate job. We decided it was more important to raise our child than anything else. So, I continued running the comedy troupe and doing speaking gigs while Darrin continued his art and radio job. There were times it was tough. Because as we all know comedy and being in the arts aren’t always the best paying – well, unless you’re in the big time – which we were not. But we were happy and loved our life and family. Would we do it all again? You bet! 

Before long, Mark Ridley, the owner of the Comedy Castle (who was always very kind to us), was asked by a friend if he knew an artist for some children’s book covers, and he recommended Darrin. Darrin ended up doing the first 36 original book covers for this author. The author knew I was a writer and asked if I would write a sketchbook for him. One thing we learned being in the arts is to leap before you look. I said, of course, I would write his sketchbook, even though I had never written a children’s book, let alone a sketchbook. Darrin and I wrote it together, and Darrin did the artwork. The book ended up doing extremely well, and Darrin’s covers helped turn all those books into bestsellers. Then one day, Darrin looked at me and said, “You’re a writer.” (As I had been a copywriter, wrote shows for Working Woman magazine, along with my former communications job), and I looked at him and said, “…And you’re an artist.” It was at that moment we decided we should do our own children’s books. Thus, our first series, Mick Morris Myth Solver chapter books, were born. 

We had always been intrigued with myths and knew that these would be fun books for kids. The ‘Mick Morris Myth Solver’ series is about a boy named Mick who travels with his cousin Sissy, his best friend Nathan, and their parents. While the parents are filming a show about myths – the trio sneaks away to see if the myths exist – Aliens, Bigfoot, Champ (our own Loc Ness), Gremlins, Abominable, Thunderbirds. To add an even a bigger twist, we decided to have multiple endings, and we came up with ‘Five Ways to Finish.’ You read the beginning chapters and get to a page, and then you get to pick the ending you want to read, and you just go to that page. There is always a normal and scary ending, but the other three endings change per book. 

We didn’t venture into looking for an agent or publisher and decided to self-publish. For starters, we had to find a good printer, get distribution, do the marketing, social media, stocking, shipping, and the list goes on…And we were still doing comedy at the time while raising our precious son. Instead of slowing down, we had added more to our plate – YUM! 

We were lucky in the beginning of our book business to get a Michigan-based distributor, but unfortunately, he closed his doors, and now we do it ourselves. We followed the ‘Mick Morris Myth Solver’ Series up with a companion sketchbook for all our little artist friends called, ‘Sketch the Myths.’ After that, we decided to put out another book series and had the idea for ‘Ghost Board Posse.’ 

The funny story about ‘Ghost Board Posse’ is that we were on our way up north (Michigan) to discuss the possible acquisition of ‘Mick Morris Myth Solver’ by a publisher who contacted us. But during the drive up, we had decided we really didn’t want to sell our ‘Mick Morris Myth Solver’ series. We were doing well enough on our own, so we had another idea to pitch to them – which was ‘Ghost Board Posse.’ A story about a very diverse group of teenagers on an international boarding tour that encounter horrifying situations and use their humor, skills, and teamwork to solve ancient mysteries, save themselves, and get back to the tour. It’s extreme sports versus the paranormal. It’s a fast-moving, exciting, humorous, and scary series. They bought the new series, but in long run, we ended up buying it back. 

For a while, we continued doing improv but balancing that with the book biz was getting harder. One night when we had a show at Mark Ridley’s and Mick was just four years old – we couldn’t get a sitter. We called Mark, and he said to bring Mick with us, that he could stay in the green room. That night we had Mick open the show and introduce the troupe – at four years old in front of 400 people, no fear, and our little one brought the house down. 

We loved improv, but our shows were hurting because the book business was growing, and we knew we were going to have to choose. We decided to continue with the books – I guess when you have twenty thousand books in your basement, the answer is right in front of you. We loved our book business, plus it had grown into performing, too. We were doing countless school visits inspiring children to read. That is what really touches our hearts, to be able to see these little faces in awe of our presentation – which includes the importance of reading, writing made easy, art, and how to draw. We then wrap it up with improv comedy and questions. We also do many family nights where we make it fun for the whole family. We have gotten numerous comments from the parents on how we not only inspired their children to read but that they are going to get back to reading as well. That is just so rewarding for us! 

This has led to speaking at book festivals, associations, and for libraries, and organizations. A wonderful, big surprise for us was that we were the 2021 recipients of the Gwen Frostic Award from the Michigan Reading Association. This award is only given out once a year and is for inspiring literacy for students, parents, and teachers alike. It was such an honor! The award was given to us during Covid, and we had been scheduled for our vaccines at the same time (when they were hard to get) the award was going to be presented to us virtually…so not to miss either we sat in the pharmacy parking lot on our laptop to accept the award – luckily it was presented 10 minutes before our vaccines were scheduled. 

As time went on, Darrin had gotten a job in a very creative house called ePrize, thanks to his amazing art talent. He was doing promotional work for companies like Starbucks, HBO, Lucasfilm, Dr. Pepper, and other major global brands. The company has been bought and resold a few times and now is owned by Merkle a Dentsu Corporation, and Darrin is the VP Creative Director – doing art, strategizing, and voiceovers while continuing to do our weekend shows and school visits. His big joke is that he just draws and drives place…that’s funny, but certainly not true. He does so much more. 

I continue to run our book business, dealing with printing, booking shows, speaking, billing, shipping, and last but not least – writing. We have also ventured into picture books. Our first was ‘Monster’s First Day at School,’ which is hilarious about little monsters going to school and learning how to behave. Then our second picture book, ‘Bigfoot and the Mitten’ is a bestseller. It’s humorous, it rhymes, and is about a Michigan Bigfoot looking for his mitten as he goes all over Michigan with a sassy robin looking for it. It has a very heartfelt ending. The series continues to grow with the second ‘Biggie and Birdie are Different (so what),’ Which is funny, done in dialogue, and moving – also perfect for the times. 

Our picture book ‘Monster’s First Day at School’ was the recipient of the Purple Dragonfly Award, and our newest picture book, ‘Biggie and Birdie are Different (so what), recently won the Purple Dragonfly Award for excellence in children’s literature. 

Mick is now 27, and we couldn’t be prouder. He is a graduate of LTU and is very accomplished. He is the Director of Studio Cadenza: ARIA Ventures’ creative incubator. He designs products, including FanLabel, and works with top music industry partners. He sits on the board of both The Scarab Club and Music Business Association Education Committee. Like his parents, he loves the arts and working at his dream while having a lot of fun along the way. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Is there really such a thing as a smooth road in the arts? We’re not quite sure about that. Although sometimes it may appear that way. We do think that the bumps and curves and turns are what make the ride all the more interesting and fun, and it’s what leads to fascinating destinations. We also know that you have to believe in yourself. If Darrin and I had ever listened to some of the naysayers in our lives, it would have really deterred us from pursuing our dreams. I once had a friend tell me, “I can’t believe that you of all people are a writer.” Ouch! Especially since I had been a copywriter and corporate writer for over 20 years. Darrin had a close family member tell him he would never ever be able to make a living as an artist. Even though Darrin’s artwork is phenomenal. So, you will have to block out the negative noise. Believe in yourself and stay on that road to your dream. 

These are in really tough professions, and we did struggle financially for quite a while. We are really lucky to have each other to do this together. We certainly aren’t rich – yet. But we’re happy and make sure that now, after all these years, we do carve out some time to enjoy ourselves. Even though we still work a lot – we obviously enjoy it. 

Also, there were things along the way that we had to give up. Like the big family holidays, we didn’t attend through the years because we were too exhausted from doing shows. And, at times, people were upset and wondered what was wrong with us – and I have to say – “NOTHING!” We went to the beat of our own drum, and if there was too much noise, then we played louder. We made our lives wonderful for us and our son. 

So, our best suggestion, on the way to building up our dream, career, or company, is that ‘somethings gotta give.’ Be ready for not everyone to understand or to be thrilled with your choices or with the change in you. We really feel you have to do what matters to you and do what you love to fulfill your dreams and goals. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Darrin and I have a total of 15 books out. We love our chapter books, ‘Mick Morris Myth Solver – Five Ways to Finish,’ #’s 1-6, and ‘Ghost Board Posse,’ #’s 1-3. We have now leaned more into are our picture books – ‘Monsters First Day at School,’ ‘Bigfoot and the Mitten,’ ‘Biggie and Birdie are Different (so what).’ We know a big part of them doing so well is because of their humor. We also know that a lot of our performing and comedy has really come through to influence our writing and art in all our books. I think that’s what sets us apart – coupled with our very different presentations. 

Besides the books and performing, it’s the tight family unit that the three of us are. Plus, our work ethic, staying positive despite all odds along with knowing the importance of laughter and humor. Also, not taking things too seriously. This has all led to our success in such a difficult and crowded marketplace. Especially for the book biz – without having an agent or publisher behind us. We put one foot in front of the other, knowing that there is something truly rewarding in this wild cosmic ride, so just hang on tight and enjoy it. 

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Most definitely humor and laughter. Finding the funny in everything we do. We wouldn’t be anywhere without it. Of course, we needed it when we were performing comedy and in our writing and art to make our books fun and interesting for children. Also, our school presentations and Family Nights are unique and filled with humor. But even in life in general, being able to laugh it off just makes it so much easier and so much more fun. 

There have been times when only laughter can pull us through – like the other day, we were leaving an art show, and we couldn’t get out of town because a parade was starting. It had just begun to head down Main Street, but we didn’t know it until we were in it! We ended up being the first car in front of the parade, and at that point, there was nothing we could do. So, we kept driving – very, very slowly, while waving and smiling at all of the hundreds of people lined up to see the parade. They waved and smiled back, probably wondering who the heck we were – while we drove the whole route. If any of them recognized us from the art show, then hopefully, they thought we were invited to start the parade. It was pretty hilarious – which to us equals fun. 

Even in our book business, when selling our books, throwing out some voice impersonations for the littles and seeing them laugh is so rewarding. Of course, little people are easier to make laugh. 

We truly believe, in fact, we know, that we are all born with a fantastic sense of humor, yet sad to say, somewhere along the line, many of us lose it (or at least part of it), especially lately. It really scares us the seriousness of everything. If we can’t laugh at ourselves, then we are doomed. And, if you want to make it an exciting ride, follow your dreams and laugh (out loud) while you go over the bumps and around the twists and turns. 

Pricing:

• Mick Morris Myth Solver books $6.99
• Ghost Board Posse books $6.99
• Monsters First Day at School $9.99
• Bigfoot and the Mitten $15.95
• Biggie and Birdie are Different (so what) $15.95

Contact Info:

• Website: www.karenanddarrin.com
• Instagram: @KarenandDarrin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenandDarrin/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-bell-brege-5775b77/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrin-brege-0675363a/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSMzzjeF-13CvtldzbLrVjA