One of the greatest pleasures of last year’s inaugural Portland Sketchfest was the arrival of Nacho Gold, a troupe of sharp comedic minds from former members of the beloved local sketch outfit the 3rd Floor—including radio personality Ted Douglass, improv wizard Jason Rouse, and Huffington Post contributor Lori Ferraro. The group is kicking off a new show this week at the Siren Theater, tackling such hard-hitting subjects as chili dogs, baby teeth, and children’s television. We caught up with Douglass to talk about this semi-new troupe.
MERCURY: Nacho Gold was born out of your previous sketch group, the 3rd Floor. How did you get started?
TED DOUGLASS: The 3rd Floor was around for 20 years and we put that to bed in the summer of 2016. A few months later, the cast of the last 3rd Floor show—the final run, which ended in December 2015—got together, and we just got to chatting and sketch ideas started coming up. We decided then that this particular group of people had a great time putting a show together, so why not continue?
How do you put together a show like this?