Dave Maher's journey to Cleveland began in Chicago, where he honed his skills in improv and sketch comedy at renowned institutions such as The Second City, iO, and The Annoyance. He also studied Meisner technique at The Artistic Home, laying the foundation for his future work.
Maher's improv experience led him to perform with various teams, including K.C. Redheart, Computer, and Sports Team. He found a comedy home at the independent Upstairs Gallery, where he began to develop his unique voice.
In 2013, Maher started his stand-up career, but his journey took an unexpected turn in 2014 when he fell into a month-long coma. During this time, the Chicago comedy scene paid tribute to him on Facebook, and this experience inspired him to create the Dave Maher Coma Show.
The show premiered at Steppenwolf, The Annoyance, and the Cincy Fringe Festival, as well as various bars, black boxes, and punk houses across the United States. In 2018, Maher took the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he studied with the legendary experimental theatre ensemble The Neo-Futurists.
This encounter opened his eyes to the vast possibilities in solo theatre, and he began to blend stand-up, storytelling, improvisation, and performance art to tackle topics such as death, disability, grief, and apocalypse with candor and mischief.
In 2019, Maher brought his one-man show Feed Wolf Ice Cream: A Comedy Show in the Afterlife to Edinburgh, and in 2023, he debuted Here to Make Friends at The Neo-Futurist Theater, inspired by his experience watching 40 seasons of Survivor during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine.
In addition to his solo work, Maher has acted on Season One of FX's The Bear and shared his coma story on This American Life. He is also passionate about audio, producing and hosting the death-and-transformation interview podcast This Is Your Afterlife and the movie podcast Genre Reveal Party!
Maher is excited to call Cleveland home, where he can apply his DIY ethic to work that honors his values of community, experimentation, and liberation. When he's not working on his next project, you can find him scouring CD stores for the perfect addition to his collection or searching for the ultimate chili movie.
