Martin Higgins
603-661-0168
www.martinhiggins.com
I returned from my second tour in Vietnam in 1971 and bought a Sony Port-a-Pak portable videotape recorder. I produced documentaries about California sub-cultures - hardcore surfers, Renaissance Fair enclaves, hang glider pilots, professional rodeo clowns, drag boat racers, witch covens, etc. for a decade. These short video pieces were part of the development of magazine-format television shows such as Evening Magazine.
In `81, while working as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco, I produced comedic segments for Front Row Video, a regional, weekly one-hour entertainment feature at ABC affiliate, KGO-TV.
For the next eight years I wrote produced and directed broadcast, corporate and instructional videotapes while continuing my stand-up career. I also continued writing and directing for the stage, producing live interactive performances and working as an industrial/commercial actor and voice-over talent.
In `89, I wrote and directed two Children's Films - contemporary stories that examined relationship problems through magical reality and classical archetypes.
I consulted with Sam Keen (Your Mythic Journey, Faces of the Enemy), Valerie Andrews, (Passion for the Earth, Exploring the New Partnership of Man, Woman and Nature.) and studied the works of Joseph Campbell, Robert Bly, Bruno Bettleheim and Robert A. Johnson in depth.
My first film, Magic Boat (48:00) is the story of two disaffected orphans who have a life-changing experience during an enchanted ocean voyage. The second film, Palooka (52:00), tells the story of a girl from a poor family who dreams of owning her own horse.
Both films were very well received, garnered numerous film festival awards and have had U.S., foreign and cable releases. They were subsequently sold to Shelley Duvall's Think, Inc.
I moved to Redmond, Washington in May of `97 to work as a media production contractor at Microsoft’s Main Campus. I held three positions as a tech writer, media producer and seminar presenter. My wife, Laura, was a Marketing Director for the Windows 2000 build and launch.
In 2000, I moved to San Francisco to become the Broadband Practice Leader at Red Sky Interactive, an early Online Advertising Agency. Clients included Coca Cola, Sprite, Absolut Vodka, Miller Beer, Kodak, Samsung, Sony, Wells Fargo Bank, Absolute Vodka and several Fortune 500 tech giants.
By 2003, the Dotcom bubble had been burst and I formed 53 Signal, Ltd. to independently produce online instructional programming and advertising. Our Microsoft stock provided us the opportunity to be work-at-home parents to our two daughters, then 12 and 15 years old.
We moved to Denver in 2006 and I continued producing with 53 Signal and freelancing as a voice talent and presenter.
Laura was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer in September of 2014 and I became her full-time caregiver until she died in March of 2016. I now live in New Hampshire in a lake house with my Irish Wolfhound, Sherlock.
Medallion Learning - http://www.medallionlearning.com/
Voice talent for IT instructional series MedicoLens – http://medicolens.com/index.htm
Produced surgical media instructionals
Wrote and produced “Process 101” e-magazine and ancillary materials http://www.videofreeamerica.com/KP/working_new/index_scalable.html
Round-up River Ranch – Paul Newman Charity
Produced promotional videos
Produced introductory videos for viral distribution during Colorado election
Wrote and voiced issue video for local farmers
Wrote and voiced issue video for conservationists
30+ short videos featuring West Bank Arabs and Israelis
Wrote and produced videos for RailRiders Clothing Online Catalog
Cable TV roundtable with tech pundits
Promotional videos for Otis’s concerts and seminars
Funding video
KPAX - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqSbOIkptc
San Rafael Chalk Festival
Annual Street festival
Books
Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace / Remanded to The Nam
Included in anthology by Maxine Hong Kingston for KOA Books
https://www.amazon.com/Veterans-War-Peace-Maxine-Kingston/dp/0977333833/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465677210&sr=1-1&keywords=veteran+of+war+peace
The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Republicans, Lyon’s Press
Comedy and commentary
https://www.amazon.com/Nastiest-Things-Ever-About-Republicans/dp/1592288391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465677027&sr=8-1&keywords=nastiest+republicans
The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Democrats, Lyon’s Press
Comedy and commentary
https://www.amazon.com/Nastiest-Things-Ever-About-Democrats/dp/1592289576/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=31oV0pikBSL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR272%2C320_&refRID=AT4SKCRKCN829MD0BH2Z
Magazine Articles
The Irish Invented Rap Music - Denver Celtic Connection, March 2008
https://www.facebook.com/notes/marty-higgins/the-irish-invented-rap-music-martin-higgins/379973182162222
Poor Dad - East Bay Magazine, S.F. Bay Area
http://www.martinhiggins.com/poor-dad.html
Hazardous Waste of Time - East Bay Magazine, S.F. Bay Area
http://www.martinhiggins.com/hazardous-waste-of-time.html
Veal in Vegas – Lanterloon Onluine Magazine
https://www.facebook.com/notes/marty-higgins/veal-in-vegas-by-martin-higgins-the-east-bay-monthly-1992/364458143713726
How To Keep Your Teeth - Lanterloon Onluine Magazine
https://www.facebook.com/notes/marty-higgins/how-to-keep-your-teeth-martin-higgins/371524076340466
Corporate Employment
digeo - Interface Designer
Red Sky Interactive - Broadband Strategist, Entertainment Practice Leader, Producer
Microsoft – Main Campus
Print and Online, Writer / Producer /Director
Interactive Instructional
Stay Safe Online interactive safety CD (Shaquille O’Neal, and The Boys and Girls Club)
“The best thing Microsoft has done all year!” – Bill Gates
Whitepapers / Events
Writer, Producer, Director
Rush Limbaugh in Night School – The Second Stage, NYC and The Marsh, S.F.
"Comic genius, cagily directed by Martin Higgins."
"A dazzlingly funny, dead-on-the-mark skewering of 1990's media-mad America, with a cast of precisely etched fictional characters, neatly marshaled on and off a sparely furnished stage under the attentive direction of Martin Higgins.
"Director Martin Higgins steers Varon through this performance obstacle-course with X-Acto knife acuity. Its political and social satire of the highest grade."
Beast of Shame – Climate Theater, S.F
"Damningly, the script (by Higgins, who also directed) makes Reverend Green such a winning--if demented--character that the audience is swept up in his half-witted scam chatter. The show cuts much deeper than satire."
"Higgins has written some superbly ridiculous lines here."
"The play is full of little nuggets... Higgins has a sharp sense of satirical humor."
The Weber Family Christmas – Nine year S.F. run
Dramalogue Award - Best New Work of the Year, 1991
"The four Fratelli brothers are working at the top of their manic form with the deft assistance of director and writer Higgins. They slaughter sacred cows, ridicule everything from the nuclear family to the story of the Nativity, and do it with style."
"Think of it as 'Miracle on 34th Street' as done by a gaggle of gifted clowns...directed with flair by Martin Higgins."
"The Fratelli's and Higgins have come up with something that can't help but tickle your
funnybone. It can make you laugh for a long time after the show is over--and how often does that happen?"
"Martin Higgins has lent his considerable flair for satire to shape Fratelli Bologna's zaniness into a comedic tour de force. It's a winning combination."
WinterSoldier – Life on the Water, S.F.
"WinterSoldier is a terrifying mélange of realism and surrealism--beyond ordinary theatrical reality. Superb performances and marvelous visual and sound effects."
"An aurally devastating assault of bombing raids and helicopter sound effects amid fitful scenes staged on an upstage barracks, down stage bunker, a cutaway Captain's office and the exterior of a tin-roofed hut. You cringe whenever the choppers circle or bombs start to drop overhead. The whole building seems to tremble dangerously underfoot. WinterSoldier is written in the same way it was conceived and designed--to match the overwhelming enormity of its subject."
Film
Writer, Producer, Director
Magic Boat and Palooka were featured at the Mill Valley and Denver Film Festivals. Both films were featured by Comcast as its 2007 Special Holiday programming (23M viewers)
"This may be the first time your kids will actually feel awe while watching a movie. Higgins clearly remembers what a child's imagination is like."
"A delightful and refreshing break from the glitzy, plotless children's films on the market today."
Broadcast Television
Writer, Producer, Director
Corporate Video
Writer, Producer, Director
Transamerica - Being the Best – Corporate branding video
Oracle - Computer Integrated Manufacturing – Product launch. Theatrical scripting/production
Harper San Francisco – HR recruitment videotape and point-of-sale videos
Comedy Performance
Holy City Zoo Death Night – Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron and myself – I come on at 18:00
https://vimeo.com/18751433
Sweetriver Saloon – Comedy in California’s hinterlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gBlKpGWzfE
Awards
Northern California EMMY
Gold, Silver Medals, Houston Film Festival
Multiple regional EMMY nominations
Dramalogue Award
American Film Institute Award
Osborne Award for Theatre
Mill Valley International Film Festival
Bay Guardian Best Theatrical Production
San Francisco Film Festival
Glickman Endowment for Theatre
International Children’s Film Festival - London
Bay Area Critic's Circle Award
Denver Film Festival
Cleveland Film Festival
Philadelphia International Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
Select Client List
Technology
Corporate
Government / Media
Microsoft Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Hewlett Packard Company
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Autodesk, Inc.
Transamerica Corporation
Walt Disney Corporation
Charles Schwab & Co.
Harper San Francisco
Dolby Laboratories
Levi Strauss Inc.
City of San Francisco
C/NET
ABC-TV
UPN (KBHK) - Paramount
J. Walter Thompson
In `81, while working as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco, I produced comedic segments for Front Row Video, a regional, weekly one-hour entertainment feature at ABC affiliate, KGO-TV.
For the next eight years I wrote produced and directed broadcast, corporate and instructional videotapes while continuing my stand-up career. I also continued writing and directing for the stage, producing live interactive performances and working as an industrial/commercial actor and voice-over talent.
In `89, I wrote and directed two Children's Films - contemporary stories that examined relationship problems through magical reality and classical archetypes.
I consulted with Sam Keen (Your Mythic Journey, Faces of the Enemy), Valerie Andrews, (Passion for the Earth, Exploring the New Partnership of Man, Woman and Nature.) and studied the works of Joseph Campbell, Robert Bly, Bruno Bettleheim and Robert A. Johnson in depth.
My first film, Magic Boat (48:00) is the story of two disaffected orphans who have a life-changing experience during an enchanted ocean voyage. The second film, Palooka (52:00), tells the story of a girl from a poor family who dreams of owning her own horse.
Both films were very well received, garnered numerous film festival awards and have had U.S., foreign and cable releases. They were subsequently sold to Shelley Duvall's Think, Inc.
I moved to Redmond, Washington in May of `97 to work as a media production contractor at Microsoft’s Main Campus. I held three positions as a tech writer, media producer and seminar presenter. My wife, Laura, was a Marketing Director for the Windows 2000 build and launch.
In 2000, I moved to San Francisco to become the Broadband Practice Leader at Red Sky Interactive, an early Online Advertising Agency. Clients included Coca Cola, Sprite, Absolut Vodka, Miller Beer, Kodak, Samsung, Sony, Wells Fargo Bank, Absolute Vodka and several Fortune 500 tech giants.
By 2003, the Dotcom bubble had been burst and I formed 53 Signal, Ltd. to independently produce online instructional programming and advertising. Our Microsoft stock provided us the opportunity to be work-at-home parents to our two daughters, then 12 and 15 years old.
We moved to Denver in 2006 and I continued producing with 53 Signal and freelancing as a voice talent and presenter.
Laura was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer in September of 2014 and I became her full-time caregiver until she died in March of 2016. I now live in New Hampshire in a lake house with my Irish Wolfhound, Sherlock.
- Principal of award-winning corporate video / film / live event production company
- Managed production budgets up to $2M.and supervised creative teams of 70 people
- Published author, experienced editor - exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills
- Lead technical writer, script writer, and video production for Paul Allen’s digeo.
- Microsoft Main Campus: Lead technical writer, script writer, and video production
- Skilled interviewer, accomplished public speaker / speechwriter / stand-up comedian
Medallion Learning - http://www.medallionlearning.com/
Voice talent for IT instructional series MedicoLens – http://medicolens.com/index.htm
Produced surgical media instructionals
- Sampler - http://medicolens.com/sampler.htm
Wrote and produced “Process 101” e-magazine and ancillary materials http://www.videofreeamerica.com/KP/working_new/index_scalable.html
Round-up River Ranch – Paul Newman Charity
Produced promotional videos
- Testimonials - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFA8Gbs-hXA
Produced introductory videos for viral distribution during Colorado election
- Tom’s Plan - https://vimeo.com/130356762
- Why I’m Running - https://vimeo.com/130356765
Wrote and voiced issue video for local farmers
- A New Crop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jei8QSPVY7Q
Wrote and voiced issue video for conservationists
- Coal Creek Coalition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbQcrBxLr0g
30+ short videos featuring West Bank Arabs and Israelis
- Palestinian Doctor - https://vimeo.com/137759548
- Israeli Surgeon - https://vimeo.com/137759551
Wrote and produced videos for RailRiders Clothing Online Catalog
- TOMA Tribal Outreach Medical Assistance – https://vimeo.com/42252700
Cable TV roundtable with tech pundits
- C|NET Insiders - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU6boTKrTVU
Promotional videos for Otis’s concerts and seminars
- Trance Blues Festival - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qcm6FUelyzY
- Boulder Mega-Jam - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0YLlK6hDkU
- First Flight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm4aWKrqvLE
Funding video
KPAX - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqSbOIkptc
San Rafael Chalk Festival
Annual Street festival
Books
Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace / Remanded to The Nam
Included in anthology by Maxine Hong Kingston for KOA Books
https://www.amazon.com/Veterans-War-Peace-Maxine-Kingston/dp/0977333833/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465677210&sr=1-1&keywords=veteran+of+war+peace
The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Republicans, Lyon’s Press
Comedy and commentary
https://www.amazon.com/Nastiest-Things-Ever-About-Republicans/dp/1592288391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465677027&sr=8-1&keywords=nastiest+republicans
The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Democrats, Lyon’s Press
Comedy and commentary
https://www.amazon.com/Nastiest-Things-Ever-About-Democrats/dp/1592289576/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=31oV0pikBSL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR272%2C320_&refRID=AT4SKCRKCN829MD0BH2Z
Magazine Articles
The Irish Invented Rap Music - Denver Celtic Connection, March 2008
https://www.facebook.com/notes/marty-higgins/the-irish-invented-rap-music-martin-higgins/379973182162222
Poor Dad - East Bay Magazine, S.F. Bay Area
http://www.martinhiggins.com/poor-dad.html
Hazardous Waste of Time - East Bay Magazine, S.F. Bay Area
http://www.martinhiggins.com/hazardous-waste-of-time.html
Veal in Vegas – Lanterloon Onluine Magazine
https://www.facebook.com/notes/marty-higgins/veal-in-vegas-by-martin-higgins-the-east-bay-monthly-1992/364458143713726
How To Keep Your Teeth - Lanterloon Onluine Magazine
https://www.facebook.com/notes/marty-higgins/how-to-keep-your-teeth-martin-higgins/371524076340466
Corporate Employment
digeo - Interface Designer
- Produced User Interface Prototype Demo – writer, designer
- Provided technical writing, script writing, and video production for BOB Interface
- Wrote and collaborated on design proposal and implementation material
Red Sky Interactive - Broadband Strategist, Entertainment Practice Leader, Producer
- Led a team of eight in the Broadband Practice
- Researched broadband industry, developed competitive strategies
- Created prototype projects for broadband convergence
- Created broadband projects: ecommerce, broadcast, and game platforms
- Represented Red Sky to strategic alliance partners
- Led client interaction, including proposal and pitch development, client presentations
- Presented at various technology conferences on the emergence of broadband technologies
Microsoft – Main Campus
Print and Online, Writer / Producer /Director
Interactive Instructional
Stay Safe Online interactive safety CD (Shaquille O’Neal, and The Boys and Girls Club)
“The best thing Microsoft has done all year!” – Bill Gates
Whitepapers / Events
- Accessibility and Section 508 Regulations - Microsoft seminar
- Windows 2000 Platform - brochure copy
- Electronic Fires and Digital Storytelling - FCC presentation
- Accessible Futures - Microsoft / Star Wars live event
- Microsoft Windows Guidelines for Accessible Software Design
- Accessibility Requirements for Microsoft Windows Logo Program
- Section 508 Compliance Guide for Microsoft Product Groups
- Microsoft’s Migration to Exchange Server
- Microsoft’s Multicast / ATM Deployment and Development of Media Player.
Writer, Producer, Director
Rush Limbaugh in Night School – The Second Stage, NYC and The Marsh, S.F.
"Comic genius, cagily directed by Martin Higgins."
- Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner
"A dazzlingly funny, dead-on-the-mark skewering of 1990's media-mad America, with a cast of precisely etched fictional characters, neatly marshaled on and off a sparely furnished stage under the attentive direction of Martin Higgins.
- Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
"Director Martin Higgins steers Varon through this performance obstacle-course with X-Acto knife acuity. Its political and social satire of the highest grade."
- Dennis Harvey, Bay Guardian
Beast of Shame – Climate Theater, S.F
"Damningly, the script (by Higgins, who also directed) makes Reverend Green such a winning--if demented--character that the audience is swept up in his half-witted scam chatter. The show cuts much deeper than satire."
- Curt Morgan, The Daily Review
"Higgins has written some superbly ridiculous lines here."
- Scott Rosenberg, San Francisco Examiner
"The play is full of little nuggets... Higgins has a sharp sense of satirical humor."
- Bernard Wiener, San Francisco Chronicle
The Weber Family Christmas – Nine year S.F. run
Dramalogue Award - Best New Work of the Year, 1991
"The four Fratelli brothers are working at the top of their manic form with the deft assistance of director and writer Higgins. They slaughter sacred cows, ridicule everything from the nuclear family to the story of the Nativity, and do it with style."
- Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner
"Think of it as 'Miracle on 34th Street' as done by a gaggle of gifted clowns...directed with flair by Martin Higgins."
- David Armstrong, San Francisco Examiner
"The Fratelli's and Higgins have come up with something that can't help but tickle your
funnybone. It can make you laugh for a long time after the show is over--and how often does that happen?"
- Bernard Wiener, San Francisco Chronicle
"Martin Higgins has lent his considerable flair for satire to shape Fratelli Bologna's zaniness into a comedic tour de force. It's a winning combination."
- Greg Cahill, Marin Independent-Journal
WinterSoldier – Life on the Water, S.F.
"WinterSoldier is a terrifying mélange of realism and surrealism--beyond ordinary theatrical reality. Superb performances and marvelous visual and sound effects."
- Harriet Swift, Oakland Tribune
"An aurally devastating assault of bombing raids and helicopter sound effects amid fitful scenes staged on an upstage barracks, down stage bunker, a cutaway Captain's office and the exterior of a tin-roofed hut. You cringe whenever the choppers circle or bombs start to drop overhead. The whole building seems to tremble dangerously underfoot. WinterSoldier is written in the same way it was conceived and designed--to match the overwhelming enormity of its subject."
- Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
Film
Writer, Producer, Director
- Magic Boat (35mm, trt: 50:00, Live Action Adventure) - United States Representative, and winner of International Children's Film Festival, London
- Palooka (35mm, trt: 52:00, Family Drama)
Magic Boat and Palooka were featured at the Mill Valley and Denver Film Festivals. Both films were featured by Comcast as its 2007 Special Holiday programming (23M viewers)
"This may be the first time your kids will actually feel awe while watching a movie. Higgins clearly remembers what a child's imagination is like."
- Joanna Connor, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A delightful and refreshing break from the glitzy, plotless children's films on the market today."
- Jamie Starratt, Eureka Times-Standard
Broadcast Television
Writer, Producer, Director
- Alex Bennett’s Wired Again! – Comedy Special for UPN, KBHK, S.F.
- Front Row Video – Comedy segments, ABC affiliate S.F.
- Goodtime Cafe – Comedy segments, A&E Network
- San Francisco Hot Rock – ABC, affiliate music-video show with Bob Goldthwaite
Corporate Video
Writer, Producer, Director
Transamerica - Being the Best – Corporate branding video
Oracle - Computer Integrated Manufacturing – Product launch. Theatrical scripting/production
Harper San Francisco – HR recruitment videotape and point-of-sale videos
Comedy Performance
Holy City Zoo Death Night – Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron and myself – I come on at 18:00
https://vimeo.com/18751433
Sweetriver Saloon – Comedy in California’s hinterlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gBlKpGWzfE
Awards
Northern California EMMY
Gold, Silver Medals, Houston Film Festival
Multiple regional EMMY nominations
Dramalogue Award
American Film Institute Award
Osborne Award for Theatre
Mill Valley International Film Festival
Bay Guardian Best Theatrical Production
San Francisco Film Festival
Glickman Endowment for Theatre
International Children’s Film Festival - London
Bay Area Critic's Circle Award
Denver Film Festival
Cleveland Film Festival
Philadelphia International Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
Select Client List
Technology
Corporate
Government / Media
Microsoft Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Hewlett Packard Company
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Autodesk, Inc.
Transamerica Corporation
Walt Disney Corporation
Charles Schwab & Co.
Harper San Francisco
Dolby Laboratories
Levi Strauss Inc.
City of San Francisco
C/NET
ABC-TV
UPN (KBHK) - Paramount
J. Walter Thompson