Creed Bratton mixing music, comedy in Cedar Rapids show

Creed Bratton was supposed to just hang out in the background on “The Office.”

But he’s never been much of a background guy, so he wrote himself a character, a sort of alter ego, and wound up playing all nine seasons of the five-time Emmy-winning mockumentary series on NBC from 2005 to 2013.

About three seasons in, he realized he was attracting a new fan base.

“That gave me the privilege to go out and start playing my original songs for people,” Bratton, now 80, said by phone from his home in Studio City, Calif.

A multifaceted artist, his music career spans more than 60 years. He’s a veteran of touring, first as a traveling musician, hitting Africa and the Middle East, then as the lead guitarist, songwriter and vocalist with The Grass Roots in the late ’60s, fueled by such hits as “Midnight Confessions” and “Bella Linda.”

Eventually he carved out a solo career and continued recording and traveling.

He’s been all over the United States a couple of times, as well as Europe and Australia, and would like to add Asia to that list, especially Japan

COVID halted his touring, but he’s ramping up again, taking his “Cool Beans” tour of music and comedy on the road. He’ll be at the Olympic South Side Theater in Cedar Rapids on March 23, with local favorite Doug Thompson opening. The next night, Bratton will be at the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque.

He’ll back to the West Coast for shows in the spring, then in the summer, he’ll appear at various “Office” cons, where he’ll sign autographs for fans and sometimes play his music.

Onstage is where Bratton is happiest, performing live or on camera, and he’s actively recording new music and seeking new film scripts.

“I left my agent just yesterday, because things weren't moving fast enough,” he said March 1. “It's hard to be someone my age, finding scripts. You have to be up on that A-list to get good scripts.

“But I love what I do, and I have an ability to make people laugh, so I know eventually someone will throw me a good script. I have fun at it — it’s something I enjoy doing still.”

An outdoors enthusiast who grew up among the redwoods in nearby Yosemite National Park, he doesn’t feel his age, and turn to exercise, yoga and swimming to keep in shape.

Music also was a big part of his childhood, which has buoyed him through the years.

He picked up the trumpet “at a very young age,” and played it throughout high school. He also spent summers visiting his grandparents in Southern California, listening to their semi-professional country-western band rehearse and perform, watching their hands.

At 13, his grandfather showed him a few chords on the guitar, and Bratton would listen to the radio, to try to “figure it out by ear.”

“By my senior year, I started working professionally with this band up at a resort, playing guitar. Then I was off after college, touring Europe for two years. And of course, The Grass Roots,” he said.

‘The Office’

“My comedy chops — I've always been able to make people laugh. Even my high school yearbook said I was the funniest guy, so it’s something in my DNA to make people laugh. But I would say I definitely honed it on ‘The Office.’ ”

He used that funny voice churning inside his head to write his way from background player to a starring role.

“I was working on ‘The Bernie Mac Show,’ and I had this chance to go on ‘The Office.’ I wrote this character based on what would happen if Creed from The Grass Roots stayed high on drugs, which I had done for years and years.

“I thought it would be a funny character if I imagined what could have happened if I continued on that scenario, and if people thought I was high playing that character,” he said, adding that he wasn’t. “Nothing — absolutely nothing — was going on for nine years. Just working folks.

“But if you want to get tight comedies, work with Steve Carell. And Rainn Wilson and Ed Helms. I had three very, very funny people to do scenes with. And you learn — you learn and you gotta deliver. I just enjoyed the hell out it, because we just made each other laugh so much.”

One special memory is the day Carell came on set wearing a fat suit.

“The director said, ‘People — we’ve got to shoot this scene.’ The tears are really out, and we're biting the insides of our mouth. And he's relentless. He's not going to give up on us,” Bratton said, adding another favorite memory. “When he did ‘Prison Mike,’ I still get the grins.”

On those days — and many others — actually getting scenes recorded “was tough,” Bratton said. “We would break a lot. But when I'm on stage now, I'm totally at ease.”

His first comedy gig was in Boston, while “The Office” was on hiatus, and like his initial appearances on the TV show, he didn’t have any material written yet. So he just ad-libbed his way through.

He zeroed in what people were laughing at, got rid of the rest, tried new material, then figured out what was worth keeping.

“Before you know it, within a few months I had a show,” he said. “And now it just keeps growing and growing and growing. It's a fun process.”

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