Jill Bartlett has taken her class clown routine from Highland High School to the nation's television screens.
The Highland native can now be seen on the Comedy Central cable network's "American Body Shop" series.
Bartlett discovered her love of performing and making people laugh as a student in Highland. In spite of that, acting had to take a back seat to athletics. A three-sport athlete at Highland High School, Bartlett was a standout on the school's softball team.
Her skills on the field earned Bartlett a softball scholarship to Valparaiso University, where she minored in theater. Once again, the demands of athletics prevented her from performing in any productions at VU.
"I got to go away to college because of being an athlete. It was such a demanding schedule that we played that I couldn't be in any of the plays there.
"We played something like 50 games. Sometimes I had to miss classes because of games," Bartlett said.
Following college, Bartlett made a go of working at a regular job, but found it unsatisfying. So, she began to attend classes at Chicago's renowned Second City. There she discovered the art of improvised comedy and developed a core group of friends that she continues to work with in Los Angeles.
Bartlett and a number of her Second City alum pals have formed an improvisational comedy troupe, Dry Hump Comedy, that has received a great deal of attention in Los Angeles.
According to Bartlett, the team of Chicago transplants has recently been tapped by NBC to create a spec pilot for the network for a potential late-night series.
Meanwhile, she can be found on Comedy Central's "American Body Shop." Bartlett plays Denise, the office manager of a body shop manned by a group of misfits.
She describes the show as a cross between "Taxi" and "The Office."
"It's the most fun that I've ever had in my life," she said about working on the series. "It's the most fun I've ever had and I've learned so much about acting and especially about acting to the camera."
"American Body Shop" did not come out of the gate with huge ratings but, according to Bartlett, the series has seen its ratings rise recently, making it more likely to be picked up for a second season.
"The show has a cult following already. Our ratings up to this week were not what we expected but this week (we) learned that our ratings are up by 50 percent," Bartlett said.
Another sign of the show's increasing popularity is that re-runs will be shown on the Spike cable network.
With "American Body Shop," Bartlett's profile has risen dramatically. She is dealing with her first taste of real show biz celebrity and has been pleased by the reaction of the folks back home.
"It's cool to see that people are not like, oh, she's gone Hollywood.' They are like oh, it's great to see Jill acting like an idiot on TV like she used to do in class,'" Bartlett said.
