"It all went downhill from there."

So said actor Nate Kushner (junior-English) in regard to his first audition with No Refund Theatre. He tried out for the theater group during the 1999 Fall Semester and was cast after his first audition.

"They are sorry now," Kushner said.

Kushner has been involved with NRT for a total of 13 shows over a period of two-and-a-half years. He said he only acted a bit in high school, and really started acting once in NRT.

"I was not expecting anything to happen except it being a fun audition," he said.

Kushner draws inspiration from a variety of sources.

"I am impressed with Edward Norton," he said. "Steve Martin, but he has done more for my writing than anything else." Kushner also dropped the name of Tenacious D member and actor Jack Black.

Kushner is excited to play the part of Schmendiman in the upcoming No Refund production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

"(The character) will remind people of Steve Martin's old stand-up act," Kushner said. "He is so ridiculously confident without anything to back it up."

Besides being a dedicated member of NRT, Kushner also writes songs of a "ribald and naughty nature." Tonight, Kushner will be performing these songs in between sets of NRT's improvisation theater.

He mentioned the song "A Farewell to Balls" as an example of his comedic work.

"In the song I lose my testicles in interesting and amusing circumstances," Kushner said. "Also, somehow I have four of them."

Tonight's performance might bring about the debut of a new song that Kushner has been working on: "Ninjas on a Fishing Trip."

"It's a really sad song based on a stupid idea," he said. "It's a really tragic song that just happens to be about ninjas on a fishing trip."

Kushner's been a songwriter for several years, and he got started right in his own home.

"My dad is a songwriter in his spare time," he said. "There was always lots of guitars around the house."

Kushner said he used to pick up the guitar and play around, but it didn't really click until he was about 14.

"The first song I wrote was the "Pudding Song," he said. "I wrote it over lunch with a friend of mine when I was 17, a senior in high school."

The song is a monologue about pudding with some singing parts. Kushner and his friend were waiting to go on stage at an open mic night when they started rehearsing with a band that was friends of his, and "Pudding Song" was born.

"Suddenly, I was like, 'Wow! I can do this and people will laugh.' It all went downhill from there," he said.

Inspirations for his songs come from where he can get them, Kushner said. He cited such influences as Andy Breckman, Stan Rogers and Michael Smith.

One musician that Kushner aspires to is Leo Kottke.

Kottke is an amazing finger-style guitarist, Kushner said.

"(He's) crazy. For one guitar, you could swear he has a band with him," he said. "I managed to learn two pieces by Kottke but when I play them they are horrible, bastardized versions."

Students can expect Kushner to play many of his own songs along with some covers of his favorite artists. Students shouldn't rule out Kushner trying out a Kottke song either. "It is a comedy show," he said.

Yet, songwriting and acting are only two-thirds of his talent.

Kushner has also written a couple of plays. He helped to write the play Jesus, the Missing Years with fellow NRT members Luke Davin (senior-film and video and theatre) and Mike Still (junior-philosophy and political science).

He also wrote The Karl is Dead Show, which was performed by NRT in September.

"A lot of the funny songwriters get into my brain when I am writing plays," Kushner said of his scripts' inspirations, calling attention to Martin, Tom Robbins and Richard Brautigan.

Currently, Kushner is working on a script for a play to be performed in the spring by NRT.

Sic Semper or Other Than that Mrs. Lincoln, How was the play? is going to focus on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln intertwined with the stories of John Wilkes Booth and the theater troupe.

"It's more ambitious than anything I've tried to write before," Kushner said.

He said the complexity of the script is in the mixing of the different comedy styles.

The play that was being performed while Lincoln was shot was a farce, he said. The dialogue between Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln will remind the audience of Samuel Beckett's work, he added, and the show put on by the cast will be sitcom-like.

"Conflicts occur when the different comedy styles intrude on each other," Kushner explained.

"Of course, all of this could change before I am done with it," he said with a laugh.