Actor, comic, writer and podcast host Rachel Dratch will be appearing three times in Maine with the Bluebird Improv collective. She’ll be performing with fellow comics Joe Canale, Brad Morris and Marc Evan Jackson.

Each night, the show will start with a conversation with audience members to get creative juices flowing. Then it’s off to the improv races for the next hour. Every show is a one-of-a-kind experience for all involved.

Dratch is best known for her Debbie Downer and Denise McDenna characters on “Saturday Night Live,” where she was a cast member from 1999-2006. She reprised Debbie Downer for the SNL 50th anniversary show that aired live in February.

In 2023, Dratch launched the podcast Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch which explores a range of paranormal topics with a sense of humor. The Feb. 7, 2024, episode is called “Christopher Fitzgerald: The Haunted Cottage of Peaks Island.” Fitzgerald is a South Portland native and Broadway actor. During the interview, he tells Dratch and co-host Irene Bremis a childhood story about a spooky summer spent on Peaks.

Dratch jumped on a video call from her Manhattan home to answer five questions about her career.

Can you unpack your history with improv?

I moved to Chicago because I did improv in college and Second City back then was the place. It still is. Back then, it was just Chicago or L.A. as far as I knew. So you went to The Groundlings in L.A. or you went to Second City and ImprovOlympic in Chicago. My college improv group had taken a summer trip to Chicago. That’s when I was like 20 years old, and saw ImprovOlympic and saw Second City and I was like “maybe when I graduate, I’ll just come out here and just try this so I know I gave it a shot.” And then I can go and become a therapist in the suburbs of Boston. So I moved to Chicago and eventually worked my way up. Back then, I couldn’t imagine a time where I wasn’t improvising every single night. But now I don’t improvise very often at all. I still get nervous to improvise ’cause it’s the kind of thing when you’re doing it on a daily basis, you lose the fear.

What’s your favorite part of doing improv shows?

The looseness of it. Improv in general, you have to be in the moment or it doesn’t quite work. As applied to life, it’s a good life lesson. It works best when you don’t care so much, you’re not like “I better be funny tonight!” That usually doesn’t work. It’s more of being open to whatever comes up. I like that it doesn’t take a lot of preparation. It’s always fun to see what everyone else does.

In the original Debbie Downer Disney sketch, the players break and it is hilarious. Does that happen during improv shows?

People break in improv. You try not to because it’s sort of like a cheap laugh. I know that as an audience member, I always love it. Improv is even looser than being on SNL. It depends on who you’re playing with. Some people keep a straight face the whole time, some people are laughing their way through the scenes. I don’t mind either way. I guess if you were a real purist you would say don’t laugh.

How special was it to be part of the SNL 50th anniversary celebration?

It was really special. There were so many levels of how cool it was. It was one of those pinch me, I can’t believe I get to be here the whole time. There was the element of having grown up watching the show, you kind of forget you were even on it because you’re just looking around gawking at everybody. Then there’s the whole who’s who in the audience sitting right near you. Then there’s the cast reunion, people you haven’t seen in a while, people that you have lost touch with that you’re excited to see. Then there’s the performing part which is mind blowing. And then the after-party afterwards. There’s a lot of strong feelings around SNL so it was a fun night.

How long have you been into woo woo and how did you decide to do a podcast?

I don’t think I’m any more woo woo than the average gal, but anytime I hear a woo woo story I’m always fascinated by it. Of course I believe in science, but I always love a story that makes you think “maybe we don’t know absolutely everything” so I’ve always been intrigued by that sort of thing. We’ve got some good ghost stories, some psychic things, some self-actualization stuff, there’s time travel and astral projection.

IF YOU GO

Bluebird Improv

7:30 p.m. Sunday. Strand Theatre, 345 Main St., Rockland, $50. rocklandstrand.com.

7:30 p.m. Monday, July 28. Waterville Opera House, 1 Common St., $51, $61. watervillecreates.org.

7 p.m. (sold out) and 9 p.m. (tickets still available)Tuesday, July 29. Vinegar Hill Music Theatre, 53 Old Post Road, Arundel, $45-$60. vinhillmusic.com.