He has served as a theater teacher, director, writer, and producer. Warshauer originally came to the area to help restore the State Street Theater in New Ulm. He has produced nearly 500 murder mysteries through his company, Murder4Fun.

However, one of Warshauer’s longest-lasting contributions to the theatre world was co-founding The Mee-Ow Show in 1974.

The Mee-Ow Show is an improv and sketch comedy show that ran at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, since 1974. It has the distinction of being the longest-running university student-written and produced improv, sketch comedy, and music show in the United States.

In honor of the show’s 50th anniversary, Warshauer decided to publish a book covering the show’s entire history. Along with co-writer Joseph B. Radding, Warshauer has chronicled five decades worth of history in the book “The Mee-Ow Show At 50,” that hit bookshelves last month.

Paul Warshauer stands with some of the memorabilia created created for The Mee-Ow Show, an improv and sketch comedy show he co-founded 50 years ago at Northwestern University. In honor of the show’s 50th anniversary, Warshauer has co-authored a book on the shows history.

The book’s subtitle: “From Cultural Rebellion to Comedy Institution” summarizes the origins and legacy of “The Mee-Ow Show.”

“We were fighting the status quo,” Warshauer said in describing his involvement with the show. The idea behind the show was to parody the longstanding student-run show at Northwestern University. The goal was to challenge the old institute at the college. The irony is in challenging those institutes they created a new comedy institute that continues to this day.

Warshauer said his involvement with The Mee-Ow Show began in the fall of 1974. He was a sophomore at Northwestern University and was approached by senior Josh Lazar about creating a new revue-style show at the university.

“At the time this idea was considered rebellious,” Warshauer said. This was because Northwestern already had a longstanding theatrical production called “Waa-Mu,” (an abbreviation of Women’s Athletic Association and the Men’s Union).

Waa-Mu was founded in 1929 by undergraduates, but by 1974 there were many at the school who felt the show was stale.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of The Mee-Ow Show, Paul Warshauer co-authored a book on the show's history. Warshauer was a co-founder of the show

Lazar said he believed the show was stiffing student talents and ignoring the cultural revolution going on since the earlier 60s. The Waa-Mu shows featured safe sketches that were outdated.

Warshauer said Waa-Mu also failed to give writers a chance to see their ideas on stage. Writers would submit ideas to Waa-Mu and then a director would take the idea, re-write it, and the final product often did not resemble the writer’s original intent.

“We wanted writers to have an input in the final production,” Warshauer said. With this in mind, they created a new revue show in opposition to Waa-Mu.

The Mee-Ow Show was named as a parody of Waa-Mu, but also to reference Northwestern’s mascot, the Wildcat.

The first Mee-Ow Show was held on a tight budget. The production was allowed to use the new McCormick stage on campus. Since the building was new, the lighting was not fully setup yet. Warshauer issued purchase orders to rewire the building. The university later billed him $1,700 for the extra expense.

The first Mee-Ow Show included a variety of sketch comedy and music. Highlights of the show were a sketch about how squirrels on Northwestern’s campus were more prosperous than other squirrels as a satire of the wealthy background of many alumni. A sketch called “A Night in the Watergate,” reimagined “A Night of the Opera” with Groucho Marx as Richard Nixon. The comedy would have been relevant as Nixon was only a few months away from resigning.

The first Mee-Ow Show was a mixed success. The show was well attended, but it courted controversy, in part because it dared to satirize Waa-Mu. Warshauer said there was also the ongoing controversy about the $1,700 he was charged for re-wirng the hall.

Warshauer remembers some of his friends creating buttons that read: “Free the Warshauer $1,700.” He still has some of these buttons in his office.

Warshauer said after the first Mee-Ow Show, there was no guarantee of a second show the next year. Many of the students behind the show graduated the following year. Lazar graduated and Warshauer left Northwestern University in Feb. 1975. If the Mee-Ow Show was to survive, younger students would need to pick up the torch. As it turns out, that’s exactly what happened.

Each year, new students would take on the call to carry on The Mee-Ow Show.

“It became a tradition,” Warshauer said.

Over the years, the show moved further towards comedy shows, but some musical elements have remained. One of the impressive aspects of The Mee-Ow Show is it turned out to be ahead of its time. The first show was held in April 1974, over a year before the first episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

The Mee-Ow Show was doing sketch comedy, political satire, and musical entertainment before it became mainstream.

Warshauer said there were multiple students who worked on The Mee-Ow Show who went on to work for Saturday Night Live or The Second City. Mee-Ow Show alumni includes notable performers Ana Gasteyer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kristen Schaal, Dermot Mulroney and Seth Meyers.

Meyers, who is the current host of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers wrote the forward to Warshauer and Radding’s book.

In the forward, Meyers said The Mee-Ow Show changed his life. It was through The Mee-Ow Show that he first saw improv performance. All through college he auditioned to be in the show and was cast in it during his senior year. It was after performing in the show that Meyers decided to take up comedy for a living.

Warshauer said in addition to comedians, The Mee-Ow Show was the starting point for many industry writers and directors, many of whom shared their fond memories of the show for the book.

Warshauer said the original idea for the book came up during the 40th anniversary celebration of The Mee-Ow Show. He has archiving information on the show since 2000, but Warshauer realized he would need help from another writer. He found Joseph Radding, who was one of the original graphic designers for The Mee-Ow Show.

Over the last five years, Warshauer and Radding were able to collect many interviews with alumni from the show to create their book. The book is divided into six different eras to show changes in the show over the years.

“The Mee-Ow Show At 50,” was officially released last month on Oct. 15 by Northwestern University Press. Warshauer said the book is an Amazon bestseller in the theater history section. He admits it is an extremely niche category, but like the Mee-Ow Show itself, there is room for the legacy to grow.