‘The Monkees’: Micky Dolenz Followed Mike Nesmith ‘Into the Trenches’ for Improv Scenes

Before scoring a role on The Monkees, musician and actor Micky Dolenz was “pretty uncomfortable” with doing improv. However, once he met his co-star Mike Nesmith, he eventually “followed him into the trenches” of improvised scenes.

When they auditioned, Dolenz had experience in television acting that Nesmith didn’t. However, Nesmith was “very good at improv right from the get-go,” Dolenz said. So, he just followed his lead.

Micky Dolenz was on a television show before ‘The Monkees’

Long before he was a Monkee, Dolenz joined the series Circus Boy when he was around 10 years old. “It was Mom who told me about the audition,” he recalled (The Sydney Morning Herald). “My mother was the one who would come with me on set every day, and my grandmother remained at home and took care of my sisters.”

While filming Circus Boy, Dolenz worked with a private tutor and noted, “I had a different sort of upbringing in that sense, but Mom always made sure I was engaged in education, even though I was acting.”

“My tutor was great,” Dolenz shared. “She was so good that I skipped a few grades after that.”

Dolenz was in Los Angeles studying architecture when the audition to join The Monkees came up. He was 19 and “went for it,” he said. However, despite acting experience and private tutoring for education, one part of the audition process made him a little nervous: improvisation.

Micky Dolenz followed Mike Nesmith ‘into the trenches’ of improv for ‘The Monkees’

Dolenz reflected on the audition process for The Monkees while talking to Forbes, noting that “it went on for quite a long time” and was “longer than the normal television series.”

“… You had to do scene study, a screen test, and a bit of improvisation — which I was pretty uncomfortable with, frankly,” Dolenz shared, explaining he was used to “showing up, doing [his] lines, and moving on.”

On the other hand, Nesmith lacked television experience but was “very good at improv right from the get-go,” Dolenz recalled. “So I kind of followed him into the trenches.” 

They worked so well together that they even “joked” back then about eventually having a two-person show, Dolenz told Goldmine Magazine. He shared, “… We really got along in so many ways, especially when it came to comedy, where we had a really good mix, a good dynamic between us.”

Micky Dolenz lost ‘a dear friend and partner’ when Mike Nesmith died

After Mike Nesmith died of heart failure in December 2021, Dolenz paid tribute to his longtime companion on social media.

“I’ve lost a dear friend and partner,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best — singing, laughing, and doing shtick.”

He added, “I’ll miss it all so much.  Especially the shtick.”