From BMU to Celery Man: Alan Bisson Finds Joy in Making People Laugh

By Joshua Smith

Alan Bisson, a Blue Mountain Union School graduate, Bisson is the creator of “Celery Man.” (Courtesy Photo)

There is a certain kind of courage in being willing to look a little ridiculous.

For Alan Bisson, a 1990 graduate of Blue Mountain Union School, that courage has involved poetry, live performance, social media and, more recently, getting hit in the face with pies, ranch dressing, peanut butter and other assorted food by a stalk of celery.

Bisson is the creator of “Celery Man,” a comedy character that has attracted an audience well beyond Vermont. His short-form videos have earned millions of views and tens of thousands of followers, with viewers tuning in from across the United States and around the world.

The videos are brief, strange and intentionally silly, but behind the comedy is something more heartfelt: a man who enjoys making people laugh and who has rediscovered his own creative voice through poetry and performance.

“Celery Man is a comedy character who lives with celery,” Bisson said. “And Celery has his own mind. He talks. He has a mind of his own and he likes to hit me in the face with pies and, you know, anything — ketchup, ranch dressing, peanut butter, you name it, and it’s going in my face.”

The character began almost accidentally. Bisson had gone on a diet and found himself eating a lot of celery. As a poet, he decided to write about it.

“I decided to write a poem about celery and a lot of people liked it,” he said. “So I put out another one and it just started evolving. And then all of a sudden I’m on TikTok getting millions of views. It’s crazy.”

What started as a simple creative experiment soon became something much bigger.

Bisson said his TikTok audience had grown to roughly 53,000 followers, with viewers coming from Greece, Australia, Canada and many other places. He has also been recognized locally by people who know him only as Celery Man.

“It’s so much fun to walk into a Maplefields store and everybody knows me and I don’t know them,” he said.

Still, Bisson said the most meaningful part is not the follower count or viral attention. It is hearing from people who say the videos made them smile.

“I’m just glad that I can make people’s days,” he said.

Some viewers have told him they look forward to seeing the videos when they are having a difficult day. Others simply appreciate the silliness.

That sense of joy seems to be at the center of what Bisson is doing. There is also a certain bravery in it.

Posting comedy online means taking a chance. There is no guarantee people will understand the joke or enjoy what you create. Bisson said he gets some negative comments along with the positive ones, but he keeps making the videos.

He has always enjoyed humor and said people have encouraged him to try stand-up comedy over the years. The thought of performing in that setting, however, made him nervous.

Celery Man became another way to perform.

“This is my opportunity to do that behind the scenes,” he said. “It’s just me and the camera.”

That creative courage goes back much further than social media. Bisson’s love of poetry began during his senior year at Blue Mountain Union. In English class, he watched Dead Poets Society and immediately connected with it.

“I was hooked instantly,” he said.

He started keeping a notebook beside his bed. Sometimes he would wake up at one or two in the morning and write whatever came to him.

“Maybe it was something I dreamt or whatever, and I would just write this whole poem,” he said.

Then, like it does for many people, life took over. Bisson served in the Army, married and spent roughly 20 years living in Colorado Springs. He said he went about 30 years without seriously writing poetry. When he returned to Vermont in 2019, something changed.

He began writing again. “That’s when I realized, dang, I actually can write really well,” he said.

Bisson describes his poetry and songwriting as somewhat “Bob Dylan-ish,” with hidden meanings and layers beneath the surface. He also credits being back in rural Vermont with helping him reconnect to that creative side.

“There’s just something about being in the woods,” he said. “This is where I find peace and solace. It’s easier to write here than in the city.”

One of the most meaningful moments in his return to poetry came when he wrote about the Blue Mountain English teacher who had inspired him years earlier.

He decided to perform the poem at a live reading in Providence, Rhode Island. He was nervous enough that he asked to go first. Then he got on stage and read. The response was a standing ovation.

“That really excited me a lot,” Bisson said. “And that got me to start writing more and more and more.”

That moment says a lot about the larger story behind Celery Man.

Confidence does not always come before the risk. Sometimes it comes afterward.

Sometimes courage means stepping onto a stage while you are nervous. Sometimes it means returning to a creative passion after 30 years away. Sometimes it means posting a strange 15-second video and accepting that not everyone is going to understand it. Bisson has done all three.

The Celery Man videos are generally 10 to 15 seconds long and are often improvised. His theater background helps him make quick choices and connect with an audience in a very short amount of time.

Not everything goes according to plan.

In one video, the tripod holding his phone began collapsing in the middle of the scene, forcing Bisson to grab it while staying in character. Viewers praised the “cameraman.” Bisson was the cameraman.

Another early video involving whipped cream required three attempts because he kept making mistakes.

“I forget to yell ‘Celery Man’ at the end, or I go to hit my face and I miss my whole head,” he said.

Then there is the cleanup.

Bisson sometimes prerecords several videos in one night, meaning multiple showers between takes. He estimates that the series has gone through somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 to 300 bunches of celery.

The character continues to evolve. During the first season, the celery did not talk. In the second season, it does. Fans now send Bisson ideas for new characters, including suggestions that broccoli should join the cast.

There is also merchandise, autograph signings and a growing presence on Cameo, where Bisson records personalized greetings, roasts, birthday messages and anniversary videos.

But he is quick to point out that Celery Man is only one part of who he is.

“I want them to realize that I’m a real person,” he said. “I’m not a celery man. I’m actually a nurse. I’m a veteran of a foreign war. I’ve done a lot of things in my life for people, and I’m not that character in real life. That’s just a character.”

His poetry is now beginning to return to his online presence as well. In a way, the whole story has come full circle. A poem about celery helped create Celery Man, and Celery Man may now introduce thousands of people to the poetry Bisson has carried with him since his Blue Mountain days.

He also believes there is something about rural life that encourages people to be inventive.

“We in the country have to find our own fun,” he said.

That may be one reason Celery Man feels so at home here. There is no large production crew, no elaborate studio and no team of writers. There is Bisson, a phone, a tripod, a sense of humor and a willingness to try something unusual.

When asked whether people need more harmless weirdness in the world, Bisson did not hesitate.

“Absolutely.”

There is a larger lesson in that answer. Not everyone needs to make celery videos, but perhaps more people could use the courage behind them.

The courage to write the poem. The courage to share the idea. The courage to return to something you once loved. The courage to make something simply because it brings you joy.

Most of all, the courage to be yourself without waiting for everyone else to approve.

“If you’re laughing, life is good,” Bisson said.

That may be the best explanation for why Celery Man works.

It is ridiculous, but it is sincere. It is silly, but it comes from a real desire to make people happy. For now, Bisson plans to keep writing, keep creating and keep seeing where the character takes him.

If you could use a little more laughter in your day, look for Alan Bisson on Facebook, Celery Man on TikTok, and Alan’s personalized videos on Cameo.

And when you do, look beyond the celery. There is a poet there, too. More importantly, there is a reminder that sometimes the thing you are nervous to share with the world is exactly the thing that may bring somebody else joy. So write the poem. Try the idea. Make the thing.

And do not be afraid to be yourself.