Background: Whoopi Goldberg began performing at age eight in New York with the Children's Program at the Hudson guild and the Helena Rubinstein Children's Theatre.

In 1975, she moved to San Diego, where she appeared in the San Diego Repertory theatre's productions of Bertold Brecht's "Mother courage" and Marsha Norman's "Getting Out," and honed her comedic skills as part of an improvisational group called Spontaneous Combustion.

Later, she moved to the Bay Area and joined the Blake Street Hawkeyes Theatre in Berkeley, partnered with David Schein. Moving shortly into solo performances, Goldberg created "The Spook Show," which she performed in San Francisco and then toured throughout the United States and Europe.