John Herman is a charging ball of energy, and oddly enough an effective one. He's a comedian, cartoonist, filmmaker, music producer, teacher, show host, director, voice performer, writer and a few other assorted things -- often more than one at a time.

"My reaction to this guy was, he's crazy," says Tim Gaudreau, Seacoast-based eco artist. Gaudreau heard of Herman when someone at the Forest Society handed on a letter he'd sent looking for a partner or sponsor for an installation art idea.

"I got that letter. It blew me away," says Gaudreau. "How many people have such guts to do something so completely out of the ordinary and go with it. He thinks big and follows through, how can you not love that?"

Gaudreau and Herman are now working on the piece. It was inspired by an environmental project Herman had heard of, "(that) will get people to better recognize their native environment," says Herman. It will include music, a tour, a video game with live trees, and a comic book by Herman, "If we can pull it off." Whatever it is, it will be unveiled Labor Day weekend.

Gaudreau says he's glad he answered that "insane" request and connected with Herman. "There are very few people we meet that really make things happen. He can make the connection between people. He's a whirlwind of energy." Currently, and generally, the improv group Stranger Than Fiction is Herman's public focus, with the Tribe Players, the mainstage group of Tribe Theater, Boston, his second. He's played a mix of director, performer and producer for the two.

Noah Sheola is a Stranger co-member and friend who says he knows the serious Herman. Whatever they're involved in, Herman wants to see it done bigger and better. "He makes it so we're not satisfied with little things," he says. While all the members took part in creating the company's Camprov, an improv retreat and festival, Herman played a large role in making it happen.

"He thinks big, and that's representative of that kind of thing," says Sheola. "Importantly he's been really integral to building up Stranger... We wouldn't be where we are today without him."

Herman figures he's produced somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 groups. Last year he juggled as many as five at a time, in the past seven to 10.

"I whittled it down to Stranger and Tribe mainstream, after I realized I was getting married." His wedding is this month. " After that - the flood gates are open." He's already in talks with Neutrino, a national group. Chances are he'll be signing on for a six-month stint as its producer.

Speaking from the Players' Ring, just before Stranger's Tuesday Night Improv gig Herman explains Neutrino, talking at hyper speed. After slowing him down some, and after a few heavily involved explanations, he gets to the meat of it. Neutrino is an innovative group that creates improv movies during its shows, "I'm excited to get involved with that."

It's not uncommon for Herman to get on a roll, especially when the discussion is on plans or the work of other artists. He's a little more tempered when talking from his Exeter home at 9:30 p.m., after a rehearsal. But only a little. A University of New Hampshire grad, with a master's degree in education, Herman teaches at Epping High School. He's taken the summer off to prepare the garden for his upcoming wedding.

"That's the focus right now. But usually I have a joke about give me an art, and I'll give you the day I'm doing something.' I don't want to sound like I don't have a social life, but art has become my social life and I don't like to half-a** anything."

Stranger Than Fiction, his staple, is "about bringing all the stuff we love and doing it locally, being New Hampshire's best," says Herman. "A lot of groups have come and gone, get big ideas, leave for Boston, New York City or Chicago. Me? I won't move to somewhere to find what I want. I'll create, the whatever' I want to do, the art that I want to do. I don't run after opportunity, I create the opportunity."

This summer Stranger will do its usual Players' Ring Tuesday Night Improv. Each show generally features 45 minutes of short form, similar to the skits seen on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" a popular TV show. The final 45 minutes is done in long-form improv. "You have to see it to understand it. It's closer to theater jazz. There's no game or gimmick. You're coming up with scenes, characters, situations, and monologues. "We're literally riffing off from each other like a jazz band."

Stranger will also present a mainstage production "The Age of Discovery" in the Ring's Late Night Series, and hopes to create a new comedy short film this summer.

Collaboration is at the crux of everything Herman does, with the exception of his writing, and occasionally even then. When he gets an idea that piques his interest, his feet don't hit the ground. "When people say let's do a project, I'm not, let's see what we can do down the line. I'm writing down the schedule."

In addition to his improv career Herman does voice acting, his most recent project playing Harvey Stevens in Hatchlings Animation Studio's "The Toll." He's also a former co-host for NHPTV's Granite State Challenge. He's written and directed films, including his own documentary on a London street artist, "The Artist As Nothing." He is on the board of the NHFX, and oversees the youth film and actingprograms. His writing has appeared in Splendid Magazine, Pitchfork Media, and The Wire.

Last summer he was involved with the production of five short films, "Thomas in Wonky Land" with the Tribe and Stranger. He directed the piece and "starred" in it as the puppet trying to make it in the real world.

On another front, Herman recently put together a CD. It started when he read about musician Jon Nolan's RPM Challenge in The Wire and decided to take its challenge to create a CD in 28 days. He had no band. And he's not a musician. But he is a former music reviewer for Pitchfork Media (www.pitchforkmedia.com), an independent online site.

Herman contacted bands as far away as Italy, with whom he had no more than a reviewer's relationship, and made them into a single entity. He named the band The Man Who Was Thursday, after a book he'd read. Tracks were moved between participants, each adding to the work.

"No one heard the album in-progress, but me and Joseph K. Murphy. I'd get a banjo track from a player. We'd send the banjo to Italy and have them put a drum to it. I loved that. It's extremely collaborative." There may even be another "Thursday" CD in the future.

"Oddly enough writing is my main focus," he says, taking a sharp turn in the conversation. "I'm working on my second novel, but that doesn't mean the first one was published. I'm basically working on four books -- for the past four years. I write every day in the summer -- at least four hours. "It is my larger aspiration."

But even if he proves successful with that art he would never give up the rest, he says.

"It's what keeps me going, keeps me inspired. I'm not someone that goes to an art gallery and says 'um, I'll go home now.' I try to find out who the artist is and do something with him."