I love traveling to teach improv! It’s literally my favorite thing to do. I’ve performed and taught at dozens of festivals, including the Alaska State Improv Fest, the Phoenix Improv Fest, The North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, The Dallas Comedy Fest, The Oberlin College Improv Festival, The Oklahoma Improv Festival, The Ocean State Improv Festival and many, many more.  For bookings or more workshop options, contact me!

THE INNER GAME OF IMPROV

Most performers have a little voice in the back of their heads analyzing and judging the moves they’re making as if they have a terrible little improv teacher perched on their shoulder telling them what to do (best case) or berating them for being terrible at improv (worst case). This is the experience of “being in your head,” bringing the analytical/problem-solving mind to bear in situations where it hinders peak performance - what athletes call choking.  Improv scenes are not problems that need to be analyzed and solved but rather experiences to be had. The more fully present and invested we are in them, the richer and more memorable they’ll be. Through a series of physical and mental exercises in this six-week course, students will develop mindfulness practices that will help them turn down the volume on their inner critic, become more attuned to the imaginary worlds they’re creating on stage, and be more active, present, and playful in their scenes. Prerequisite: Level 1 Improv or equivillant. Available as 2, 4, or 12 hour programs.

Improv CHEAT CODES

Master improv with this one weird trick!  This is what the improv professionals don’t want you to know!  You’ll never believe these insane improv hacks! Clickbait headlines to get you to sign up for this class! All kidding aside, whether your improv goal is solid storytelling or pure comedy chaos, many beginner and intermediate improvisers find that their ability to execute quality scene work can be frustratingly inconsistent. But here’s the thing that people who have been at this a long time already know: improv only feels hard because we make it too complicated. Good scene work isn’t a mystery, and it never has to feel like work. This playful workshop geared for all skill levels focuses on improv’s secret “cheat codes” – tactics and tricks that will allow us to get out of our heads, dumb things down, and make every single one of our scenes fun to watch and fun to be in. Prerequisite: Level 1 Improv or equivillant. Available as 2, 4, or 8 hour programs.

ADVANCED SCENE WORK BOOTCAMP

Whether your goal is solid storytelling or pure chaos, the root of any good improv show is solid, two-person scene work. This two-day-long intensive focuses on the fundamentals of creating believable, lived-in universes, giving players the tools to answer the audience’s burning question: “Why the fuck are we watching this?” Players will work on making active choices with a deep commitment to honesty and listening and will drill simple techniques to create interesting scene starts every single time, with a heavy focus on building powerful and emotionally dynamic relationships between the characters and creating fun, playable games. The intensive will also include plenty of individual feedback and diagnostics, tons of stage time, and in-depth homework assignments designed to chisel you into hardened improv steel. Prerequisite: Level 2 or higher in an established improv school. / Limit: 12 students. Available in 5, 8, or 16 hour programs.

THE ART OF MISBEHAVIOR: PREMISES, GAMES, AND HEIGHTENING

Truly great improvisers can generate a ton of sharp comedic material while simultaneously playing from their heart.  In other words, their acting chops (imagination, emotion, and listening skills) are in perfect sync with their comedy chops (generating premises, creating and heightening games). Unfortunately for most of us, our so-called Actor's Brain is much easier to access than our Comedy-Writer's Brain when we're on stage and under pressure.This course is designed to help strengthen students' Comedy Writer's Brain so that executing premise and game-based improv will feel as natural as playing pretend. Through rigorous (and fun) drills, students will master advanced techniques to generate premises from suggestions, openings, monologues, and first beats. They'll also learn new ways to recognize and heighten games in their scenes as well as position play (e.g. straight/absurd dynamics), strengthen their internal comedy logic (e.g. if/then), and use commedia archetypes to create a personal library of comedic characters. If you've ever felt lost, like everyone else understands the game of the scene and you don't, then this class is for you. Prerequisite: Level 2 or higher in an established improv school. / Limit: 12 students. Available in 5, 8, or 16 hour programs.