What I do:
I teach, perform, and direct at ComedyCity, where I got my start back in the early 1990s when it was called ComedySportz. I also play with the multiple-Underground-Throwdown-winning team Ham Kitty and direct Different, dystopian teen fiction improvised Harold-style. Forever ago, I co-founded the Lighten Up Improv Company, which begat the KC Improv Festival and the KC high school improv league, and brought long-form improv to KC two decades ago. I'm mostly retired after teaching Exit 16 for 15+ years, on the board of Operation: Show!, and regularly teach troupes, teams, corporate groups, and assorted other bunches of people to play.
Background & Influences:
I'm a geek. I've studied improv for hundreds of hours in various forms—intensives, festival workshops, private coaching, and classes—with a who's who of improv, including (but not limited to) Del Close and TJ Jagodowski (iO Chicago); Mick Napier, Joe Bill, Mark Sutton, Susan Messing and Rebecca Sohn (Annoyance Productions), Dave Razowsky, Michael Gellman and Nick Johne (Second City), Jill Bernard (Huge Theater), Dan Izzo (Improv Inferno) and Rob Reese (Amnesia Wars).
I'm a writer by trade, so I love the honesty in iO's approach and the craft taught by Second City and UCB. But because I tend to be a think-y improviser, I really dig the physical and emotional stuff that gets me out of my head (so Annoyance-style and Viewpoints).
I'm an improv book nerd, too. Plus I practice creative collaboration every day in my day job as Content Evangelist at Hallmark Cards.
Teaching philosophy:
As a performer, I treat improv knowledge as a toolbox—you learn all different kinds you can so you have the right tool when you need it. As an instructor, I want to bring out the best in you and help you get out of your own way. In my classes, you're going to get a ton of personal feedback and a ridiculous amount of support. And this is playtime, so we'l have a whole bunch of fun.
Weirdest improv thang:
I can't just let go of an object after a scene. I have to put it down. I've been known to hold a space-substance pint of beer for 20 minutes.
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