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375 Sentences With "improvisational comedy"

How to use improvisational comedy in a sentence? Find typical usage patterns (collocations)/phrases/context for "improvisational comedy" and check conjugation/comparative form for "improvisational comedy". Mastering all the usages of "improvisational comedy" from sentence examples published by news publications.

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I grew up in New York, but I moved to Chicago to do improvisational comedy.
"This essential dispute between freedom and form would become the driving tension of improvisational comedy," Wasson writes.
Their guffaws rose from the back row at the UCB Theater, an improvisational comedy showcase in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
Improvisational comedy has gone mainstream, thanks to pros like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari, and to movies like Don't Think Twice.
"So, turtle, we're going to give you some tasks to do," said Julia Pistell, an instructor with Sea Tea Improv, an improvisational comedy company.
Jacobs has a comedy background — she got her start on Community, like Danny Pudi — and starred in the film Don't Think Twice, which is actually about improvisational comedy.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller wanted to do Solo as improvisational comedy, and again Kennedy decided when she saw the results that it wouldn't work for the golden goose.
" That's the standard question addressed to the audience before each performance of the Commune, a New York improvisational comedy troupe anatomized in Mike Birbiglia's smart, bittersweet comedy, "Don't Think Twice.
Long fabled as a director, script doctor and dramatist, Ms. May first became famous as a master of improvisational comedy, instantly inventing fully detailed, piquantly neurotic characters who always leaned slightly off-kilter.
There's a basic rule of improvisational comedy that says that the performers on stage should respond to one another with "Yes, and…" This allows the conversation to continue to flow, sometimes in increasingly absurd directions.
While studying at Columbia University, Mr. Fageeh simultaneously trained in improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and started a web series called "Hisham's Weeklies," which propelled him onto the Arabic stand-up comedy scene.
Much of Mike's work—as is the case with all artists—was also as yet undocumented, such as the improvisational comedy he regularly performed at Fordham University in the Bronx and under Upright Citizen's Brigade teacher Patrick Noth.
I took a series of eight improvisational-comedy classes with the Upright Citizens Brigade, which has, in the past two decades, developed into an empire with a cultural reach rivalling that of Deepak Chopra, say, or Kanye West.
Marino, who performed this improvisational comedy at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and then in New York last year, has returned to the East Village to entertain aspiring young theatrical professionals with his premise: The main attraction is a no-show.
GUTFELD: This is what has changed about politics is that these campaign rallies are basically improvisational comedy routines that he just -- he really enjoys the crowd, he is a comedian who has fallen in love with going out and hearing the laughter.
Mr Avallone links Mr Murray's antics to the actor's improvisational comedy training in Chicago, the theory being that in "improv" you have to go along with whatever the other participants suggest, and that Mr Murray applies the same principles of playfulness and spontaneity to everyday life.
American stand-up comedians deal with a variety of forms and issues. Among forms popular or popularized in the US is observational comedy about everyday life and Improvisational comedy. Modern improvisational comedy in general is largely linked to Chicago and especially The Second City troupe. The 1950s saw the rise of this troupe's significance in modern improvisational comedy.
Collegiate groups are those associated with a post-secondary educational institution. If a company performs more than one type of improvisational comedy, they are defined as using Multiple improvisational comedy types. If it is unclear what particular kind of improvisational comedy a group performs, they are defined as Improvisational. Those marked Semi- improvisational generally perform shows that are partially improvised and partially scripted.
Hawkey is a member of the improvisational comedy troupes The Second City and iO West.
He also appeared in several episodes of the Canadian improvisational comedy series Improv Heaven and Hell.
Pippa Evans (born June 1982) is a British comedian, known for her work in character and improvisational comedy.
He performs music and improvisational comedy, including at The Bad Dog Theatre Company. He also supervises student projects.
Parker frequently guest performs in the improvisational comedy show Cookin' With Gas at The Groundlings Theatre in Hollywood, California.
Steve Steen (born 26 December 1954) is a British television, radio and theatre actor and comedian, known for improvisational comedy works.
Ad-Libs is an improvisational comedy troupe based in Dallas, Texas. Combining improvisation along with video segments, Ad-Libs was conceived by Phil Larsson in 1986. Ad-Libs performs weekly shows at its 200 seat downtown Dallas cabaret style theater (Ad-Libs Improvisational Comedy Theater) and tours across the country for corporate events and performing arts centers.
Wilson performed Off-Broadway with the improvisational comedy troupe Noo Yawk Tawk directed by Richmond Shepard at The Village Gate (1988–1991).
In New York, Walsh was a member of the improvisational comedy troupe Burn Manhattan and the New York City Players theater ensemble.
Woodward is a trained short and long form improviser. She trained at Laugh Masters Academy, a Chicago style improvisational comedy school in Sydney.
Born on Long Island, New York. Burns has performed improvisational comedy regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, New York.
He began doing improvisational comedy, or improv, in 1987 at the Ark Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, while attending graduate school at University of Wisconsin–Madison.
CarCast episode 241: Pebble Beach auctions In the early 1990s, Carolla studied improvisational comedy with The Groundlings and was a member of the ACME Comedy Theatre troupe.
McGathy was born in Japan and was raised in San Diego, California. She is the daughter of a preacher. She started in improvisational comedy in high school.
He was cast member of Comedy Factory (1996/97) on ProSieben. Since 2004 Martin Schneider is best friends with Cordula Stratmann in Sat.1's improvisational comedy show Schillerstraße.
Unexpected Company is an improvisational comedy group founded in Hollywood, California in 1986 by Tim Hillman, and recreated in Rhode Island in 2003 by Hillman and Justin James Lang.
Buxton continued to perform regularly with The Edge, an improvisational comedy group at Bainbridge Performing Arts. He was also a regular cast member on the web cooking show Cookus Interruptus.
The Spontaneity Shop is an improvisational comedy company formed in London in 1996. They base their work around the teachings of Keith Johnstone and have developed several original improvisation forms.
Harris performed with the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe the Groundlings and taught for a time with the Groundlings school. Off-Broadway, she performed in Love, Loss, and What I Wore.
Donald Charles Pierson IV (born December 27, 1984) is an American comedian, author, and actor. He is best known for his involvement in the sketch and improvisational comedy group Derrick Comedy.
Takeda is a SAG-AFTRA actor.“Actor Scott Takeda’s Working Together Improv Show in Albuquerque,” oneheadlightink.com, March 26, 2015. He studied improvisational comedy with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles.
At age 17, he began performing solo. He was influenced by vaudeville, stand-up and improvisational comedy. In 2000, he debuted a one-man show which continues to tour the US.
Lacusta is the wife of The Simpsons star Dan Castellaneta (who voices Homer Simpson along with various other characters on The Simpsons). They met at an improvisational comedy class in Chicago.
On the Spot is a short-lived American television sketch comedy series which aired during early 2003 on The WB. The show consisted of a mixture of scripted sketches and improvisational comedy.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (abbreviated to Whose Line? or WLIIA) is a short-form improvisational comedy radio programme. A television series of the same name was based on it in 1988.
Stidham began playing music at four and performed in theater and musical productions throughout elementary and high school. He later performed with and was a member of ComedySportz Los Angeles Improvisational comedy group.
Laura Hall is an American musician from Chicago. She is best known for her role as band leader and pianist on the American version of the improvisational comedy television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
An improvisational comedy, it featured two teams of two performers competing against each other. The show had a live audience which voted to select the winner at the end of the sketch (usually four in a given program), with teams earning points based on the percentage of votes they got in each sketch. The winning team was given a prize brought by the losing team - a token gift usually of more comedic value than monetary. Performers were scouted from various improvisational comedy and sketch comedy troupes.
American Body Shop, an improvisational comedy shown on Comedy Central from July 8 to September 19, 2007, is a parody of American Chopper. "Body Shop creator makes dent with DIY gambit" Reuters. TV.com. July 9, 2007.
The principal comedic style of the show is improvisational comedy, with emphasis on local talents (or sometimes local street figures) or well- known celebrities. Humourists such as Tiririca and Pedro Manso were hired for the show.
Freeman trained at the East 15 Acting School. In addition to his work as an actor, Freeman appears with the London improvisational comedy group Shotgun Impro and is a resident MC at The Funny Side Comedy Clubs.
Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza is an improvisational comedy television program that aired in the United States on the Game Show Network (GSN). A total of 40 episodes were produced during the series' only season in 2011.
The Brothers Bubba (1982) The PTC's second season in the John Lennon Auditorium opened on April Fools' Day, 1982 with The Brothers Bubba, the group's fourth improvisational comedy revue. Under Patinkin's guidance, Hall, Barrosse, Pearson, Kroeger, and Jane Muller crafted the company's most successful show to date, as 1,314 ticket buyers crammed into the 42-seat JLA over the six-week run. It was clear that, given the company's increasing popularity, a larger space (in addition to the JLA) was needed to mount the group's next improvisational comedy revue.
Stencel's earliest known performances were at an improvisational comedy club, ComedySportz in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she performed from 1995-2000. In 2003, she helped found the Idiot Box, an improvisational comedy club at which she appears weekly, in Greensboro, North Carolina. In addition, she is a regular cast member of the sketch comedy team "There Is No "F" In Sketch". Stencel was the stand-in for the actress Monica Potter in the film Patch Adams. Stencel can be seen in Uncle Otto’s Truck, a Steven King short story adapted to a short film.
Besides she took part in the Sat.1 crime series SK Kölsch from 1999 to 2001. From 2000 to 2002 Frier was co-host of the Wochenshow. Since 2004 she is a regular on the improvisational comedy show Schillerstraße.
Muppets Now is an American web television series produced by The Muppets Studio for Disney+. Directed by Kirk Thatcher, the series is an improvisational comedy based on The Muppets franchise by Jim Henson. It premiered on July 31, 2020.
Proesstraat (Proes Street) is an Afrikaans Television-Show which airs on kykNet based on the German improvisational comedy show Schillerstrasse. It is recorded without a script, in front of a live audience and broadcast unedited to a large extent.
Watson hosted a pilot for an improvisational comedy show entitled Improvisation My Dear Mark Watson. The one-off episode was commissioned and broadcast by Dave, who chose not to create a full series. The pilot aired on 9 July.
Several of her summers were spent at Camp Tel Noar in Hampstead, New Hampshire where she starred as Wendy in Peter Pan and appeared in several other plays. Denbo attended college at Boston University, where she participated in improvisational comedy.
Oxford Imps Logo The Oxford Imps are an improvisational comedy troupe based in Oxford, England, where they perform every Monday during University term time at The Wheatsheaf pub. They also perform annually at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Gilded Balloon.
Improverts publicity for the fringe 2012 The Improverts is a improvisational comedy troupe from the Edinburgh University Theatre Company, which primarily performs at the Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh. They perform weekly during Edinburgh University's term time and every night during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Micronauts #45. Marvel Comics. Courtney Ross is one of the few non-super-powered civilians to escape Arcade's attention alive. She survives for some time due to outwitting multiple opponents (such as the Crazy Gang) and discovers a talent for improvisational comedy.
Lenny Schultz (born December 13, 1933) is an American retired comedian who performed during the 1970s on television and at comedy clubs in New York City. His madcap style of improvisational comedy influenced other comedians such as Gallagher, Carrot Top, and David Letterman.
The Ex!t Players logo The Yale Ex!t Players, or the Exit Players, is an improvisational comedy group at Yale University in New Haven, CT, United States. The Exit Players was founded in 1984, making it the oldest improv group on Yale’s campus.
Kathryn Ish (February 18, 1936 – December 31, 2007) was an American Broadway theater, film, television and voiceover actress. She was also a founding member of The Committee political satire improvisational comedy group. Her television credits include Laverne & Shirley. Ish was born in San Jose, California.
Shel Mi HaShura HaZot? (, lit. Whose Line Is It?) is an Israeli version of the British improvisational comedy TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It aired for two seasons from 2000 to 2001 on Channel 2, when it was hosted by Shlomo Baraba.
11 Nov. 2016. Aniello and Paul W. Downs met at a Upright Citizens Brigade Level One improvisational comedy class. Aniello and Downs began working together on a series of digital shorts and improv. They started their own website and comedy production company called Paulilu Productions.
Schillerstraße (Schiller Street) was a German improvisational comedy show that aired weekly on Sat.1. It was recorded without a script and broadcast unedited to a large extent. The American broadcaster Fox has earned the licence for Schillerstraße and is to produce its own series.
In the late 1980s, Douglas performed off-Broadway at the Village Gate Theater with the critically acclaimed improvisational comedy troupe Noo Yawk Tawk .Where Audiences Participate In Improvisational Comedy, by Stephen Holden He also appeared in a production of Dale Wasserman's Shakespeare and The Indians at the Music Theatre Conference for the Eugene O' Neill Theatre Center in 1981. Also in the production was folk performer Bobby Bridger, but the production never made it to Broadway. In 1991, Douglas appeared with his father (in the senior Douglas's Emmy-nominated performance) in "Yellow", the Season 3 finale of the television series Tales from the Crypt.
Comedy Slapdown is an Australian television improvised comedy program produced by FremantleMedia, that first aired on The Comedy Channel from 8 November 2008 at 7:30pm. The show is hosted by H.G. Nelson and features a variety of comedians participating in theatresports Matt Parkinson heads up the judging panel which includes one other celebrity judge and one judge selected from the audience. Notable guest comedians include Corinne Grant, Tom Gleeson, Natalie Garonzi, Matt Tilley and Julia Zemiro. The premise of the show can be compared to the popular improvisational comedy program 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' with various improvisational comedy games played as the teams compete against each other.
Whose Line is it Anyway? Australia (also known as Whose Line? and Whose Line? Oz) is a 10-part Australian improvisational comedy show, based on the British show of the same name, hosted by Tommy Little on Foxtel network's The Comedy Channel, premiering on 27 November 2016.
Castellaneta and his wife Deb Lacusta divide their time between Los Angeles, California and Santa Barbara, California. The couple first met at an improvisational comedy class in Chicago, Illinois. Unlike his Homer character, he is a vegetarian and teetotaler and exercises regularly. He practices Tai chi.
Miner attended Skidmore College where in 1988 he founded the school's first improvisational comedy group and in 1990 created and produced the National College Comedy Festival, an ongoing annual event for over 25 years. He also worked as a summer intern at The Second City in Chicago.
On Thin Ice performing an improv game at one of their shows. On Thin Ice, (OTI) is Harvard College's oldest Improvisational comedy group. OTI specializes in short-form improvisational theater taking the form of various comedy games in the style of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
Konik was a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Los Hombres and MINT (Musical Improv Network Television), which performed at Second City Los Angeles. Konik's most popular recurring character was a bread salesman who repeated the word "papadum" over and over throughout an entire scene.
The Ligue nationale d'improvisation (LNI) (French for "National Improvisation League") is an improvisational comedy theatre company created in Quebec.Ligue nationale d'improvisation at The Canadian Encyclopedia Most of the participants are thespians, comedians or humorists. The Improvisation League format has spread to France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy.
One of her first jobs was acting in a Chick-fil-A industrial film. In college, she performed in plays and musicals with Matt Damon, Mo Rocca and China Forbes. In graduate school, she performed improvisational comedy with Eric Garcetti, the current mayor of Los Angeles.
Middleditch and Schwartz is an American improvisational comedy web television series created by and starring Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz. The series of three hour-long performances was filmed at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, and premiered on Netflix on April 21, 2020.
Khullar blends polished material with improvisational comedy and interacts with audience members sitting near the stage. The New York Times called him "a fearless comic with a talent for provoking both laughter and outrage".The Hollywood Reporter selected him as one of their "Ten Comics to Watch".
Buckingham Fountain, looking north in 2005 The culture of Chicago, Illinois is known for the invention or significant advancement of several performing arts, including improvisational comedy, house music, blues, hip hop, gospel, jazz,"Research Resources on Chicago, Jazz, and the Great Migration", University of Chicago Library.
He also worked as a Co-Producer and assistant director on numerous films for Christopher Coppola and Alain Silver, including White Nights, Bel Air, and Palmer's Pickup. In his early years Forsberg was an improvisational comedy instructor at The Players Workshop and The Second City Training Center in Chicago.
Throughout the year, the department puts on two dance shows and two plays, one of which is a musical. In some years the students put on their own production. The department also funds an improvisational comedy team which performs shows on select Fridays and Saturdays throughout the school year.
Actor Ed Harris auditioned twice in 1981 for the role of John Glenn. Originally, Kaufman wanted to use a troupe of contortionists to portray the press corps, but settled on the improvisational comedy troupe Fratelli Bologna, known for its sponsorship of "St. Stupid's Day" in San Francisco.Williams, Christian.
Offutt the Minstrel, Georgia Renaissance Festival, 1997 Starting in 1984, Irwin spent five years writing, directing, and performing shows with the improvisational comedy troupe SAK Theatre at Disney World. Upon returning to Georgia, Irwin began to focus on singing and songwriting, though he always kept comedic elements in his music.
Scott Speiser (/skot spizerʃ/ SKOT SPIZE-er) is an American actor and writer. He currently stars as Overkill in Amazon's remake of The Tick television series. He is a longtime member of the Blue Man Group stage show, and was previously a member of The Groundlings Sunday Company improvisational comedy troupe.
Unusually Thicke is a Canadian-American mockumentary television series, which premiered in 2014. Billed as a "reality-sitcom hybrid", the series combines a reality television format with improvisational comedy to present a fictionalized portrayal of the family life of actor Alan Thicke."TV Review: ‘Unusually Thicke’". Variety, April 15, 2014.
Timothy was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the son of Joan and Tom Stack. He graduated from the Philadelphia-area prep school Germantown Academy in 1973 and graduated from Boston College in 1978. After graduating, Tim moved to Los Angeles and quickly joined the improvisational comedy group The Groundlings in 1979.
After an executive change at The Muppets Studio that prompted a different creative direction for the Muppets, Disney canceled development on the project in September 2019. A second Disney+ series, Muppets Now, a short- form improvisational comedy series, was announced in August 2019; and was released on July 31, 2020.
With an invitation from his older brother, Brian, Murray got his start at The Second City in Chicago, an improvisational comedy troupe, studying under Del Close. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a featured player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.
The latter was typified by comedy music albums of Tom Lehrer, standup comedy of Lenny Bruce, MAD magazine, and Chicago improvisational comedy troupe Second City. ; Lebanon: 1978 film Alexandria . . . Why? by Egyptian fillmaker Youssef Chahine was banned in Lebanon and other Arab countries for satirical references of the 1952 Egyptian revolution.
10 Nov. 2016. She married actor and writer Mark Nutter in 1987, and together they had son Andrew Nutter. Nutter and Zander first met at the cabaret Cross-Currents in Chicago where they were both performing improvisational comedy, and Nutter also played keyboard for the Second City touring company.Williams, Albert.
Under the Gun Theater is a theater company located in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Angie McMahon and Kevin Mullaney, Under the Gun is a sketch and improvisational comedy theater which opened in Chicago's Lake View community in 2014.Wachtler, Mark Under Under The Gun Theater opening in Wrigleyville Oct 9 . Illinois Herald.
The National College Comedy Festival is an annual not-for-profit festival of student sketch and improvisational comedy that takes place each winter on campus. The festival, which first was held in February 1990, includes professional workshops.Staff (February 16, 1992). "Campus Life: Skidmore; Tradition, Age 3: Take My Festival Of Comedy, Please".
She would attend every other semester as she had to finance her education herself. In 1991, Nakamura was the first Asian American woman to join The Second City improvisational comedy troupe. She remained a part of the troupe for five years. Nakamura worked at Crate & Barrel prior to working as an actor.
Puppet Up! – Uncensored is a live show produced by The Jim Henson Company combining puppetry and improvisational comedy created by Brian Henson and Groundlings performer Patrick Bristow. The show is advertised for "adults only" and as "uncensored". However, one rare and "exclusive" set of shows "for children" were held in Edinburgh in 2006.
The Party is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, and starring Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set pieces for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents.Champlin, Charles (March 15, 1968). An open invitation to play it off the cuff.
Lublin has studied improvisational comedy with The Groundlings, The Second City, and iO West. He does voice work, including animation, commercials, and video games. He voiced a lead character in the animated series Slammo & Sloshie. Since 2006, Lublin has been featured in a video series for Symantec as Hal, The IT Admin.
Cahill now splits her time between Los Angeles and Chicago where she is still active in improvisational comedy at ImprovOlympic and Second City. She is also a clothing designer and has designed her own brand of unique dresses for nearly 20 years. Fans of her dresses have included Ricki Lake and Amy Sedaris.
Max Liebman (August 2, 1902 – July 21, 1981) was a Broadway theater and TV producer-director sometimes called the "Ziegfeld of TV", who helped establish early television's comedy vocabulary with Your Show of Shows. He additionally helped bring improvisational comedy into the mainstream with his 1961 Broadway revue From the Second City.
She was born in New York and raised on Long Island. Glaser moved to San Diego in 1978 and attended SDSU. She developed her improvisational comedy skills with the feminist comedy group Hot Flashes. She then set out on a solo performance with the direction and co- writing of her husband Greg Howells.
An improvisational comedy group performing onstage. Improvisational theatre companies, also known as improv troupes or improv groups, are the primary practitioners of improvisational theater. Modern companies exist around the world and at a range of skill levels. Most groups make little or no money, while a few, well-established groups are profitable.
PTC Logo The Practical Theatre Company was a Chicago-based theatre company founded by Northwestern University students and active throughout the 1980s. Its productions included new plays, satiric agitprop, rock and roll events, and a series of successful improvisational comedy revues. The PTC, whose motto was "Art is Good", is notable for the fact that the entire cast of its 1982 improvisational comedy revue, The Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee (Brad Hall, Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Gary Kroeger and Paul Barrosse) was hired by Saturday Night Live. At its peak in the mid-1980s, The Practical Theatre Company operated two theatre spaces: the 42-seat storefront John Lennon Auditorium in Evanston, Illinois and a 150-seat cabaret in Piper's Alley at North & Wells in Chicago.
He traveled across the world performing with mime troupes and performs improvisational comedy in various clubs around NYC. Richmond Shepard's last role was when he played the "Sandman" in Fuzz on the Lens Productions fantasy comedy Abnormal Attraction starring Malcolm McDowell, Bruce Davison, Leslie Easterbrook, and Gilbert Gottfried which was released on 26 February 2019.
Retrieved September 24, 2012, from Gulf News UAE Comedy tour with over 20 homegrown comedians trained through Dubomedy Arts School- "Rotana Comedy Tour" - 2011Coelho, K. (2011, May 21). UAE Essentials. Retrieved September 22, 2012, from Gulf News Professional improvisational comedy troupe in the UAE is born, IMPROV REVOLUTION - 2011Hassani, Z. A. (n.d.). The National.
The Immediate Gratification Players performing with comedian Jeff Garlin. Their distinctive red and yellow ties are featured. The Immediate Gratification Players (IGP) are a collegiate improvisational comedy troupe based out of Harvard College. They specialize in long form, free-form improvisation and are recognized as one of the top college troupes in the nation.
In 2007, 2008, and 2009, it was voted Denver's best live comedy venue by ABC Channel 7."The 2007 A-List", Channel 7 news Unique from many other improvisational comedy groups, Madcap performs family-friendly, clean comedy.Josh Ortega, "Improv Comedy", Colorado Lifestyles Magazine, Retrieved 01-08-2009Evie Hemphill "Beyond the Script", The Westminster Window.
Noo Yawk Tawk was an off-Broadway show conceived and directed by Richmond Shepard which played at The Village Gate Theater from 1988 to 1991. It features members of an improvisational comedy troupe founded by Mr. Shepard. All performances were entirely improvised. Characters may have been repeated but never the sketches or the dialogue.
Improv Asylum is an improvisational comedy theater in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1998 by Paul D'Amato, Norm Laviolette, and Chet Harding. The theater produces multiple shows per week including its critically acclaimed mainstage show. The mainstage show is a blend of both sketch comedy and improvised scenes.
He did improvisational comedy on SAB TV's Lo Kar Lo Baat. He was an addition to the cast of The Great Indian Comedy Show on STAR One. He can be seen anchoring Now Not Showing on CNN-IBN. Das is the host of News on the Loose, his own news comedy show on CNBC-TV18.
Freed was immediately hired after graduation by Jon Jory at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. After moving to New York City in January 1971, he performed in dinner and summer theatres and helped build theatrical scenery. Later that year, he joined The Proposition, an improvisational comedy revue which at the time also featured Jane Curtin.
After graduating from NYU in 2002, Raphael and her best friend from college, Casey Wilson, studied improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City, where they would eventually run their two-woman sketch show for a number of years. Performing the long- running stage show opened doors for them as writers.
In 2016, Little hosted Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia, an improvisational comedy show, based on the British show of the same name on Foxtel network's The Comedy Channel. Little’s television debut was many years before he shot to fame, when he featured on two episodes of “Rex Hunt’s Fishing Adventures” as a youngster.
Thank God You're Here is an improvisational comedy game show based on the original Australian show with the same name. In the show, four guests are placed into a scene they have no knowledge about and have to improvise. The series is hosted by Paul Merton, who also acts as judge and performs his own improvised scene.
The Immediate Gratification Players were founded by Harvard freshmen in the fall of 1986. The Immediate Gratification Players do not charge for admission to their on-campus shows. Their red-and-yellow striped ties are one of the troupe's hallmarks. Each year, the Immediate Gratification Players host the Laugh Riot improvisational comedy festival at the American Repertory Theater.
Born in Detroit, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. In the 1950s, he was appearing in Off-Broadway productions, where he met his wife to be Kathryn Ish in 1959. In the 1960s, he relocated to San Francisco and became a member of an improvisational comedy group, The Committee.
In 1967, Dusay was a member of the Session, an improvisational comedy group in Los Angeles. Her dramatic debut occurred December 21, 1967, in an episode of television's Cimarron Strip. She appeared in the film Sweet November (1968). Dusay started her career with a small role as a waitress alongside Elvis Presley in the film Clambake in 1967.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Deutsch was a member of Ace Trucking Company, an improvisational comedy group whose members also included Bill Saluga, Fred Willard, George Memmoli and Michael Mislove. Ace Trucking Company performed regularly on This Is Tom Jones and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and also recorded a sketch album with RCA.
Two theater members in front of the building, Hennepin Avenue The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theater (BNW), is a sketch and improvisational comedy theater based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The artists of the BNW have been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy and improvisation performances for 61 years - longer than any other theater in the nation.
The Free Association, or The FA, is a London-based improvised comedy theatre and school. It was founded in 2015 and operates two comedy venues and training centres in London. They are currently the largest provider of improvisation training in the UK. The FA teach, produce and host live improvisational comedy from "The Free Association Theatre" in East London, on the border of Haggerston and Islington, and "The FA's Comedy Room" in Camden in North London. In October 2018, The Free Association announced a partnership with Boom Chicago, a creative group, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, that writes and performs sketch and improvisational comedy at the Rozentheater. The partnership brings together Boom’s 25 years of improv history and the FA’s six-level curriculum with the aim to become Amsterdam’s premier location for improvisation training.
He also narrated a commercial for the Ferndale Confectionery item "Tuff Nuts", and has performed in Western Australian advertisements for WA Home Loans and Fruitisma."Guest Speakers and MC's", BBC Entertainment, 2010. During 2006 and 2007 Callan appeared on jtv and presented episodes on occasion. He has appeared as a guest on the Comedy Channel's improvisational comedy program Comedy Slapdown.
The film, to be directed by István Szabó, is still in production. Sager Weinstein was born in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Princeton University, where he was a charter member of the school's improvisational comedy troupe, Quipfire!. He currently lives in London and is married to Lauren Sager Weinstein. He is the brother of television writer Josh Weinstein.
Washington Improv Theater (WIT) is an improvisational comedy theater company in Washington, D.C., specializing in long-form improv. It was founded in 1986 by Carole Douglis. Its shows are based primary out of the former venue of the Source Theatre Company on the 14th Street corridor, although its teams also use several other venues. Roughly 20,000 people attend WIT shows annually.
Host Seasons 1-4 Originally from Ottawa, ON, Maureen Ross Neilson graduated from Canterbury School of the Arts. She then continued her studies in Toronto, studying the performing arts at Ryerson University. Maureen comes from a strong background in improvisational comedy. She was very involved with The Canadian Improv Games, both as a participant, and then later as a workshop programmer and adjudicator.
The HK International Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival in Hong Kong. Founded by The TakeOut Comedy Club Hong Kong in 2007 for English and Chinese-speaking comedians resident in Hong Kong, the festival has expanded to include comedians from all over the world. There are separate English and Chinese language competitions. The festival also includes a night featuring improvisational comedy.
Among the shows that season was the first of the group's improvisational comedy revues, Bag O' Fun. The show's mix of slapstick, satire, absurdist comedy, agitprop, and literary sophistication tied together with music and offbeat song and dance numbers established a unique style and format that the PTC would refine in more than a dozen revues over the next seven years.
The Bad Dog Theatre Company was founded in 2003, but can trace its roots back to 1982 when it was known as Theatresports Toronto. The company's work was based around that of director and playwright, Keith Johnstone. The company performed weekly improvisational comedy shows at Harbourfront in the Theatresports format. The show consisted of teams of improvisers competing with one another.
Martin de Maat (January 12, 1949 – February 15, 2001) was a teacher and artistic director at The Second City in Chicago. He also taught at Columbia College and Players Workshop. He studied under Viola Spolin. De Maat and Del Close were the two main figures of the Chicago improvisational comedy scene in the late 80's and throughout the 1990s.
The first season of the American Improvisational comedy television series Web Therapy premiered on July 19, 2011, and concluded on September 20, 2011 on Showtime. The series stars Lisa Kudrow as Fiona Wallice, a therapist who has conceived of a new form of therapy: the titular "web therapy". This season contains the webisodes from seasons one and two of the web series.
The second season of the American Improvisational comedy television series Web Therapy premiered on July 2, 2012, and concluded on September 9, 2012 on Showtime. The series stars Lisa Kudrow as Fiona Wallice, a therapist who has conceived of a new form of therapy: the titular "web therapy". This season contains the webisodes from seasons three and four of the web series.
A second kiss was in 1990 with character Robert Engel (actor Martin Armknecht) this brought about discussions on LGBT topics in the media. Uecker still continues to play the character. His other television credits include Schillerstraße (an improvisational comedy show) and he is often a guest on Genial daneben (a quiz programme with comedians). He is an LGBT-activist and lives in Cologne.
As a teenager and young adult, Rice took classes at the improvisational comedy enterprise Second City and played hockey for his high school. He has also been playing the guitar since he was a child. One of his cousins is Lauren Collins, one of the stars of Degrassi: The Next Generation. He is also first cousin to the late Seinfeld writer Marjorie Gross.
In 2004, she graduated from the Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Business in Communications and in 2005 from The Performing Arts Conservatory Brisbane with an Advanced Diploma of Screen and Stage Acting. In 2008, she graduated from NIDA. In 2011, she attended The Groundlings school of improvisational comedy, the Ivana Chubbuck studios, and Film Fighting LA, all in Los Angeles.
After college, Fey moved to Chicago. She worked as a receptionist during the day at the YMCA in Evanston, Illinois, and took performance classes at the improvisational comedy troupe The Second City at night. Fey started doing gigs at Improv Olympic where she first worked with pianist Jeff Richmond, her future husband and collaborator. Both Fey and Richmond got jobs at Second City.
Improvisational comedy is a genre that features actors creating dialogue while in the process of acting. It has a history of prominence in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Before appearing on television, comedy programs were already present on the radio. Several of these programs, including The Day Today and The Mary Whitehouse Experience, eventually transferred over to television.
The show ended its run in 2016, with its successor Live from Here also airing from the same venue. This radio program was the basis of the 2006 film of the same name, A Prairie Home Companion. The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theater is a sketch and improvisational comedy theater in Minneapolis. It is the oldest comedy theater in the nation.
The third season of the American Improvisational comedy television series Web Therapy premiered on July 23, 2013, and concluded on September 24, 2014, on Showtime. The series stars Lisa Kudrow as Fiona Wallice, a therapist who has conceived of a new form of therapy: the titular "web therapy". This season contains the webisodes from season five of the web series.
The Crescent Theater is a single-screen movie theater located in Mobile, Alabama. The theater mainly shows independent and arthouse cinema, though several mainstream films have been included. It also operates as the home of local cinema and film competitions, and has been used for music and improvisational comedy. It was first opened in 1885 as the Crescent Theater for vaudeville entertainment.
McWhirter graduated from DePauw University in 1970, with a degree in speech. She studied acting and improvisational comedy under the guidance of Howard Storm and Charles Conrad. One of her first voice roles was as the title character in Jeannie, alongside Mark Hamill, Bob Hastings and Joe Besser. She also portrayed the character in her multiple appearances in other Hanna-Barbera series.
While still starring in The Drew Carey Show, Carey began hosting the American version of the improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1998. He would announce the improv guests, direct the games, and then would usually involve himself in the final game of the episode. The show ran for a total of 220 episodes until the show's cancellation in 2006.
A 60-minute improvisational comedy game show where performances are unscripted, unrehearsed, and spontaneous. Two groups of three celebrities or comedians will compete in three rounds as they tackle various improvisational scenarios. A special guest is also invited to perform with the competing groups.Betong Sumaya and Sheena Halili bring happier weekends via GMA's comedy game show Laff, Camera, Action!. gmanetwork.com.
Bernard "Bernie" Sahlins (; August 20, 1922 – June 16, 2013) was an American writer, director and comedian best known as a founder of The Second City improvisational comedy troupe with Paul Sills and Howard Alk in 1959.Sahlins, Bernard (2001). Days and Nights at the Second City. via SCTV Guide Sahlins also opened the Second City Theatre in Toronto in 1973.
"Cordula Stratmann und Annette Frier kollaborieren ", Gala.de, 12 February 2010, retrieved 2011-07-30 In October 2001 Stratmann was nominated for the German Comedy Award as "Beste Komikerin" (best comedian). In October 2002 another nomination followed, and in 2005 she finally won the award for "Schillerstraße", as "Beste Impro- Comedy" (best improvisational comedy show). In November 2005 her management confirmed the rumor that she was pregnant.
The Improv is an improvisational comedy show which was started in May 2012 in Bangalore, India. The show has no script and is totally improvised, as its name suggests. The audiences give suggestions, situations and scenarios to the host and taking the cue, the actors create on-the-spot hilarious scenes on stage. It is hosted and directed by Saad Khan, an Indian filmmaker.
The Bent Theatre, formerly known as Whole World Theater Charlottesville, is an improvisational comedy troupe based in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded by Jenn Horne, (formerly of The Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia) in 2004. The group began with weekly classes, then accumulated enough actors to perform monthly shows at various venues on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall. As of 2010, its home base is Play On Theater.
He attended Seafield Primary School and Elgin Academy. and was a member of the local amateur dramatic group, Moray Youth Theatre. Planning to study engineering, he initially attended the University of Edinburgh, then decided to enroll at Edinburgh's Queen Margaret College to study drama. He joined Edinburgh University's student theatre company, Bedlam Theatre, where he was a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Improverts.
Iseman began doing stand-up comedy, with a routine based partly on his experiences as a doctor. He worked with the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, and in 2002 became a full-time professional comedian. In addition to comedy club work, Iseman's medical background has led to performing for medical and health-related organizations. He has performed at USO shows in Afghanistan, South Korea, Bosnia, and Hungary.
Bessie is loosely based on a character Poehler had played during her time at improvisational comedy troupes Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade as well as girls she looked up to when she was younger. She described Bessie as a "feisty, plucky, bossy, Honey Bee scout". The Mighty B! was picked up for a pilot in early 2006 under the name of Super Scout.
Just Add Water logo Just Add Water, sometimes abbreviated as JAW (pronounced "jaw"), is an improvisational comedy troupe at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Just Add Water plays both short-form and long-form games and makes frequent use of music in its performances. The group is completely student run and directed, and is also known for wearing brightly colored jumpsuits as performance uniforms.
Kirkwood was born in Leytonstone and raised in east London. She has a degree in English literature from the University of Edinburgh where she performed as part of improvisational comedy troupe, the Improverts and wrote for the Edinburgh University Theatre Company.Profile in the Independent, 27 October 2009. In 2005, she wrote and starred in her first play, Grady Hot Potato, at the Bedlam Theatre.
Lawrence came to public attention as a regular guest on the Channel 4 improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway? at its launch in 1988. Lawrence's speciality on Whose Line was her ability to improvise songs on the spot. She was the first female performer to perform regularly and featured on the show until 1997, which was the final UK series to be made in London.
Formhals was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He earned a degree in communication and journalism at nearby Saint John's University, Collegeville in 1999. He moved to Minneapolis and got a job working for a web company, transferring west to Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California in 2004. In LA he took a class at The Second City doing improvisational comedy and wrote a screenplay.
In North America, contemporary sketch comedy is largely an outgrowth of the improvisational comedy scene that flourished during the 1970s, largely growing out of The Second City in Chicago and Toronto, which was built upon the success in Minneapolis of The Brave New Workshop and Dudley Riggs. Notable contemporary American stage sketch comedy groups include The Second City, the Upright Citizens Brigade and The Groundlings.
On the set of the 1999 country music mockumentary, Dill Scallion, Koechner struck a partnership with SNL friend David "Gruber" Allen, joining Allen's improvisational comedy act, The Naked Trucker Show.David Koechner, suicidegirls.com; January 16, 2007. Koechner joined the act as Gerald "T-Bones" Tibbons, a character he had been playing on comedy stages for a few years, including a recurring character bit on SNL.
In the mid-2000s, Thompson began focusing more on comedy. She attended The Second City and The Groundlings improvisational comedy enterprises. Afterward she began doing sketch comedy and stand up in various theaters and comedy clubs in the Los Angeles area. In 2006, Thompson began performing as a warm up comic for television and theater productions such as the Fox television sitcom Happy Hour.
Its transfer to the Morosco Theatre on Broadway was not as successful, though, and closed after 106 performances. It was nominated for a Grammy in 1974 and has appeared all over the world. From 1989 to 1991, the improvisational comedy troupe Noo Yawk Tawk performed at the upstairs theater. The group was conceived and directed by Richmond Shepard, a world-renowned mime, actor, comedian, and teacher.
Before developing theme parks and location based entertainment, Trowbridge produced live theatre productions. His first Disney connection may have come while producing "Tiger Lady," a period drama that starred Beauty and the Beast star Paige O'Hara with set designs by Joe Cashman, with whom he would later reunite at Disney's Imagineering. Trowbridge also worked with Los Angeles' famous Groundlings improvisational comedy troupe and school.
O'Quinn's improvisational comedy background led him to the world of online videos. He is a founding member of the comedy production group Very Angry Neighbors. His comedy shorts were featured on Good Morning America, Inside Edition, Bravo's Outrageous and Contagious Viral Videos, CW's Online Nation, Today Show, Fox and Friends, Access Hollywood, and many national television shows. He co-founded a comedy entertainment company called "DadDudes".
Johanna Parker Appel is an American actress. She is married to Eric Appel, a writer and director at the popular comedy website, Funny or Die. Johanna graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in acting and is trained in improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. She has appeared on the CBS Network's Criminal Minds and played the titular role in the short film, The Broken Heart of Gnocchi Bolognese.
Katie Cariad Lloyd (known as Cariad Lloyd) is a British comedian, actress, writer, and podcaster who has been performing since 2007. She was nominated in 2011 for Best Newcomer at the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards for her debut solo show, Lady Cariad's Characters. She also won the Edtwinge award for most positively tweeted-about show during the Fringe. She is a member of the improvisational comedy group Austentatious and teaches improv.
Lefcowitz (1985), p.3 Rafelson and Schneider hired novice director James Frawley to teach the four actors improvisational comedy. Each of the four was given a different personality to portray: Dolenz the funny one, Nesmith the smart and serious one, Tork the naive one, and Jones the cute one. Their characters were loosely based on their real selves, with the exception of Tork, who was actually a quiet intellectual.
The show's lead role, a children's author with anger-management issues, was not initially written with Robertson in mind, but she decided to take on the role upon reading the script. The second and final season of Hiccups ended on August 28, 2011. Robertson played the role of Principal Moreno in the television movie Radio Rebel. Robertson is an alumna of the Vancouver TheatreSports League improvisational comedy troupe.
Since the show's first air date on 11 January 2003, von Sinnen has served as one of two (until 2011 together with Bernhard Hoëcker and since 2017 with Wigald Boning) permanent panel members of the weekly Sat.1 improvisational comedy show Genial daneben (lit. ingeniously off the mark). In the show, von Sinnen, Hoëcker and three varying comedians try to answer strange questions sent in by the audience.
Shaw was a singer and dancer in Las Vegas. She was spotted by a talent scout for American International Pictures and cast in Pajama Party (1964). Response was strong so she was cast in several more movies for the studio. After several films for AIP she worked with Rob Reiner, Larry Bishop, Richard Dreyfuss and others in the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe, The Sessions, for a number of years.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (often known as simply Whose Line?) is an improvisational comedy television show in the United States, an adaptation of the British show of the same name. It aired on ABC and ABC Family from August 5, 1998, to December 15, 2007, hosted by Drew Carey. A revival of the show, hosted by Aisha Tyler, began airing on The CW on July 16, 2013.
Hesseman was born in Lebanon, Oregon, the son of Edna (née Forster) and George Henry Hesseman. His parents divorced when he was five, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather, a police officer. He graduated from Silverton High School in 1958. Hesseman attended the University of Oregon, and was later a founding member of the San Francisco-based improvisational comedy troupe The Committee with fellow actor David Ogden Stiers.
Poehler provides the voice of Bessie, who is loosely based on the character Cassie McMadison, who Poehler played on the improvisational comedy troupes Upright Citizens Brigade and Second City. The series ran on Nickelodeon from April 26, 2008 to January 16, 2010 when it was moved to Nicktoons on November 6, 2010. The series ended on June 12, 2011. Since its debut, the show has attracted an average 3.1 million viewers.
Turner was born in Fort Worth, Texas and raised in Bentonville, Arkansas. She originally considered a Drama/Tele/Film degree at Oklahoma's Oral Roberts University before committing entirely to acting and moving to southern California to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. At one time, she was a member of The Groundlings, a California improvisational comedy troupe. Her recent film credits include Get Smart and An American Carol.
The Dead Alewives was an improvisational comedy troupe during the 1980s and 1990s from Milwaukee. Some of the group's individual members went on to become noteworthy after the group's breakup. The Dead Alewives began as a splinter group from the Milwaukee-based national comedy organization ComedySportz. The split occurred out of a desire to do a less family-oriented, more uncensored style of improv than the "clean" variety offered by ComedySportz.
Silverman has written for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. She has received several Emmy nominations for her work on these three shows, including two wins for her work on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Silverman attended Yale University in the early 1990s, where she was involved in one of the college's improvisational comedy groups, The Ex!t Players.Dempsey, Rachel (February 5, 2007).
Carey admitted that he did not feel much pressure about the live episode because he was used to performing in front of live audiences during his stand-up career. He also had experience with improvisational comedy from his time hosting Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Similarly, Ryan Stiles was also a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and he and Kathy Kinney had performed live improv for over 20 years.
Sidse Babett Knudsen (; born 22 November 1968) is a Danish actress who works in theatre, television, and film. Knudsen made her screen debut in the 1997 improvisational comedy Let's Get Lost, for which she received both the Robert and Bodil awards for Best Actress. Following the critical success of her debut, Knudsen has been considered one of the top Danish actresses of her generation.Morten Piil, Danske Filmskuespillere, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2001, p.
The theater's corporate services division is called Creative Outreach, a range of services built on the belief that corporate and office settings can improve their creativity and employee cultures by applying the principles of improvisational comedy. These services include keynote speeches, customized entertainment, and team-building workshops. In 2006, Sweeney and the BNW performed over 200 keynote speeches, training workshops, and custom entertainment productions for Fortune 500 clients.
The Improv Institute was an improvisational comedy company in Chicago from 1984 until 1994. The mainstage show was improvised following audience suggestions. The troupe had two storefront-theaters, both on West Belmont Avenue on Chicago's North side, first at 2939 W. Belmont (1984–1990), and later at 2319 W. Belmont (1991–1994). Many theatrical productions had their debuts at the Improv Institute, including Flanagan's Wake on March 19, 1994.
Emily Levine was born in Nashville, and brought up in Connecticut and Brooklyn. After graduating from Harvard, Levine's first job was dubbing spaghetti westerns in Rome. On returning to Brooklyn she taught autistic children and joined an improvisational comedy group called The New York City Stickball Team.TED bioHarry Walker Agency In the 1980s, Levine became a television writer/producer, working on shows such as Designing Women, Love & War and Dangerous Minds.
The Lobby is an improvisational comedy group based in Southern California. Unlike many improv groups, which are composed of many members who perform on a rotating basis, The Lobby is a small, close-knit group. The audience gets to know each of the players and feel they are part of the group. The Lobby also irregularly puts up a podcast, which further allows their audience to connect with the players.
Despite losing the core of the membership, the remaining members of the club decided to press on with completely student-run, non-major theater. Not satisfied with only doing musicals for Homecoming and Carnival, Scotch'n'Soda introduced the campus' first long-form improvisational comedy production in 1988. This began a 20-year period of growth and change for the organization. In the early 1990s, they expanded to a three-production season.
From 2009 until 2010, she appeared on the TV3 improvisational comedy series Vilde tee, adapted from the German television series Schillerstraße. The premise of the series was that the actors (mainly from the Endla Theatre) only knew the topic of the series episode in advance; the entire plot had to be improvised after receiving directions through headphones and following cues from the other actors.Postimees "Vilde tee" naerutas pärnakaid 12 September 2009.
Sports Bar is a sketch-comedy show that aired in first-run syndication from 1997 to 1998. The series featured members of the Second City improvisational comedy troupe out of Chicago. This was the first television series since the end of SCTV in 1984, where creative control has been so firmly in the hands of the troupe. The Sports Bar was taped at WTTW's Chicago Production Center, who was a part owner of the program.
Her other credits have included the web series Everyone's Famous, Gary and His Demons and New Eden,Norman Wilner, "Crave's New Eden explores why women are drawn to true crime". Now, January 1, 2020. the films She Stoops to Conquer, When the Storm Fades and Filth City, and stage-based improvisational comedy as part of the duo The Sufferettes. In 2020, she narrated a portion of the 8th Canadian Screen Awards along with Evany Rosen.
Robert ("Bob") Marcelonis (June 2, 1953 to March 30, 1995) was an American musician and artist, based in Philadelphia. Marcelonis was known in the Philadelphia arts community as a songwriter, playwright and founder of several improvisational comedy groups. Naturally gifted and raised in a religious family, Bob had composed Masses, Ave Maria's and commemorative pieces for the canonization of Saint John Neumann. He sang in the choir of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.
With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus is an improvisational comedy podcast hosted by Lauren Lapkus where each week the guest is the host. Lapkus takes the guest role in each episode, allowing her guest host to decide the podcast's title, subject matter, and Lapkus's character. Regardless of the host, each episode of the podcast ends with a segment called "Help Me Rhonda", where Lapkus's recurring character Traci Reardon gives advice to her Twitter followers.
Thrills & Glory (1981) The Practical Theatre Company's third season, its first at the John Lennon Auditorium, proved to be a turning point for the group. The season opened on March 21, 1981 with Thrills & Glory, the group's second improvisational comedy revue. Rush Pearson, Gary Kroeger and Reid Branson joined Paul Barrosse in the cast. In one sketch, a squad of American soldiers found themselves on the eve of battle in Basra, Iraq.
Megafun (1983) The PTC's second improvisational comedy revue at Piper's Alley, Megafun, opened on March 24, 1983 and became the company's longest-running, most successful show to date. Featured in the cast were Tom Virtue, Richard Kind, Victoria Zielinski, Jeff Lupetin, Lynn Anderson, Jamie Baron and Jane Muller. To have followed its breakthrough national success with another critical and popular hit established The Practical as arguably the preeminent comedy company in Chicago.
It tells the story of the service given by citizens of the Hamilton area from the time of the American Revolution to World War II. The Staircase originally was opened by Hugh MacLeod in 1998. The Staircase evolved and expanded from an improvisational comedy workshop to include an art gallery, a cafe, a theatre for film and live acts, and a rehearsal space. A former variety store next door was also acquired.
Adventurers Club The Adventurers Club was a themed nightclub in Pleasure Island at the Walt Disney World Resort. It was styled after a private club for world travelers and explorers and was set in 1937. The walls of the club were covered with artifacts and photographs from various explorations. The Adventurers Club featured animatronics, puppets, and a cast of adventurers who performed in shows and improvisational comedy while mingling with the club's patrons.
Burns has participated in two episodes of the improvisational comedy game show @midnight. In 2015, Burns took part in twenty-eighth season of The Amazing Race with his fiancée, Ashley Jenkins, coming in fourth place. In 2017, Burns made a brief cameo in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as a bar patron with no lines. In September 2017, alongside Jenkins, he co-hosted the inaugural Purpose Awards, an expansion from the Streamy Awards.
Whose Line is it Anyway? (often known as simply Whose Line? or WLIIA) is a British improvisational comedy series, which was originally hosted by Clive Anderson on Channel 4 and ran from 23 September 1988 to 4 February 1999. The final series coincided with the first season of the American series; Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady, who all appeared in the British series, are all regular performers on the American version.
Day began his career with the Groundlings, a Los Angeles-based improvisational theater group. With the Groundlings, Day and Michael Naughton wrote and co-starred in David Blaine Street Magic, a parody of magician David Blaine, portrayed by Mitch Silpa. The video, posted to YouTube, was once one of the most-viewed videos on the site. Day was an original cast member on the improvisational comedy series Wild 'n Out on MTV.
In 1954, he became a member of Chicago's Compass Theater, America's first theater of improvisational comedy. Eventually, he worked as producer, director, and performer with the Compass Players in St. Louis. The company was such a success that he was able to raise money to establish the Crystal Palace Theater, then the only monthly repertory stage in the country. In 1959 he wrote the book and directed the Broadway musical The Nervous Set.
Las Vegas in 2008 Griffin began performing in the early 1980s in the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings. She went on to perform standup comedy and became part of the alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles. With Janeane Garofalo, she a standup night called "Hot Cup of Talk", which became the title of her 1998 solo HBO special. Griffin earned a number of television and film credits during the 1990s.
He'd later transfer to and graduate from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts in theater. After graduating, Walsh founded Ultimate Improv with Matt Jones, an improvisational comedy club located in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. In September 2008, he and his troupe made a video spoof of Les Misérables' "One Day More" called "Les Misbarack", which became a hit on YouTube.The Les Misbarack video had been viewed over 1,234,219 times as of March 28, 2011.
Blackout Improv is an improvisational comedy theatre troupe in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 2015, the cast is completely black. Topics of monthly comedy performances include standard improv audience suggestions as well as a special focus on civil rights issues like police brutality, white privilege, and cultural appropriation. Blackout Improv responded to the shooting of Jamar Clark as well as the acquittal of police officer Jeronimo Yanez after the shooting of Philando Castile.
Retrieved on 12 August 2009 In 2007, he became a regular cast member on television programme Rove. His signature segment in 2007 was called Rydeas (pronounced "rye-deers" a portmanteau of "Ryan" & "ideas"). In 2008 he started a new segment called Investigationing (a neologism) and in 2009 introduced a segment called "Philosophisationing". Shelton has also appeared on the improvisational comedy Thank God You're Here produced by the award-winning Working Dog Productions.
Trust Us with Your Life is an American improvisational comedy television series, based on the BBC Two program Fast and Loose. It premiered on ABC on July 10, 2012. It was hosted by Fred Willard and starred comedians Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Jonathan Mangum, with rotating performers which included Greg Proops, Craig Cackowski, Brad Sherwood, Nicole Parker, and Josie Lawrence. The performers would act out scenes in the lives of guest celebrities.
Official logo of ComedySportz ComedySportz (CSz) is an improvisational comedy organization started in 1984 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by a group of local comedians including Dick Chudnow, Bob Orvis, Brian Green, and others.Fein, G. "Sporting Shots", Pasadena Weekly, September 15, 1989Winn, S. "These Games Are Strictly For Laughs", Sports Illustrated, November 26, 1990.Loesing, J. "Out on the Town", The Acorn, March 25, 1999.Patterson, D. "With honors in humor", Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2004.
Adams studied improvisational comedy at the Groundlings and was a member of the Acme Comedy Theater in Los Angeles. She was also an acting coach. Adams portrayed the recurring character of Ishka (also known as "Moogie"), mother of the Ferengi brothers Rom and Quark, in four of her five appearances in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, replacing Andrea Martin. Adams was in fact nine years younger than Armin Shimerman, who played Quark, despite playing his mother.
Happy Happy Good Show was an improvisational comedy revue held at the Victory Gardens Studio Theater in Chicago during the summer of 1988. The cast and writers were largely made up of writers on strike from Saturday Night Live after the 1987–1988 season. The show is most notable for showcasing the performance talents of Bob Odenkirk, Robert Smigel, and Conan O'Brien, as the three had previously only showcased their writing talents. The revue was directed by Mark Nutter.
Mantzoukas first began writing comedy sketches during his junior and senior year of high school for variety shows. He began performing short-form improvisational comedy (improv) as a part of the Otter Nonsense Players at Middlebury College and quickly became "obsessed" with improv as it utilized the same skill set as performing jazz. While performing with the Otters, Mantzoukas met and began learning and practicing long-form improv with fellow performers, Jessica St. Clair, Dan O'Brien, and Rodney Rothman.
Vanessa Zoltan is a humanist chaplain who describes herself as an "atheist chaplain". She is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, and holds a BA in English and writing from Washington University in St. Louis, and a MS in nonprofit management from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been called one of "few" feminist humanist chaplains in the world. Zoltan was a member of Washington University's premier improvisational comedy troupe Mama's Pot Roast from 2002-2004.
While working as a musician, Robey continued to model and also became involved in improvisational comedy. She also appeared in stage roles in dinner theater. In 1986, Robey had small roles in the films The Money Pit and Raw Deal. The following year, she beat out 300 other actresses for the role of Michelle "Micki" Foster, niece of antiques dealer Lewis Vendredi, on the syndicated horror series Friday the 13th: The Series, which Frank Mancuso Jr. produced.
He lived for several years during the late-1970s and early-1980s in Los Angeles where he worked with "The Groundlings" learning the craft of improvisational comedy. His mother was diagnosed with cancer just as Bob was starting to break through in both his musical and comedic talents. He returned home to Germantown, in Philadelphia, to care for his mother until she died. He remained in the home where he grew up never returning to California.
The Peoples Improv Theater, also known as The PIT, is a comedy theater and training center based in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows performed here include improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up comedy, theater, and variety shows. Shows are hosted both by "house teams" (comedians hired by the PIT) and by outside comedians. The PIT consists of three venues: Striker, Underground, and the Loft, located in the Chelsea and Flatiron neighborhoods of Manhattan.
During his three years on SNL, he wrote such recurring sketches as "Mr. Short-Term memory" and "The Girl Watchers"; the latter was first performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz. While on a writers' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987–88 season, O'Brien put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called Happy Happy Good Show. While living in Chicago, O'Brien briefly roomed with Jeff Garlin.
At age 18, Mollin moved to Toronto, Canada in 1971. His brother Larry had moved there a year before and urged Fred to come and see the creative possibilities. Mollin never looked back and in 1972, they formed Canada's first improvisational comedy group, Homemade Theatre. The four-man troupe consisted of Fred (musician, composer, singer, and actor), Phil Savath, Barry Flatman, and his brother, Larry, who also performed for three years on their own CBC television series, Homemade Television.
"Parks and Recreation co- producer and staff writer Katie Dippold, a Freehold Township native and Rutgers alumna." After graduating college, Dippold started a career in improvisational comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCBT) in New York City. She wrote and performed in various stage shows at the UCBT in New York City and still continues to perform improv on stage at the UCBT's venue in Los Angeles. She is a part of improv groups "The Smokes" and "Reuben Starship".
Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American comedian, film director, screenwriter, and actress. She made her initial impact in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, performing as Nichols and May. After her duo with Nichols ended, May subsequently developed a career as a director and screenwriter. Her screenwriting has been twice nominated for the Academy Award, for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Primary Colors (1998) which was directed by Nichols.
Kattan was a member of several improvisational comedy (improv) and sketch comedy troupes, one of them being The Groundlings in Los Angeles. His father was an original member of the troupe. Kattan also did some minor roles on TV, including the second episode of the second season of NewsRadio, "No, This Is Not Based Entirely on Julie's Life," as a photo shop employee. He moved to New York City to work on Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2003.
The Magnet Theater is an improvisational comedy theatre and improv school in New York City. It has shows seven nights a week, many of which are consistently selected as editor's pick of the week in Time Out New York and The Onion. The Magnet Theater was founded in March 2005 by Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman and Shannon Manning. Diaz, Manning and Herbstman were friends from Chicago, where they studied under improv guru Del Close at Improv Olympic.
His father ran a business that manufactured turkey coops (Koechner has stated that "If you see a turkey going down the road in a big truck, most likely its coop is from Tipton...").David Koechner Biography; Yahoo! Movies He was raised Catholic, and is of German, English, and Irish descent. Koechner studied Political Science at Benedictine College and the University of Missouri, before he eventually decided to pursue a career in improvisational comedy and moved to Chicago.
Richards was born in Walnut Creek, California and attended Las Lomas High School. At age 17, he created and hosted his own public access sketch comedy show called Hanson Live. He later worked for KVHS, a student-run radio station which broadcasts from Clayton Valley High School.KVHS Alumni Retrieved September 3, 2011 He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and, in his senior year, he joined the improvisational comedy team CHiPs Improv.
After college, Coupe took classes in improvisational comedy at The Groundlings and ImprovOlympic. In 2003, Coupe toured France playing a soldier in an all-female version of King Lear. In November 2005, her one-woman sketch show The Patriots premiered at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and won her the breakout performer award at HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado in March 2006. In 2007, Coupe appeared in I Think I Love My Wife.
Josh Warren was born on December 14th in the small farming town of Atlanta, Georgia. His mother was a carpenter, and his father worked at the local mill. At the age of 8, his parents enrolled him in an improv comedy class at Martin Luthor King Jr. High School, where he learned the finer mechanics of improvisational comedy. By age 12, Josh turned pro and began to run his own Civil War themed shows every Thursday, dubbed 'Warren Peace.
The second series ran from 23 February 2005, this time with eight episodes. Jürgen von der Lippe had already played a Catholic priest in the comedy ', in which he also played a brothel manager and a Foreign Legionnaire. As of 2007, he sometimes appears in the improvisational comedy series Schillerstraße, playing the role of Cordula Stratmann's father. Since 15 July 2006, von der Lippe has also presented the programme Extreme Activity on the commercial station ProSieben.
Along with this, they host "house" improv teams made up of improv students or graduates from their classes. In the past decade, professional improvisational theater groups have gradually started working more with corporate clients, using improvisational games to improve productivity and communication in the workplace. Major Professional companies have branches in more than one city, have touring groups, and/or host large-scale improvisational comedy schools. Professional troupes are those not affiliated with a university or secondary school.
Danner was born on July 13, 1975 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His mother, Cheryl Danner, performed in Los Angeles at The Comedy Store and The Improv's open mic nights, and later in Indianapolis with such improvisational comedy groups as Laff Staff with comedians Ray Combs and Robert G. Lee. As a boy, Danner often accompanied his mother to her comedic rehearsals. Inspired by her performances, he soon began singing and acting at home for family and friends.
Daryn Tufts (born April 1, 1973 in Arcadia, California) is a writer, director, producer, Dolphin trainer and actor. Tufts’s writing, producing, and directing credits include feature films, documentaries, and television commercials and he has acted in several successful independent films, as well as several unsuccessful films. Tufts has also performed and taught sketch comedy and improvisational comedy with several professional comedy troupes and is the commercial spokesperson for the Questar Corporation (gas company). He currently lives in Holladay, Utah.
Since 2001, Rudner has performed almost exclusively in Las Vegas, selling almost two million tickets and becoming the longest-running solo comedy show in Las Vegas. She moved to a larger theater at The Venetian in January 2011. She also created and hosted the syndicated improvisational comedy show Ask Rita, which mimicked the format of a talk/advice show. For this she received a Gracie Allen Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM).
Seoul City Improv (SCI) is a theater company and improvisational comedy troupe located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 2007, in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhoodRedmond, John Foreign Comedy Group to Host Anniversary Show The Korea Times. Retrieved on March 11, 2019. by an international group of actors and creatives it known to be Korea's oldest English-language improv group and has since grown to perform all around the world, including Taiwan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, USA, Canada and more.
Gigs "Cariad Lloyd – Gigs" In 2014 she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with Louise Ford in Cariad and Louise's Character Hour. Lloyd is a member of the improvisational comedy group Austentatious. In 2014 the show won the Chortle Award for Best Character, Improv or Sketch Act, and two DVDs of one of their live shows have been released by Go Faster Stripe in 2015 and 2018. Other members of the group include Rachel Parris, Amy Cooke-Hodgson and Joseph Morpurgo.
She has made guest appearances on Last Call with Carson Daly, Tabatha's Salon Takeover, and Access Hollywood, as well as having performed as acting and stunt talent for video games. Robin is a Meisner Method and Groundlings (improvisational comedy) trained actress, and a member of SAG and AFTRA. Robin competed in the inaugural World's Strongest Woman in Zambia, Africa in 2001, where she placed third. In 2006, she began competing in figure at the Tournament of Champions, held in Anaheim.
She also had roles in the feature films Fat Pizza and Ghost Rider. In 2008, Wilson created, wrote, produced and starred in the musical comedy series Bogan Pride on SBS One and also starred in the improvisational Nine Network series Monster House. In 2009 Wilson won the Tropfest Best Actress award for her role in the film Bargain. She has made appearances on the improvisational comedy show Thank God You're Here and the comedy game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation.
The song "La Trampa", recorded with Tonino Carotone for the compilation album Fuerza! was used as the theme song for the short-lived improvisational comedy Drew Carey's Green Screen Show. The songs "Bongo Bong" and "Je ne t'aime plus", which appear back-to-back on Clandestino, were covered by British singers Robbie Williams and Lily Allen, who recorded them as a single track, "Bongo Bong and Je Ne T'aime Plus" and released it as a single from the album Rudebox.
The turning point that third season came when the prominent director Sheldon Patinkin came to the JLA to judge the group's third improvisational comedy revue Scubba Hey for the Joseph Jefferson Committee. Patinkin's involvement with The Practical Theatre helped to accelerate the young company's development, artistically and from a business standpoint. Scubba Hey! (1981) Scubba Hey featured Barrosse, Hall, Pearson and Louis-Dreyfus, whom Barrosse and Pearson met when they performed together in the 1980 Mee-Ow Show at Northwestern.
Meanwhile, the "Attack Theatre" name was revived for a series of agitprop after-shows under the direction of Terry McCabe, another NU alum. Attack Theatre took on social and political issues like gun control and the abuse of women in short, provocative pieces, staged after the main stage shows at the JLA. Other after-shows featured The Practical Women, a project led by PTC co-founder Angela Murphy, designed to encourage female talent in the male-dominated improvisational comedy environment.
In 2011, Padman moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. She trained in improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade and supported herself by babysitting and working at the front desk at SoulCycle. Padman met Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard through social circles, then coincidentally booked an acting job on an episode of House of Lies playing an assistant to Bell's character. Bell subsequently hired Padman to occasionally babysit for them, and Padman eventually became their full-time nanny.
Her hardcore film, Faithless, featured her in explicit, non-simulated sex scenes and was released on February 4, 2009.Former Miss USA turns porn star McCarty also appeared on The Howard Stern Show, KROQ-FM's Kevin and Bean, and FM Talk's Frosty, Heidi & Frank Show to promote the film. For her performance in the film, McCarty was nominated for two AVN awards for Best Actress and Acting Performance of the Year (Female). McCarty also has a background in improvisational comedy.
Andy Offutt Irwin (born December 14, 1957) is an American storyteller, singer- songwriter, and humorist. Born and raised in Covington, Georgia, a small town outside of Atlanta, Irwin began his career in 1984 with an improvisational comedy troupe at Walt Disney World. After five years he shifted to performing as a singer-songwriter, touring the Southeast. In the mid-1990s, Irwin branched into performances for children and since then has appeared in hundreds of schools (from preschools to colleges) and countless public libraries.
D'Arcy Beth Carden (born Darcy Beth Erokan, January 4, 1980) is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her starring role as Janet in the NBC sitcom The Good Place (2016–2020), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also stars as Natalie Greer in the HBO dark comedy series Barry (2018–present). Carden began her career performing improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
Pierson, along with other Hammerkatz alumni Donald Glover, Dominic Dierkes and Dan Eckman, formed the group Derrick Comedy after meeting at NYU. Pierson is both one of the principal actors and writers for Derrick Comedy. Derrick Comedy has performed as an improvisational comedy group at the UCB Theatre in New York, but are best known for their sketches that appear on YouTube and CollegeHumor. Pierson has played roles including an emo teenager and a man making a plea to the Godfather.
She made her Broadway debut in 2005 starring as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre in William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a role which she originated with improvisational comedy troupe The Farm."Saltzberg Broadway" Playbill, retrieved September 25, 2017 She had previously worked as a weekend nanny for playwright Wendy Wasserstein,Jasnoff, Brittany. "CFA Alum on Broadway" bu.edu, November 28, 2006 whose influence helped bring William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin to the creative team of Spelling Bee.
In the 1970s, Reubens joined the Los Angeles-based improvisational comedy team the Groundlings and remained a member for six years, working with Bob McClurg, John Paragon, Susan Barnes and Phil Hartman. Hartman and Reubens became close friends, often writing and working on material together. Reubens wrote sketches, developed his improvisational skills and, with Hartman, he developed the Pee-wee Herman character. In 1977, The Groundlings staged a performance in which its members created characters one might see in a comedy club.
Furious acting credits: The Fair Maid of the West Parts I & II, ImMEDIAte Theatre, Tearing the Loom, Scenes from the Big Picture Furious production credits: Tearing the Loom (assistant stage manager), The God Botherers (props design), The Shape of Things (running crew). With other theatres: Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Dark of the Moon, A Midsummer Night\’s Dream, On The Verge, Letters Home, Cahoot\’s Macbeth, Sex Starved Monkeys, The Stupid Shit We Do For Money, Freudian Slip Improvisational Comedy.
Prior to his film and television career, Colcord worked as a session musician and an A&R; (Artists & Repertoire) representative for Columbia Records, was responsible for Aerosmith's signing, and co-produced their second album, Get Your Wings.Ray Colcord, ‘Boy Meets World’ and ‘Simpsons’ Composer, Dies at 66, variety.com, access date February 9, 2016 He was the first music director of the Los Angeles improvisational comedy group The Groundlings. Colcord played keyboards on the Lou Reed live album Rock n Roll Animal (1974).
SAK Comedy Lab (SAK) is a 250-seat Improvisational Comedy (Improv) theater in downtown Orlando, Florida, listed as "one of Orlando's most popular entertainment venues" by 10Best.com and has been named amongst the "50 best comedy clubs in America" by clickitticket.com. SAK's most notable alumnus is actor Wayne Brady, who has played as a guest player in several SAK shows since finding fame as a performer on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Let's Make A Deal, Chappelle's Show, and other projects.
Dave Luza (born August 25, 1974 in Hilversum), is a Dutch improv comedian. He is one of the members of Op Sterk Water (On Strong Water), an improvisational comedy, or improv, collective that started performing in the Netherlands in 2000, and founder of its German counterpart Ma´Ma´Lässig. In 2007 he was one of the lead cast members in the rock musical, MS Odysseus. Luza is married to German actress and soprano Ilka Knickenberg and is currently living in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Susan teaches and performs at the Annoyance Theater and the iO Theater. She also teaches improvisational comedy for DePaul University, The University of Chicago and Loyola University. As a writer, her essays have been published in The Second City Almanac of Improvisation and in Charna Halpern's book, Art By Committee and endorsed Jon Jon Lannen's book The Giraffe That Taught Me How To Laugh. Susan married former Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street writer Michael Clayton McCarthy on September 30, 2012.
Borstein is a graduate of San Francisco State University, where she studied rhetoric. She was trained in improvisational comedy at the ACME Comedy Theatre, near Hollywood, California, and was selected to join the cast of MADtv after being scouted by talent agents. Borstein was also a writer and voice actor for several television shows, including Casper, Pinky and the Brain, and Power Rangers Zeo, before joining the cast of MADtv in 1997 as a featured player, becoming a repertory player mid-season.
Upon graduating from Minnesota State, Peterman was cast as Madeline Monroe in Hey City Theater's production of Tony n' Tina's Wedding. After more than 600 performances, she went on to write and perform at Brave New Workshop, the improvisational comedy theatre in Minneapolis. The theater boasts such alumni as Pat Proft, Louie Anderson, Cedric Yarbrough, Mo Collins and Al Franken. While with the Brave New Workshop, she also performed at the Chicago Improv Festival and the Big Stink Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas.
Following his graduation from Fairfield Prep in 1989, he attended Bard College in New York for two years before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) in 1991, where he co-founded an improvisational comedy troupe "Mama's Pot Roast." While at WUSTL, Sarsgaard began performing in plays in an offshoot of New York's Actors Studio; His first role was as the servant Laurent in Molière's Tartuffe. In 1993, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in history and moved to New York.
Pongetti performed in the band Those Who Dig. She began work in Los Angeles as an assistant to writers on the TV Series Roseanne in 1995. Thereafter, she began doing improvisational comedy at The Groundlings Theater. She has also performed music that was used in the TV series Gilmore Girls ("My Little Corner of the World", episode "Pilot") and My Boys (episode "Dinner Party"), as well as helping to write and perform a song used in the movie Van Wilder ("Do-Si-Do").
Bekka Eaton, the current Director of Theater at Miami University Hamilton in Hamilton, Ohio, got her start as part of the improvisational comedy troupe The Second City in Chicago. She went on to be cast as the Female DJ in Sixteen Candles and a larger role as Delta Burke's sister in the TV movie Day-O. She is also the founder of the Greater Cincinnati teen improvisational group Dot. Comedy. She received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her master's degree from Indiana University.
Students can explore artistic interests as diverse as architecture, breakdancing, poetry, and improvisational comedy. Emory routinely hosts arts events in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts that are open to the Emory and Atlanta communities. Recent performances include Bang on a Can All-Stars (a side project of drummer Glenn Kotche from the rock band Wilco), jazz performer Esperanza Spalding, and New York's Cedar Lake Dance Company. A program called Creativity Conversations brings artistic minds to campus to discuss art and the creative process.
The Rockefeller Chapel, the tallest structure on campus. Although the University of Chicago is better known for its academic and scientific achievements, its students and faculty have also made significant contributions to the arts. In 1955, the University of Chicago became the birthplace of improvisational comedy with the formation of the undergraduate comedy troupe, the Compass Players. In 1959, alumnus Paul Sills, who many consider the father of improvisational theater, founded The Second City along with Bernard Sahlins, also a graduate of the University.
She appeared as reporter Christine Merriweather in the 2007 improvisational comedy film (released in 2017) Cook Off!. She appeared in the 30 Rock episode "The One with the Cast of Night Court" playing herself when she, Harry Anderson, and Charles Robinson staged a mock reunion of the Night Court cast. Post was the voice of June Darby on the computer animated robot superhero TV series Transformers: Prime. She appeared as recurring character Barbara 'Bunny' Fletcher in the first four seasons of Chicago P.D.Stanhope, Kate.
From 1989-2000, Brett also wrote and or produced more than three dozen series, including "Elvis" (ABC), "Matt Waters" (CBS), and "Forever Knight" (USA Network). In 2000, Brett founded ByteSize Entertainment, created to deliver one-minute clips of popular comedy shows (Seinfeld, The Chris Rock Show and SCTV) to a subscriber base. In 2001, prior to launch, the company was acquired by Mind Arrow Systems. In 2002, Brett partnered with Chicago's improvisational comedy theater, The Second City, to develop and produce comedy film and television projects.
After Cho expressed an interest in performance, she auditioned and was accepted into the San Francisco School of the Arts, a San Francisco public high school for the arts. While at the school, she became involved with the school's improvisational comedy group alongside actors Sam Rockwell and Aisha Tyler. At age 15, she worked as a phone sex operator, and she later worked as a dominatrix. After graduating from high school, Cho attended San Francisco State University, studying drama; however, she did not graduate.
After graduating in 2008 she joined the Upright Citizens Brigade and received training in improvisational comedy for three years. Mani joined the Cocoon Central Dance Team where she worked as a dancer and choreographer. Mani began her career as an actress by appearing in Writer's Block, an MTV web TV pilot, and also in commercials for Burger King and Levi's. She gained public recognition for her dance performance in the music video for the song "Turn Down for What" which was released in December 2013.
Furious acting credits: The Fair Maid of the West Parts I & II, ImMEDIAte Theatre, Tearing the Loom, Scenes from the Big Picture, Mojo Furious production credits: ImMEDIAte Theatre (co-producer), Tearing the Loom (dramaturg), The God Botherers (stage manager), The Shape of Things (technical director/running crew), Mojo (sound design/assistant director), The Playboy of the Western World (stage manager), Chimps (master carpenter). With other theatres: Androcles in Androcles and the Lion with Plano Rep. and Motherland, Pavlov\’s Dogs, Freudian Slip Improvisational Comedy(director).
Saad Haroon is a Pakistani comedian, actor, and writer. He is the creator of the first ever Pakistani improvisational comedy troupe "BlackFish", and was the first Pakistani stand-up comedian to perform in English in cities across Pakistan in his tour "Saad Haroon: Very Live".INSTEP Magazine Haroon created and hosted the first ever English language comedy television show in Pakistan, called The Real News. In October 2014, he was voted the second funniest person in the world, securing 59,213 votes in the Laugh Factory competition.
Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and voice actress. She was born in Canandaigua, New York, and raised in both Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She later relocated to Los Angeles, where she broke into comedy as a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, and made her television debut in 2003. Wiig joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2005, and the following year, she appeared in the Christmas comedy film Unaccompanied Minors.
Baker began his acting career at the age of 11 as a member of a now-defunct community film enthusiast club known as Cinekyd, based in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, where youngsters acted in, directed, edited, and produced amateur movies under adult supervision. In Chicago, Illinois, following college, he studied at The Second City improvisational comedy troupe, while also working as a stand-up comedian and in the Seanachai Theatre Company. To make ends meet he waited tables at John's Place in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Ace Trucking Co. is a comedy science fiction series that featured in the comic 2000 AD from 1981 to 1986. Created by writers John Wagner and Alan Grant and artist Massimo Belardinelli, it followed the misadventures of a space trucking company headed by Ace Garp, a pointy-headed alien who spoke in a kind of futuristic CB radio slang. The title was lifted from a 1970s improvisational comedy group whose membership had included Fred Willard, Patti Deutsch, Michael Mislove, George Memmoli, and Bill Saluga.
There are two a cappella singing groups on campus, "The OWtsiders," a student-run group formed in 1999, and the all-female "Pitch Black" established in 2005. Another entertainment-related club is "The Babbling Bishops", an improvisational comedy troupe. The "Babbling Bishops" started in the fall of 1990 when a group of theatre concentration students formed a performance-oriented project for their theatre degrees. The project became an improv comedy troupe, rehearsing in Stuyvesant Hall and performing with other college improv troupes since 1996.
Camille Bonora (also known as Camille Kampouris; born May 13, 1956) is a former Muppet performer, voice performer and actress. She currently serves on the board of BibleMesh online theological studies, as well as a member of the Kairos Journal editorial board. Bonora, a native of New Jersey, graduated from Catholic University of America, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and initially worked in musical comedy and improvisational comedy. Bonora was also one of the puppeteers who performed The Muppets from 1985 to 1997.
However, Chris Burke intentionally hosts This Spartan Life in these unpredictable conditions, which are fundamental to the show. Other works filmed using puppetry are the ILL Clan's improvisational comedy series On the Campaign Trail with Larry & Lenny Lumberjack and Rooster Teeth Productions' Red vs. Blue. In recamming, which builds on puppetry, actions are first recorded to a game engine's demo file format, not directly as video frames. Without re-enacting scenes, artists can then manipulate the demo files to add cameras, tweak timing and lighting, and change the surroundings.
In December 1917 the Marx brothers were noted in an advertisement playing in a musical comedy act "Home Again". By the 1920s, the Marx Brothers had become one of America's favorite theatrical acts, with their sharp and bizarre sense of humor. They satirized high society and human hypocrisy, and they became famous for their improvisational comedy in free-form scenarios. A famous early instance was when Harpo arranged to chase a fleeing chorus girl across the stage during the middle of a Groucho monologue to see if Groucho would be thrown off.
Titled The First Family Rides Again and highlighting mimic Rich Little, the follow-up dealt with the life of Ronald Reagan. During the 1990s, Siegel spent three years teaching comedy writing at UCLA before turning to acting and joining the Screen Actors Guild. He did commercials for companies including IBM and Northwest Airlines and also performed in stage musicals in the Los Angeles area. At the age of 87, Siegel was still doing improvisational comedy, writing, and performing in sketches for shows at the Broad Theater in Santa Monica, California.
Sons & Daughters has been dubbed a "unique hybrid comedy"; the show followed the format used in Curb Your Enthusiasm, using a partly scripted, partly improvisational comedy dialogue. In an interview with co-creator Nick Holly from the Associated Press, he explained that the actors were presented not with a traditional script, but with a "short story" that "occasionally includes a line or two of dialogue, but is normally just this novelization." Unlike the traditional sitcom, Sons & Daughters was not filmed with a live studio audience and did not use a laugh track for the show.
His brother, Tim, is a television writer and his cousins include screenwriter John Mankiewicz, screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz and TV journalist Josh Mankiewicz . Davis lives in New York City with his wife, novelist Jane Mendelsohn, and their two daughters. After graduating from Harvard University, where he was one of the founding members of the improv comedy group On Thin Ice, Davis co-wrote the novel Boone with his friend Brooks Hansen. He then performed improvisational comedy and acting before moving to behind-the camera roles.
Bayer played the role of Kate Clark in the Chicago-based feature comedy Off the Cuff. Bayer performed improvisational comedy at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, where she trained with SNL castmate Paul Brittain as well as the Annoyance Theatre and Second City. In 2019, Bayer played Mia Cooper, the ex-wife of Taran Killam's character, in a recurring role on ABC's Single Parents. Starting in 2018 Bayer has played Amy, a former baker who loses her job because of Karen and subsequently works for Karen's baseball team, in a recurring role on NBC's Will & Grace.
Hundley's first movie role was in Stillman's independent film Metropolitan (1990). Other film credits include Dangerous Game (1993), The Last Days of Disco (1998), Jacklight (1999), A Holiday Affair (2000) and Forever (2005). Hundley continued performance studies during these years with Susan Peretz, Marcia Haufrecht and Sandra Lee, all of The Actor's Studio. She produced the feature film Buzzkill (2012), starring Kristen Ritter, Daniel Raymont, and Darrell Hammond, released in association with the Chicago-based improvisational comedy enterprise The Second City, many of whose alumni appear in the film.
Art, Ruth & Trudy (1986) In May 1986, the Practical Theatre Company opened its next improvisational comedy revue, Art Ruth & Trudy at Club Victoria, nearly two years since its last revue closed at The Goodman Studio. Featuring Barrosse, Victoria Zielinski, Baron, musical director Steve Rashid on piano, and guided by Patinkin, Art, Ruth & Trudy received very positive reviews and became the longest running show in the company's history. The show then moved to the larger Briar Street Theater and on to the even larger Vic Theatre where it finished its 9-month run.
Also in 2015, she was cast in the independent drama film Po directed by John Asher, about a single father raising a son with autism. Doubleday also appeared as a celebrity guest on The CW improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway in June 2016. In 2017, she featured in the popular horror series Scary Endings alongside Australian actor Adam J. Yeend in an episode titled "The Water Rises". In 2017, Doubleday joined the cast of CMT musical drama series Nashville in its fifth season, following the departure of original series star Connie Britton.
In February 2007, the improvisational comedy group Something Dada announced its performance space was moving to the Wooltex Room in the Tower Press Building. City and development officials had hoped that the Tower Press Building renovation would spark a redevelopment renaissance in the Campus District of Cleveland. By 2013, however, little development had emerged. David Perkowski (now doing business as Tower Press Development Co.) purchased the M.T. Silver Building at 2320 Superior Avenue for $675,000 in 2007, and the Bloch Building at 2310 Superior Avenue for $675,000 in 2013.
Whose Line is it Anyway? (often known as simply Whose Line?) is an improvisational comedy show, which was originally hosted by Drew Carey on ABC and ABC Family and ran from August 5, 1998 to December 15, 2007. A revival of the show, hosted by Aisha Tyler, began airing on The CW on July 16, 2013. The series is a spin-off of the British show of the same name and features Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady as its regular performers with the fourth seat occupied by a guest panelist.
During this period the show also had frequent "event" episodes. Recurring themes were "What's Wrong With This Episode?", in which the show contained numerous deliberate continuity errors and other mistakes and invited viewers at home to find the most errors and win a prize, and live episodes, with loose plots and improvised scenes featuring cast members from Carey's improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Brad Sherwood, Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Kathy Greenwood, Jeff Davis, Laura Hall, and Linda Taylor) contributed to these episodes, with Brad Sherwood hosting.
Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television comedy specials and has released comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. She has also appeared in supporting roles in films. Griffin was born in Oak Park, Illinois; in 1978, she moved to Los Angeles, where she studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and became a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings.
Dad's Garage Theatre Company, located at 569 Ezzard St. in the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1995 by Chris Blair, Marc Cram, Sean Daniels, George Faughnan, John Gregorio, David Keeton, Joseph Limbaugh, Matt Stanton, and Matt Young. A second wave of people in the founding summer soon followed, and the theatre company spent the next five years establishing itself in the Atlanta improv and theatre communities. The small theater company has since achieved international recognition for original stage productions and Improvisational comedy. The current Artistic Director is Jon Carr.
Sami Shah (born 24 August 1978) is a Pakistani-Australian stand-up comedian, writer, improvisational actor, and radio presenter. Shah was a member of the improvisational comedy group "BlackFish" created by Saad Haroon in 2002, and later performed the first solo English-language comedy show in Pakistan. He had several tours across Pakistan. He moved to Australia in 2012, and has since hosted several podcasts and shows on ABC radio as well as writing several books, performing in comedy festivals and participating in the Jaipur Literature Festival in Adelaide.
Hines and Meg Ryan at the premiere of Serious Moonlight, Hines' directorial debut Hines began her acting career by performing improvisational comedy at The Groundlings Theater. Among the people with whom she studied was Lisa Kudrow. She also learned to write comedy sketches -- which served her well when working on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm as Larry David's fictional wife, Cheryl. The show is written using the retroscripting technique in which the plot outlines are generally and loosely drawn -- and then the individual actors improvise to create the dialogue ad lib.
This she turned into an opportunity for screwball > improvisational comedy, by pretending she could not follow this sequence, > not even after the audience shouted instructions and the stage manager came > to whisper in her ear not once but twice. There were those in the audience > who were dumbfounded by her stupidity. I was dumbfounded by her brilliance. Murphy followed with several independent films, including as Spun (2002), Neverwas (2005), and Karen Moncrieff's The Dead Girl (2006), as well as two Edward Burns films: Sidewalks of New York (2001) and The Groomsmen (2006).
Furious acting credits: Impending Rupture of the Belly, Back of the Throat, The Fair Maid of the West Parts I & II, Scenes from the Big Picture. Furious production credits: ImMEDIAte Theatre (director), The Fair Maid of the West Parts I & II (sound design), Tearing the Loom (sound design), The God Botherers (sound design), The Shape of Things (props design/running crew), Scenes from the Big Picture (props design), Chimps (assistant stage manager), Mojo (running crew). With other theatres: High Fife Comedy (founder), The Underground, Pavlov’s Dog’s, Freudian Slip Improvisational Comedy.
In 1985, Thompson was working as a disc jockey when he was introduced to Phelps, whose background was in improvisational comedy. Their first joint on-air appearance was in 1986 on WAPI-FM (I-95) in Birmingham, Alabama, where the initial incarnation of The Mark & Brian Show began. Charlie West was hired to be the Program Director for KLOS in May 1987. He had a reputation for nurturing morning show talent and worked with Jeanne Tripplehorn aka "Jeannie Summers" on the air at KMOD Radio in Tulsa, OK before she ever got into the movies.
Kudisch appeared off- Broadway in the critically acclaimed improvisational comedy troupe Noo Yawk Tawk, as well as The Thing About Men, See What I Wanna See (Public Theater) and in the Lucille Lortel Award nominated The Glorious Ones. In 1987 he appeared in the murder mystery/party game Tamara: The Living Movie at New York City's Armory. He appeared in the Off-Broadway musical Minister's Wife. The show's music is by Josh Schmidt, lyrics by Jan Tranen, and a book by Austin Pendleton and it is based on Candida by George Bernard Shaw.
Living with Fran was cancelled on May 17, 2006, after two seasons. In 2006, Drescher guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent; the episode, "The War at Home", aired on US television on November 14, 2006. She also appeared in an episode of Entourage and in the same year, gave her voice to the role of a female golem in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XVII". In 2007, Drescher appeared in the US version of the Australian improvisational comedy series Thank God You're Here.
Haroon worked on "SHARK" in 2008, the first improv troupe to tour Pakistan and perform Long Form Improvisational Comedy. SHARK's tour included performances in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore where audiences throughout Pakistan witnessed musical forms of improv comedy and a long form improv structure known as the Harold for the first time. SHARK's lineup includes Haroon, Danish Ali, Umair Pervez, Jaffar Ali, Daniyal Ahmed, Sohaib Khan, and Sana Nasir. In 2002, Haroon created BlackFish, Pakistan's first improv troupe, which was chosen to represent Pakistan in an international Theater Project at Contact Theatre in Manchester, England.
Avery began her career as a comic, performing as a member of the improvisational comedy groups The Groundlings in Los Angeles, and The Second City in Chicago. She and her family produced four different "workout" spots for up-and-coming and seasoned comics throughout Los Angeles County, while working a corporate job. Her first big break came in 2001 during a Fourth of July celebration on Martha's Vineyard hosted by local politicians related to her high school friend. She and good friend Tony Rock (brother to Chris Rock) performed, with an overwhelming response.
Dean Haglund (born July 29, 1965) is a Canadian actor, known for the role of Richard "Ringo" Langly, one of The Lone Gunmen on The X-Files. Haglund is also a stand-up comedian, specializing in improvisational comedy, including work with the Vancouver TheatreSports League. In addition to The X-Files, he played the voice of Sid in Tom Sawyer, Haglund also portrayed Langly in the spin-off The Lone Gunmen, which aired thirteen episodes in 2001. He is the inventor of the Chill Pak, a commercial external cooling product for laptop computers.
Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding is an "environmental/immersive theatre" event based on a traditional Italian-American wedding and reception, with warm and intrusive stereotypes exaggerated for comic effect. Audience members are treated as guests at the wedding by the interactive, improvisational comedy cast. Since opening February 14, 1988 in New York City, the piece has been staged in over 100 locations worldwide, including cities in Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding shares some similarities with a 1969 Australian play called Dimboola, by Jack Hibberd.
Seth Meyers became a co-head writer in 2005, became the single head writer from 2008 to 2012, and then left in 2014. The Weekend Update segment has its own dedicated team of writers led by head writer and producer Alex Baze as of the 2011–12 season. Scenes on Weekend Update that involve members of the cast acting in-character alongside the host are often written by staff writers outside the dedicated Weekend Update team, who know those characters better. SNL writers are often also performers or experienced in writing and improvisational comedy.
He is the first Pakistani comedian to be invited on a U.S. Department of State sponsored comedy tour of the United States, performing in venues such as Dartmouth College and the New York Friars Club along with performances in Providence, Rhode Island and Worcester, Massachusetts. He wrote and hosted Pakistan's first English language comedy television show, The Real News along with Saad Haroon. He is one of the first comedians to perform in cities across Pakistan in English and is also a member of the improvisational comedy troupe, 'Shark'.
Mochrie attended Killarney Secondary School, where he was a self-proclaimed loner who wanted to become a marine biologist. He was persuaded by a friend to try out for a play titled The Death and Life of Sneaky Fitch in which Mochrie played the role of the undertaker. He was hooked when he got his first laugh, which paved the way for a career in entertainment. After graduating from high school as valedictorian, Mochrie attended the Studio 58 theatre school in Vancouver for four years, where he discovered the art of improvisational comedy.
Yours Truly Theatre is an improvisational comedy and interactive theatre group established in 2003 and based in Bangalore, India. It is currently run by Nandini Rao who is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of the group. In 2012 the group performed & conducted theatre workshops at Edinburgh fringe theatre festival, European Theatre festival, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, London to The Hague, Zurich, Berlin, Paris, ending the tour at Milan. The group was featured on BBC & PRI'S The World & Nandini Rao was also selected as the finalist of YCE - Young Creative Entrepreneur Award by British Council.
O'Quinn was born in Grundy, Virginia, and graduated from Grundy Senior High School. He attended The College of William and Mary in Virginia where he performed with the improvisational comedy troupe I.T. (Improvisational Theatre). Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, O'Quinn booked a variety of television series including Alias, Third Rock from the Sun, and Beverly Hills, 90210, where he played the innocent but accused rapist of Kelly, played by Jennie Garth. O'Quinn is also a voice actor and has provided voice-over and voice matching in a number of movies, television shows and cartoons.
He is a founding member of the improvisational comedy group "Chuckle Duster", which performs occasionally in east London. His mother, Chrissie Wickham, a choreographer (of the Eurovision Bucks Fizz winning dance routine in 1981), actress and former Hot Gossip dance troupe member, performed in Starlight Express whilst up to six months pregnant with Jack, which he mentioned in an interview on the Graham Norton show on BBC Radio 2 on 21 December 2013. He is the first of four boys. He was born in Bournemouth and comes from Ringwood, Hampshire.
Paul Merton's Impro Chums is an improvisational comedy stage show, consisting of comedian Paul Merton heading a cast of Richard Vranch, Suki Webster, Mike McShane and Lee Simpson, as well as a special guest performer. The show is in a similar format to that given by the Comedy Store Players and its television compatriot, Whose Line Is It Anyway?. The performers act scenes which are suggested by the theatre audience. They perform without scripts, autocue or props, and rely on their wit and speed of thought to create amusing scenarios with the given characters.
His first acting job was a recurring role on L.A. Law as Ned Barron, which lasted for six episodes from 1991 to 1992. Sherwood was introduced to improv after being encouraged to attend a comedy class in Los Angeles, and he joined the cast of the syndicated sketch-comedy series The Newz in 1994. In 1992, Sherwood became a recurring performer for three seasons of the British improvisational comedy television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He was the only actor from the Los Angeles auditions to make it to the cast.
Whelan was set to replace Mark Thompson, who retired on August 17, 2012, after 25 years co-hosting The Mark & Brian Show on KLOS in Los Angeles, but during Thompson's final broadcast, co- host Brian Phelps announced that he, too, was quitting KLOS. In 2013, Jill moved on as co-host with Brian Phelps in The Brian And Jill Show. Whelan and Phelps share a love for improvisational comedy, and have created hundreds of characters together that they have performed both on the stage during improvisation shows and in sketches performed on their podcast.
Nitsche agrees that pre-recorded ("reel") machinima tends to be linear and offers limited interactive storytelling while machinima has more opportunities performed live and with audience interaction. In creating their improvisational comedy series On the Campaign Trail with Larry & Lenny Lumberjack and talk show Tra5hTa1k with ILL Will, the ILL Clan blended real and virtual performance by creating the works on-stage and interacting with a live audience. In another combination of real and virtual worlds, Chris Burke's talk show This Spartan Life takes place in Halo 2s open multiplayer environment. There, others playing in earnest may attack the host or his interviewee.
Farahnakian was born in Iran but grew up in North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1990. After college he moved to Chicago in 1990. While in Chicago he became involved in improvisational comedy and was a performer at Chicago's Second City, ImprovOlympic and was one of the original founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) along with other original UCB members such as Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz, and Adam McKay. In 2002 he founded The Peoples Improv Theater (The PIT) in New York City in honor of his mentor Del Close.
He played the fife, performing with other members of his family, and later joined a reenacting group portraying the 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot. He attributed his interest in history to this, earning a degree in the subject from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in 1984. While at Denison, Carell was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, a student-run improvisational comedy troupe, and was a goalie on the school's Big Red hockey team for four years. He also spent time as a disc jockey under the name "Sapphire Steve Carell" at WDUB, the campus radio station.
Inconvenient Molly (a web based sitcom co-created by Eliza Clark) At Yale University, she was a member of the improvisational comedy group Viola Question, and the sketch comedy group The Fifth Humour. Her plays have appeared at Provincetown Playhouse, and in the Yale Playwrights Festival at the Yale Repertory Theater, for three years in a row: "The Metaphysics of Breakfast" (2005), "Hiccup" (2006), and "Puppy." Her most recent play, "Edgewise" performed at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City in August 2008. She was the recipient of the 2010 P73 playwriting fellowship from Page 73 Productions.
Kiff VandenHeuvel (born Christopher Jon VandenHeuvel; April 24, 1970) is an American actor, director and teacher of both improvisational comedy and voiceover. He is the host of the award nominated voiceover podcast, All Over Voiceover with Kiff VH. His film credits include Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Nightcrawler, La La Land, and Behind the Candelabra, as Liberace's (Michael Douglas)'s half-brother, Wayne. He is best known for his work in BioShock Infinite as Zachary Hale Comstock, Skavak in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Walter in Telltale's The Walking Dead and as Cliff Rich on the Netflix series, Richie Rich.Snider, Mike.
Amy Poehler voices Bessie Higgenbottom, a 9¾ year old Honeybee scout. Poehler describes her as "superoptimistic and a super spaz" and "a bit bossy, but with good intentions". She is based on a character Poehler had played during her time at improvisational comedy troupes Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade, but also girls Poehler looked up to when she was younger, which she called "the leaders". Poehler provides the voice of Bessie only, but for the episode "Boston Beean", she provided the voice of Sissy Sullivan, a foreign Honeybee scout from Boston whose voice sounded exactly like Bessie's.
Stiller and Meara were among the earliest graduates of the Second City improvisational comedy troupe to become famous. When variety shows became scarce in the late 1970s, they had a syndicated short program, only five minutes long, which ran on the NBC affiliate in the Washington, D.C. market immediately after Saturday Night Live. They also created comical radio ads, such as for Blue Nun.Rein, Richard K. "Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara Had to Break Out of Their Act to Keep It Together" People, May 23, 1977 Their ads were so effective, they boosted sales the wine by 500%.
Henry joined the improvisational comedy group the Premise, whose ranks included George Segal and Theodore J. Flicker, performing in the West Village in Manhattan. This helped lead him into a television career. From 1959 to 1962, as part of an elaborate hoax by comedian Alan Abel, he made public appearances as G. Clifford Prout, the quietly outraged president of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, who presented his point of view on talk shows. The character of Prout wished to clothe all animals in order to prevent their 'indecency', using slogans such as "A nude horse is a rude horse".
After college, Austin moved to Los Angeles where he became a stage manager for the L.A. branch of San Francisco's famed improvisational comedy group, The Committee. It was here Austin worked as an improviser with Second City's Del Close and began to develop characters. When the Los Angeles company closed in 1969, Austin moved to San Francisco where he became a performing member of The Committee. After his departure from The Committee, Austin moved back to Los Angeles and worked at the newly-opened Comedy Store where he improvised with The Comedy Store Players, worked as emcee, and did stand-up.
Colbert at Florida State University Colbert appeared in a small supporting role in the 2005 film adaptation of Bewitched. He has made guest appearances on the television series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Spin City, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and on the first season of the US improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He voiced the characters of Reducto and Phil Ken Sebben in the Adult Swim's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, but left the show in 2005 to work on The Colbert Report. His characters were both killed, though he returned to voice Phil for the series finale.
Prior to working on Key & Peele, Dunn was a writer and performer on madTV, from 2005 to 2009. He has also appeared in Parks and Recreation, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, Game Shop, Burning Love, a small part on College Humor's "If Google Was a Guy" and currently co-stars in Superstore on NBC. Dunn hosted the comedy variety show RT-ES, produced by Rooster Teeth Productions, and co-starred in their sci-fi action comedy Lazer Team in 2016. He is an alumnus of the improvisational comedy group Boom Chicago and has performed and taught at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre since 1999.
Face Off Unlimited is an improvisational comedy production company based in New York City. In 2003, Jay Painter and Eric Robinson founded Friday Night Face Off, a weekly improvised comedy show in Port Jefferson, New York featuring two teams of comedic improvisers engaged in a mock competition, a concept originated by TheatreSports. Friday Night Face Off (often abbreviated as FNFO) has since become the longest continuously running improv comedy shows in Long Island history. In 2009, Painter and Robinson formed Face Off Unlimited, A Limited Liability Company, and brought on former FNFO creative director Joe Tex as Partner and Chief Operating Director.
Tuck attended the American International School of Dhaka in Bangladesh and Cardinal Heenan Roman Catholic High School and Notre Dame Sixth Form College in Leeds. As a child, he also lived in Sri Lanka, Denmark, Egypt, Malawi, Zimbabwe and The Philippines. He studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with a 2:2.Interview with Thom Tuck While at university, he performed with the Edinburgh University Theatre Company; acting in, writing and directing plays, including directing a piece written by playwright Sam Holcroft, and was a member of acclaimed improvisational comedy troupe The Improverts.
Television comedy is a category of broadcasting that has been present since the early days of entertainment media. While there are several genres of comedy, some of the first ones aired were variety shows. One of the first United States television programs was the comedy-variety show Texaco Star Theater, which was most prominent in the years that it featured Milton Berle - from 1948 to 1956. The range of television comedy has become broader, with the addition of sitcoms, improvisational comedy, and stand-up comedy, while also adding comedic aspects into other television genres, including drama and news.
Founded in 1911, it is one of the oldest humor magazines in the country. After a 17-year hiatus in which no magazine was published it has recently been revived, first in print form, and now in an online humor blog, as well as multiple social media outlets. Ohio State has two improvisational comedy groups, The 8th Floor Improv and Fishbowl Improv, who regularly perform long and short-form improv around campus and across the U.S. There are two student-run radio stations on campus. AROUSE, the music station, is home to over 100 student DJs, streaming music and independent content.
An avid tournament poker player, Nuss created and produced The Real Deal, the world's first live interactive poker show, staged at the Venetian Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The show featured poker stars Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, and Scotty Nguyen. As the youngest executive in the history of NBC, Nuss worked with legendary programmer Brandon Tartikoff, in developing Hill Street Blues, Fame, and St. Elsewhere. Originally from New York and Atlanta, Nuss graduated from Northwestern University where he developed the long running improvisational comedy review, The Mee-Ow Show.
Chicago Theatre Chicago is a major center for theater, and is the birthplace of modern improvisational comedy. The city is home to two renowned comedy troupes: The Second City and iO Theater (formerly known as ImprovOlympic). The form itself was invented at the University of Chicago in the 1950s by an undergraduate performance group called the Compass Players, whose members went on to found Second City. It was also home to one of the longest running plays in the country—the Neo- Futurists' Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, an ensemble of 30 plays in 60 minutes.
In 1985, Jeff matriculated at San Francisco State University, where he majored variously in broadcasting, political science, theater arts, and ultimately, creative writing. In college, Jeff was first exposed to guitar playing via friends in his dormitory, eventually trading his old saxophone for a guitar of his own. He took to the instrument extremely well with an apparent natural ability, and quickly proceeded to mastering rhythm guitar technique, which he used as a foundation for his subsequent songwriting. In 1986, Jeff pursued his love for improvisational comedy by cofounding the Ground Zero Comedy Troupe with his college roommate, Jeff Ballard.
It has bachelor's degree programs in visual arts, music, and art history, and, more recently, cinema and media studies (1996) and theater and performance studies (2002). The college's general education core includes a "dramatic, musical, and visual arts" requirement, inviting students to study the history of the arts, stage desire, or begin working with sculpture. Several thousand major and non-major undergraduates enroll annually in creative and performing arts classes. UChicago is often considered the birthplace of improvisational comedy as the Compass Players student comedy troupe evolved into The Second City improv theater troupe in 1959.
After suffering a career-ending knee injury as a walk- on linebacker for the 2007 Rose Bowl Champion USC Trojans, his focus immediately shifted to acting and improvisation. Ferrigno began his adult career in entertainment as a fitness model and commercial actor. Intensively studying the Meisner technique of dramatic acting and improvisational comedy at the Improv Olympic (iO West) and Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) in Los Angeles, he soon landed national spots for Comcast (2013), Carl's Jr. (2014), Oscar Mayer (2015), Honda (2015), T-Mobile (2016), Mopar (2016), Navy Federal Credit Union (2016), Subway (2017), and Dr Pepper (2018) to name a few.
In college, he majored in English and Communications, and he participated in an improvisational comedy troupe, The Sweaty-Toothed Madmen. Partly at the behest of his mother, Holmes had plans on becoming a youth pastor. This gave way to public speaking, and eventually his love for comedy and his devolving faith in God (he now refers to himself as "Christ-leaning" or jokingly, a "hooratheist") won over his need to preach. Holmes got married at 22, the same age he began performing stand-up comedy, and he divorced at 28 after his then-wife had an affair.
Hisham Fageeh was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Fageeh co-produced and starred in Saudi Arabia's submission to the Oscars for 2016's Best Foreign Film, "Barakah Meets Barakah". His work has been written about by The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, BBC, Variety, among others. Most-known for his 2013 viral video "No Woman, No Drive" which amassed more than 14 million views, Hisham started performing stand-up while working on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. During his Master's at Columbia University, he studied improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (UCBT).
Droege performed in the March, 2012 edition of Don't Tell My Mother, a monthly showcase event in which authors, screenwriters, actors, and comedians share true stories they would never want their mothers to know. He has directed several sketch comedy shows and Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera (winner, Best Ensemble, NY International Fringe Festival 2011 ) in Los Angeles. Droege was a member of improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings Sunday Company, where he currently performs and teaches. He also performs regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and plays a leading role in UCB's breakdancing movie musical, Freak Dance.
In 2015 she made her national television debut, appearing on Last Call with Carson Daly. Since then she has appeared several times on the competitive improvisational comedy show @midnight, "winning the Internet" in March 2016 and again in Jan 2017. She was featured on the Viceland comedy series Flophouse, in which Lance Bangs follows the lives of up-and-coming comedians at underground stand-up events, and in The Makings of a Stand-Up Comedian, a 2014 documentary film. She has also been featured on The Nerdist Podcast, Funny or Die, and The Don Geronimo Show.
After seeing an improvisational comedy show at iO Theater featuring Dave Koechner, Tim Meadows and Chris Farley, Besser began taking classes there. His improv group Victim's Family (alongside Rick Roman, Adam McKay, Miles Stroth, and Ian Roberts), later renamed The Family (minus Roman, plus Neil Flynn, and Ali Farahnakian), was directed by Del Close, the first long-form group Del focused on. Besser is a founding member of Upright Citizens Brigade, which began as a sketch comedy group in Chicago in 1990. Original members included Ian Roberts, Ali Farahnakian, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, and Horatio Sanz.
Harth was born in Galt, Ontario, Canada. He got his first role of acting as a kindergartner when the drama club cast the school's largest child to play Santa in their Christmas pageant. Involved in community theatre and improvisational comedy during high school, it wasn't until he relocated to Vancouver in 1989 that he seriously pursued acting full-time. Prior to landing his first professional gig in a TV commercial for a food chain, Harth toured the semi-pro wrestling circuit in Canada's small towns and provinces as The Bible Thumper, adorned in black robes with a cross shaved on his head.Aggressive-Voice.
His work includes being a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and the creator and star of the sitcom The Last Man on Earth. After obtaining a history degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and becoming a financial broker like his father, Forte changed his career path to comedy and took classes with the improvisational comedy group The Groundlings. Forte worked as a writer and producer on That '70s Show prior to auditioning for Saturday Night Live. He joined SNL in 2002, spending eight years as a cast member on the show, where he performed offbeat sketches.
Schneider is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has been a performer and teacher at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in New York City and Los Angeles, where she was a member of one of UCB's original improvisational comedy troupes Respecto Montalban. In 2002, her two-woman sketch show Eye Candy, which she wrote and starred in with her creative partner Dannah Phirman, was selected for HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. She has since collaborated with Phirman on other sketch shows such as Let's Get Awkward and Dead Heiresses at the Los Angeles UCB.
Beginning in late 1992 in Chicago, Fulcher began working on a new long-form improvisational comedy concept – a completely improvised university lecture that would become known as Modern Problems In Science. After several months of rehearsing, Fulcher, Dick Costolo and Phil Granchi launched the show at Chicago's Annoyance Theater under the direction of Tom Keevers. The show played at the Annoyance for more than a year, after which the group took the show to the 1994 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show became an underground hit and later toured at comedy festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada and Singapore, with a run at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London.
There were numerous gay establishments in Old Town (now mostly closed as Lake View is now the main gayborhood) along Wells Street and Old Town was home to the longstanding gay- themed Bijou Theater until it closed in September 2015. As Old Town gentrified, the LGBT population of the nearby Lake View neighborhood continued to increase, as well as the LGBT populations of the Lincoln Park and Andersonville areas. Old Town is home to the famous Second City improvisational comedy troupe which has launched the careers of many successful comedians and actors. Old Town has three "L" rapid transit stations: North/Clybourn, Sedgwick, and Clark/Division.
Roberts was born in Queens, New York, to parents Don and Penny Roberts, but spent the majority of his childhood in Secaucus, New Jersey, where he moved at age four.Comic who grew up in Secaucus stars in a new Spike TV series Roberts is a 1987 graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa, where he majored in theater. After graduating from college, Roberts moved to Milwaukee and eventually to Chicago where he became involved in improvisational comedy, studying improv under comedy legend Del Close. In the early 1990s, Roberts and Matt Besser (along with several other Chicago improv comics) would eventually form the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe.
Desperate for a change, he began attending comedy classes with friends at improvisational comedy enterprise the Second City in March 2003. He quickly realized that comedy was the creative outlet that he had needed since he made the decision to leave higher education behind, and soon Hader, his new compatriot in comedy Matt Offerman, and their two friends and fellow humor enthusiasts Eric Filipkowski and Mel Cowan, elected to form their own sketch comedy group. Christening their group Animals from the Future, the four frequently appeared to small audiences at backyard shows in Van Nuys. Matt's brother, actor Nick Offerman, told his wife, Megan Mullally, about the group.
His extended improvisational comedy based on a mythical lothario/detective was also heard on the sporadically-produced Hollywood Nightshift, which featured Phil Austin of the Firesign Theatre, as well as movie, TV actor and radio DJ, Michael C. Gwynne, who also ran the board and spun the records. There was never a script, contrary to popular reviews of the time. A 'topic' appeared spontaneously as the theme ran and announcer Laura Quinn got set to introduce 'the boys.' For several years Smith, along with Peter "Crabman" Crabbe, made an annual tradition of offering an alternate audio commentary to television coverage of the famous Tournament of Roses Parade.
For the station, Schwartz directed Cyrano D'Bergerac and International Hour - American Jazz as well as documentaries such as Women in Prison and The Unwed Mother. He was nominated for an Emmy for directing the 1963 The Ghost of Mr Kicks with Oscar Brown, Jr. While in Chicago, Schwartz studied at The Second City, an improvisational comedy enterprise that originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. He also appeared as a stand-up comic at The Chesterfield Supper Club, The Black Orchid, the Gate of Horn, and the Small World with Bill Daily and Ann Elder. In October 1963, Schwartz married Jayne Boyd Knoerzer, one of the first two original Doublemint Twins.
The Comedy Network televised the first two annual awards ceremonies, but due to lack of sponsorship the broadcast deal ended in 2001. In 2003, non-profit organization the Canadian Comedy Foundation for Excellence (CCFE) was incorporated to organize and promote the awards, and the ceremonies moved from Toronto to London, Ontario. The CCFE also organized the Canadian Comedy Awards Festival (CCAF), with showcase performances by the nominees in sketch, stand-up and improvisational comedy, workshops, seminars and special events leading up to the awards gala. As the festival grew during the following years, The Comedy Network began broadcasting Best of the Fest variety specials.
Adams was an ensemble member of the Chicago based improvisational comedy troupe Second City. She is a featured player in the DVD release of The Best of Second City, a compilation of some of the most memorable sketches that helped make Second City one of the United States' foremost comedy troupes. Adams was a lead player in the Second City TV pilot entitled 149 1/2 along with other players such as Steve Carell, Judith Scott and Jackie Hoffman. She performed with the troupe during the 1988 to 1994 seasons and in 2009 was invited to perform in the 50th anniversary celebration of Second City.
Co-founder Furious acting credits: The Fair Maid of the West Parts I & II, ImMEDIAte Theatre, Tearing the Loom, Scenes from the Big Picture, Mojo, The Playboy of the Western World, Saturday Night at the Palace, Improv Stunt Show Spectacular. Furious production credits: The Shape of Things (assistant director/sound design), Scenes from the Big Picture (co-sound design), Chimps (sound design), Mojo (sound engineer), The Playboy of the Western World (sound engineer), Noise (sound design/stage manager). With other theatres: Turnaround (sound design), Glass Onion house team at ImprovOlympic, Of Mice and Men, Pygmalion, Freudian Slip Improvisational Comedy (co-founder/director), Pirates of Penzance, The Fantasticks, Rimers of Eldritch.
The Antics are an improvisational comedy troupe formed in 2008, primarily of alumni of Sheffield Hallam University. They are popular at venues across Sheffield including the Lantern Theatre,Lantern Theatre Listing The Dorothy Pax, and The Montgomery Theatre. They made their Edinburgh Festival FringeEdinburgh Festival Fringe debut in 2010, and returned in 2011 for a second run entitled "Premature Ejokeulation", receiving a 3/5 rating from popular festival reviewer ThreeWeeks.ThreeWeeks Review 'Premature Ejokeulation' was also notable for being named #1 in Esquire's list of "How not to name your fringe act" shows,Esquire magazine article also placing #1 in the Edinburgh Festival Guide's Top 10 Punning Show Titles.
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (1997–2006) and for creating the comedy series 30 Rock (2006–2013, 2020) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020). Fey is also known for her work in film, including Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008), Date Night (2010), Megamind (2010), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Sisters (2015), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), Wine Country (2019), and Soul (2020). Fey broke into comedy as a featured player in the Chicago-based improvisational comedy group The Second City.
After a year at the Barn Theatre, alongside Jennifer Garner, he moved to Chicago and spent five years working his way up in The Second City improvisational comedy troupe. He then moved to Los Angeles and had his first television role in On the Spot, an improv sketch show which ran for five episodes on The WB in 2003. He credits his breakthrough to the 2005 HBO series The Comeback with Lisa Kudrow, in which he played Paulie G., a television writer who he describes as an "asshole". In 2010, he landed the recurring role of Bill Ponderosa on FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Many of New Zealand's prominent comedians have either come from Wellington or got their start there, such as Ginette McDonald ("Lyn of Tawa"), Raybon Kan, Dai Henwood, Ben Hurley, Steve Wrigley, Guy Williams, the Flight of the Conchords and the satirist John Clarke ("Fred Dagg"). The comedy group Breaking the 5th Wall operated out of Wellington and regularly did shows around the city, performing a mix of sketch comedy and semi- improvised theatre. In 2012 the group disbanded when some of its members moved to Australia. Wellington is home to groups that perform improvised theatre and improvisational comedy, including Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT), The Improvisors and youth group Joe Improv.
He was often used in games that required improvisational singing and usually partnered with Wayne Brady on Whose Line and Esten on Drew Carey's Green Screen Show or live tours. Davis was one of the rotating announcers on television's longest-running game show, The Price Is Right, after Rich Fields' departure, until George Gray was chosen as the next permanent announcer. Since June 2012, Davis has co-hosted the live improvisational comedy podcast Harmontown with Community creator Dan Harmon, which started taping at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. After a stint at the Starburns Castle in Burbank, the show is now being taped at Dynasty Typewriter at the Hayworth Theatre.
Johnny Olson, the announcer for many Goodson-Todman shows of the era, was the program's original announcer until his death in October 1985. Olson was replaced by Rod Roddy in February 1986, who remained with the program until shortly before his death in October 2003. Los Angeles meteorologist Rich Fields took over as the announcer in April 2004 and stayed on until the end of season 38 in August 2010. Following a change of direction and a search for an announcer with more experience in improvisational comedy, veteran TV host George Gray was confirmed as the show's current announcer on the April 18, 2011 episode.
Two theater members in front of the former building on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theater (BNW), is a sketch and improvisational comedy theater based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Started by Dudley Riggs in 1958, the artists of the BNW have been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy and improvisation performances for 62 years - longer than any other theater in the nation. Notable alumni of the BNW include Louie Anderson, Mo Collins, Tom Davis, Al Franken, Penn Jillette, Carl Lumbly, Paul Menzel, Pat Proft, Annie Reirson, Taylor Nikolai, Nancy Steen, Peter Tolan, Linda Wallem, Lizz Winstead, Peter MacNicol, Melissa Peterman, and Cedric Yarbrough.
During this time Slavens was taken on by Kim Dawson Talent Agency in Dallas Texas as an on camera actor and voice talent. Slavens also studied improvisational comedy with former Groundlings member Randy Bennet and became the Musical Director for the Fort Worth improv group Four Day Weekend, with whom he performed for several years before leaving to pursue his own musical improv show. While with Four Day Weekend he produced a live music and improv theater production called The Texclectic Radio Hour and a Half. The show was occasionally sponsored by Dallas NPR affiliate KERA and in 2004 Slavens was taken on as a host for the long-running 90.1 @ Night show on Sunday evenings.
In 1982, Ellen Holbrook, a former student at Second City in Chicago and a producer of the Chicago Improv Olympic, moved to Boston with the idea to found an improvisational comedy troupe similar to Second City. Holbrook had the encouragement of former members of The Proposition, an earlier improv-comedy troupe, and Director David Shepherd, the founder of the Compass Players and the Improv Olympic. In the beginning, she assembled and trained several loosely knit bands of improvisers into teams that competed in the Boston "Improv Olympic" at Reilly's Beef and Pub near Government Center. Holbrook also arranged for David Shepherd and Second City's Michael Gellman to come to Boston to teach improv workshops to local performers.
O'Heir was active in the Chicago theater during the late 1980s and early 1990s, training and performing improvisational comedy at Chicago's Second City and as a member of the six-person sketch comedy troupe "White Noise", which formed in 1987. The group wrote and produced comedic plays that often employed bizarre humor or black comedy. Starting in November 1988, O'Heir appeared in White Noise's production of The Book of Blanche, about a woman who falls through a television screen and ends up in a fantasy world influenced by various television show genres. In July 1989, O'Heir appeared in the Chicago premiere of the Tom Griffin play The Boys Next Door at the Edgewater Theatre Center.
Catherine Anne O'Hara (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian-American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Genie Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Canadian Screen Awards. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2018 and was honored with the Governor General's Performing Arts Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award in 2020. O'Hara first drew notice as an actress in 1974 as a member of The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Toronto. She landed her first significant television role in 1975 starring opposite John Candy and Dan Aykroyd in the main cast of the Canadian sitcom Coming Up Rosie (1975–1978).
Harmontown was a weekly live comedy podcast that aired from June 16, 2012 to December 3, 2019. It was hosted by writer Dan Harmon, best known as the creator of the television series Community and Rick and Morty, and actor Jeff B. Davis, best known for his work on the improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway? Harmontown began as a monthly live comedy show in Los Angeles, California, at the NerdMelt Showroom on May 23, 2011, but the show became weekly after Harmon was fired from Community. Since mid-2012, each episode of Harmontown had been recorded and released as a podcast, first by Feral Audio through 2017, then Starburns Audio starting in 2018.
Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American actor, singer, comedian, producer, game show host, television personality and presenter, who is a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? He was the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show, the original host of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and has hosted Let's Make a Deal since its 2009 revival. Brady also performed in the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots on Broadway as Simon—who is also drag queen Lola—from November 2015 to March 2016, and as James Stinson on the American TV series How I Met Your Mother.
Stone started acting at age four; she wanted a career in sketch comedy initially, but shifted her focus toward musical theater, and took voice lessons for several years. Her acting debut, at the age of 11, came in a stage production of The Wind in the Willows, playing the part of Otter. The actress was homeschooled for two years, during which time she appeared in sixteen productions at Phoenix's Valley Youth Theatre—including The Princess and the Pea, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat—and performed with the theater's improvisational comedy troupe. Around this time, she traveled to Los Angeles and auditioned unsuccessfully for a role in Nickelodeon's All That.
The Vic & Paul Show (2010-11) After a 22-year hiatus, the Practical Theatre Company reemerged in June 2010 when Barrosse, Zielinski and Rashid opened The Vic & Paul Show in Los Angeles. They brought the improvisational comedy revue to Chicago for a one-week run in June 2011: the first PTC show in Chicago in 23 years. The Vic & Paul Show returned to Chicago in December 2011 for a two-week run at Mayne Stage in the north side Rogers Park neighborhood. In the summer of 2012, The Vic & Paul Show played The Beverly Arts Center in Chicago, The 14th Street Theatre in Cleveland's Playhouse Square, and the iO West Theatre in Los Angeles.
In June 2012 she composed music for and acted in a presentation of The Cypher at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles. She has studied acting at The New School and Stella Adler in New York City and Playhouse West in Los Angeles, as well as improvisational comedy at Upright Citizen's Brigade in Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles she was a performing member in multiple improv troupes, including the house team SCOUT! at Neon Venus Art Theater in Hollywood and has been hired for comedic roles such as a Skype commercial titled "What If We Always Had It?" where she plays a medieval matchmaker in the vein of Mike Meyers' "Coffee Talk" character on SNL.
In 2002, Playhouse Square opened the 14th Street Theatre as a home for Second City Cleveland and a venue for improvisational comedy, musical comedy and avant-garde fare, often for extended runs. The venue was closed in 2013 and transformed into the private dining space Cibreo Privato, part of the Italian restaurant Cibreo operated by Driftwood Restaurant Group. In 2003, the area of East 14th Street near Playhouse Square was renamed Memory Lane-Bob Hope Way in honor of the longtime Cleveland resident to commemorate the entertainer's 100th birthday. Playhouse Square and Cleveland's public broadcasting stations conducted a joint capital campaign to transform the One Playhouse Square Building into the Idea Center at Playhouse Square.
After graduation, he attended Boston University and began auditioning for acting schools. He was turned down by several schools, including Juilliard, and twice by Carnegie-Mellon, before being accepted at the California Institute of the Arts and moving to California, where he worked in restaurant kitchens and as a Fuller Brush salesman. In the 1970s, Reubens performed at local comedy clubs and made four guest appearances on The Gong Show as part of a boy–girl act he had developed with Charlotte McGinnis, called The Hilarious Betty and Eddie. He soon joined the Los Angeles–based improvisational comedy team The Groundlings and remained a member for six years, working with Bob McClurg, John Paragon, Susan Barnes, and Phil Hartman.
The same month, Ryan's audiobook recording of William Saroyan's The Human Comedy was released. In October 2013, it was reported that Ryan would be returning to television to produce and star in a new comedy for NBC revolving around a former hotshot New York editor, for which it again failed to get production approval. Following another four-year hiatus, Ryan re-teamed with Lisa Kudrow on her improvisational comedy series Web Therapy, for which she filmed five episodes in 2013. The following year, she provided the future voice of Greta Gerwig's character in the pilot of How I Met Your Dad, a woman-centric variation of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
After college, Walsh took improvisational comedy classes in Chicago, where he would become a regular performer at the Annoyance Theater and ImprovOlympic, where he studied under Del Close. In 1991, he met comedian Matt Besser, with whom he began performing stand-up comedy. Along with Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, and Ian Roberts, he is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy troupe and played "Trotter" in the troupe's sketch comedy series, which ran for three seasons on Comedy Central. Before the show, the UCB comedy foursome had already been doing improv shows at their theatre in New York, which used to be a burlesque house before they remodeled it to become a theatre.
In the comedy circuit, Toksvig performed at the first night of the Comedy Store in London, and was once part of their Players, an improvisational comedy team.Comedy Store Players Official Site – History -retrieved on 16 May 2008 In television, she appeared as a panellist in comedy shows such as Call My Bluff (a regular as a team captain), Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Mock the Week, QI, and Have I Got News for You, where she appeared on the first episode in 1990.Have I Got News For You episode guide at TV.com — retrieved on 16 May 2008 She was also the host of What the Dickens, a Sky Arts quiz show.
St. James Theatre on Courtenay Place, the main street of Wellington's entertainment district Wellington is home to BATS Theatre, Circa Theatre, the National Maori Theatre company Taki Rua, Whitireia Performance Centre, National Dance & Drama School Toi Whakaari and the National Theatre for Children at Capital E in Civic Square. St James' Theatre on Courtenay Place is a popular venue for artistic performances. Wellington is home to groups that perform Improvised Theatre and Improvisational comedy, including Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) an Improvisors and youth group, Joe Improv. Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, houses New Zealand's University-level school of Dance and Drama, Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School & New Zealand School of Dance, and Whitireia Performing Arts Centre.
Sanders was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota - the eldest of three brothers - and grew up in Saint Paul where he graduated from St. Paul Central High School in 1998. While in high school he participated in Central Touring Theatre Company (alongside fellow comedians Nick Swardson and Colton Dunn) as well as the swim team and later began performing at ComedySportz in Minneapolis. Sanders worked at Bryant-Lake Bowl doing sound for comedy shows, while briefly attending the University of Minnesota. He then moved to New York City in 2001 where he began regularly performing improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (UCBT), where he was a member of the improv groups "Police Chief Rumble" and "Reuben Williams".
Homens da Luta (Men of the Struggle) is a Portuguese improvisational comedy and musical street performance group consisting of brothers Vasco Duarte (Falâncio) and Nuno Duarte "Jel" (Neto). Their songs are a parody of songs sung during the period after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, and the characters played are caricatures of the revolutionary singers of the time, such as Zeca Afonso and José Mário Branco. Homens da Luta often use the term "struggle" to invoke slogans that became famous during the revolutionary era, such as "A Luta Continua" (The Struggle Goes On). In 2010 Homens da Luta released an mp3 album called "A Canção é uma arma" (The song is a weapon) consisting of 14 songs.
Swedish actors performing in theatresports, a competitive form of improv Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script. Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product.
The invitational festival, begun in the spring of 1999 and now entering its 20th year, includes troupes from other colleges, including Cornell, Wesleyan University, and Columbia University. On the weekend of the annual Harvard-Yale football game, the Immediate Gratification Players either host or travel to a show which also stars an improvisational comedy troupe from Yale.Yaledailynews.comHarvard.edu Along with on-campus shows, they also play at Boston's Improv Asylum and at comedy clubs in New York City. Beyond the northeast, the Immediate Gratification Players have played in Florida, Los Angeles, Texas, Chicago, San Francisco, and London. Apart from a traditional long form, free-form, the Immediate Gratification Players annually perform shows in specialty forms such as the “dinner party” and “radio show” formats.
Slattery first broke into television as a regular performer on Chris Tarrant's follow up to O.T.T., Saturday Stayback (1983), while also appearing for children in Behind the Bike Sheds and the Saturday- morning show TX. By 1989 he was a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, starred in his own improvisational comedy series, S&M;, alongside Mike McShane, and appeared on other panel quizzes such as Have I Got News for You. He was a regular on the TV version of the quiz show Just a Minute and was also on the radio version several times, including the live version held at the Edinburgh Festival. As a dramatic actor he has appeared in The Crying Game, To Die For, Peter's Friends and The Wedding Tackle.
The largest service groups include S.A.V.E. (Supporting American Veterans Everywhere), S.H.A.R.E., S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions), AAPA (African Anti Poverty Association), Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Alliance for Equality (the first gay-straight alliance in Westchester), Students for Social Justice, AIDS Awareness, improvisational comedy troupe The Puritans, Engineering Club, Silent Earth: Greening Greeley, and Amnesty International. Peer leadership is also a popular student/faculty-run organization on campus that gives older students a chance to help acclimate younger students to the high school environment. Another main club is the Federal Reserve Challenge Club. The Fed Challenge Club is an economic club that sends students every year to the New York Federal Reserve to compete in the fed's annual High School Fed Challenge.
Yang's high school calculus teacher, Adrian Holguin, was also his coach for Smoky Hill High School's improvisational comedy group, Spontaneous Combustion. Holguin noted that Yang was not only "very smart", but also "had the ability to see things from an alternative perspective." Yang cites Holguin's coaching influence in "helping him craft his comedic sensibilities," while his former teacher says he stressed that all his improv students should develop "characterization and honest reactions" in their works. Yang graduated from Smoky Hill High School in 2008 where he was voted "Most Likely to Be a Cast Member on Saturday Night Live" in the yearbook superlatives. When he was seventeen, Yang's father found out Bowen was gay from an “open chat window” on the family’s computer.
The culture of Columbus, Ohio, is particularly known for museums, performing arts, sporting events, seasonal fairs and festivals, and architecture of various styles from Greek Revival to modern architecture. The downtown area hosts diversity: for much of its history, Columbus has oriented itself around forms of performing arts, such as improvisational comedy, and music, such as Chicago blues and soul. The city continues to cultivate a strong classical music, popular music, dance and performing arts tradition, rooted in western civilization, as well as other traditions carried forward by its American, African, Asian, European, and Hispanic citizens. The city is additionally known for various popular culinary dishes, notably the deep-dish pizza, the Chicago-style hot dog and the Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich.
From there, she started taking singing and acting lessons as a teenager. She became involved in her high school's theater program, starring in (and occasionally directing) many of the school's plays and musicals, including a production of The Sound of Music, in which she played the lead role of Maria. While studying acting at the Stella Adler School of Dramatic Arts, Wilson originally set out to be a dramatic actress, but later started to focus on comedy at the suggestion of an acting teacher. After graduating from NYU in 2002, Wilson and her best friend from college, June Diane Raphael, began studying improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City, where they eventually ran their two-woman sketch show for a number of years.
Bell at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Shortly after the cancellation of Veronica Mars in early 2007, Bell filmed on location in Hawaii for a starring role as the title character in the Judd Apatow comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She regarded the improvisational comedy in the film as "a lovely experience". The film, written by and also starring Jason Segel, was released theatrically on April 18, 2008, and greatly increased Bell's profile. Bell lent her voice and likeness to the video game Assassin's Creed, which was released on November 13, 2007, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and April 8, 2008, for the PC. Bell reprised her role of Lucy in Assassin's Creed II released on November 17, 2009, and again in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, released on November 16, 2010.
ITV has produced five series of the police drama Blue Murder, in which Quentin plays against type in the main role DCI Janine Lewis. The pilot aired in the UK on 18 May 2003. Quentin has appeared in Whose Line Is It Anyway?; in a pre-Men Behaving Badly role as a traffic warden in the Mr. Bean episode "The Trouble with Mr. Bean" in 1991; Room 101; Have I Got News for You; and the 2009–10 BBC comedy series Life of Riley, a sitcom about a dysfunctional blended family; and in the BBC Radio 4 improvisational comedy series The Masterson Inheritance, the Radio 4 comedy Any Bloke (starred with Jim Sweeney who was also in The Masterson Inheritance) and the popular BBC Radio 2 sitcom On the Blog.
Stephen Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert at the 2006 Time 100 While at Northwestern, Colbert studied with the intent of becoming a dramatic actor; mostly he performed in experimental plays and was uninterested in comedy. He began performing improvisation while in college, both in the campus improv team No Fun Mud Piranhas and at the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago as a part of Del Close's ImprovOlympic at a time when the project was focused on competitive, long-form improvisation, rather than improvisational comedy. "I wasn't gonna do Second City", Colbert later recalled, "because those Annoyance people looked down on Second City because they thought it wasn't pure improv – there was a slightly snobby, mystical quality to the Annoyance people". After Colbert graduated in 1986, however, he was in need of a job.
Meadows began performing improvisational comedy at the Soup Kitchen Saloon. Meadows' start in show business was in Chicago as a member of The Second City comedy troupe alongside future star Chris Farley. In 1991, Meadows landed a spot on Saturday Night Live and would go on to become a longtime cast member, appearing on the program until 2000. (Meadows was on the show for ten seasons; this was the record for the longest tenure on the show until it was surpassed by Darrell Hammond in 2005, whose record was also surpassed by Kenan Thompson in 2017.) Meadows' lengthy tenure on the show was used as a gag in three monologues when former cast members Phil Hartman and Mike Myers returned to the show to host, and when Alec Baldwin hosted for his twelfth time.
In 1962, Schaal joined Chicago's Second City, becoming skilled in sketch and improvisational comedy. He was featured in a number of episodes of the 1970s sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show (where he played no fewer than four different characters: Howard Arnell, his brother Paul, Chuckles the Clown and Dino), The Bob Newhart Show (as three characters: Don Fezler, Don Livingston and Chuck Brock), Rhoda (as Charlie Burke) and Phyllis (23 episodes as Leo Heatherton). His earliest appearance with Mary Tyler Moore was in the 1966 Dick Van Dyke Show episode "Dear Sally Rogers" (billed as Dick Schaal).The Dick Van Dyke Show, "Dear Sally Rogers" (1966): Full Cast & Crew In both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, the actor played alongside his then wife Valerie Harper.
They didn't complete their degrees but ended up living together and first were members of So You're a Man, and then later forming Flight of the Conchords. As Flight of the Conchords they have toured internationally and released four CDs: Folk the World Tour in 2002,The Distant Future (which won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album) in 2007, the Grammy nominated Flight of the Conchords in 2008, and I Told You I Was Freaky in 2009. The Conchords produced a six-part improvisational comedy radio program for the BBC and have appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. After a successful appearance in 2005 on HBOs One Night Stand, the Conchords were offered their own 12-part HBO series Flight of the Conchords.
The Practical Theatre Company was founded in 1979 under the name Attack Theater at Northwestern University by Brad Hall, Paul Barrosse, Robert Mendel, and Angela Murphy as a not for profit theater company dedicated to the production of improvisational comedy and new plays. The company's first show, Clowns, a play about two improvisational comedians written and performed by artistic directors Hall and Barrosse, opened on April 11, 1979 at Shanley Hall on the NU campus. In September of '79, Attack Theatre's inaugural season closed with a pair of one-act plays staged at National College of Education: Playgrounds by Hall and On the Fritzz by Grace McKeaney and Lewis Black with a cast featuring Laura Innes. In 1980, after officially changing its name to The Practical Theatre Company, the group moved to Evanston's Noyes Cultural Arts Center for its second season.
A frame from one of the opening sequences for Whose Line?, used from 1994 to 1998 In 1988, Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson came up with the concept for the show, revolving around games focused on creating improvisational comedy, using a group of performers. As part of their concept, Patterson and Leveson devised the show's title as a comedic riposte to a radio programme that had recently moved to television at the time, What's My Line, merged with the title of a 1972 teleplay (and eventual theatrical play) Whose Life Is It Anyway?. After pitching it to the BBC, the show was given the green light to run as a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 - this early incarnation ran for six episodes, with Clive Anderson as host, and both John Sessions and Stephen Fry as the programme's regulars.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is, historically, the first ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has since become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the world. The Second City has produced television programs in both Canada and the United States, including SCTV, Second City Presents, and Next Comedy Legend. Since its debut, The Second City has consistently been a notable starting point for comedians, award-winning actors, directors, and others in show business, including Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Candy, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Del Close, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Nia Vardalos, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and many others.
In 1988, while still working as an accountant, Sweeney enrolled in classes with the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, eventually being selected to be part of the troupe's Sunday Company. It was at The Groundlings that she began to develop characters, which she would later bring to the stage, film, and television. They include Mea Culpa, the title character of Mea's Big Apology (co-written by then-husband Stephen Hibbert), which won the Best Written Play Award from L.A. Weekly in 1988 and has been developed by Sweeney (in collaboration with Jim Emerson) into a screenplay; and the androgynous Pat, whose impossible-to-determine gender was the basis for Sweeney's popular It's Pat! skits on Saturday Night Live, and later for her feature film of the same name, which was pulled from theaters after one week due to its immensely negative reception.
She also took on controversial roles, such as Mistress Lisa in Exit to Eden, where one film critic commented "The script was awful—Dana looked great." The provocatively titled Live Nude Girls included frank discussion by women of their sexual fantasies at a bachelorette party using a low-budget improvisational comedy format with strong chemistry between the actors. Reviews were mixed: Los Angeles Times critic Richard Natale liked the film but wrote older male film executives believed it to be "uncommercial"; another critic agreed it was "genuine girl talk" but "didn't have a lot of substance" and viewers "don't get to know the characters in the film". She also starred as Margaret Sanger in the TV movie Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story (1995), about the controversial nurse who crusaded for women's reproductive rights in the early 1900s.
A native of Oregon, Julie Payne was born in the small city of Sweet Home,"Comedienne coming home" (Eugene Register-Guard, July 25, 1976) {includes photograph} near the lake and river areas adjoining the Cascade Range. Growing up in the state's second-largest city, Eugene, she attended South Eugene High School where she performed in a number of school productions, including The Music Man, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Lark and Once Upon a Mattress. Graduating in 1964, she moved to California, where she attended Santa Clara University, majoring in drama, and San Francisco State University, majoring in French. Leaving without a degree, she traveled to Europe, where she hitchhiked through various locations and, upon returning to San Francisco during the 1967 Haight-Ashbury "Summer of Love", became a member of the improvisational comedy/satire group, The Committee, remaining with it, on and off, until 1974.
Chicago's 58 million tourist visitors in 2018 set a new record, and Chicago has been voted the best large city in the U.S. for four years in a row by Condé Nast Traveler.It's a four-peat: Chicago again voted best large city by Condé Nast Traveler readers Tribune Content Agency, 18 October 2020 The city was ranked first in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index, a global urban quality of life survey of 15,000 people in 32 cities. Landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis (Sears) Tower, Grant Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, literature, film, theatre, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, and music, particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and electronic dance music including house music.
Improvisational comedy is a theatre art performed throughout the world and has had on-again, off-again status throughout history. Some of the more famous improv theatres and training centers in the world include: i.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic) in Chicago and Los Angeles, The Second City in Chicago and Toronto, The Players Workshop in Chicago, National Comedy Theatre in San Diego, New York and Phoenix, Upright Citizens Brigade, the Peoples Improv Theater, the Magnet Theater in New York, The Groundlings in Los Angeles, BATS Improv (Bay Area Theatre Sports) in San Francisco, Wing-It Productions in Seattle, Philly Improv Theater in Philadelphia, Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, ComedySportz in Milwaukee, Theatresports in Calgary and Improv Comedy Copenhagen. There are also many well known university improv teams, including Theatre Strike Force at the University of Florida, Gigglepants at the University of Texas at Austin, and Erasable Inc.
David Michael Koechner ( ; born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian, best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the Anchorman films and Todd Packer on NBC's The Office. Koechner first became involved in performing when he began studying improvisational comedy in Chicago at ImprovOlympic, under the teachings of Del Close, before joining the Second City Northwest. Koechner relocated to New York City in 1995, doing year long stints of sketch comedy as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1995–1996) and as a sketch regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the mid 1990s. In 1997, Koechner moved to Los Angeles and started working regularly in various film and television comedies, making his first film appearances with small roles in the films such as Wag the Dog, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Man on the Moon.
Spolin influenced the first generation of modern American improvisers at The Compass Players in Chicago, which led to The Second City. Her son, Paul Sills, along with David Shepherd, started The Compass Players. Following the demise of the Compass Players, Paul Sills began The Second City. They were the first organized troupes in Chicago, and the modern Chicago improvisational comedy movement grew from their success.The story of the Compass Players and its development into The Second City is told by first-hand interviews in Jeffrey Sweet's book "Something Wonderful Right Away" (Limelight Editions, 2004)Janet Coleman's "The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy" (Centennial Publications of The University of Chicago Press, 1991). Many of the current "rules" of comedic improv were first formalized in Chicago in the late 1950s and early 1960s, initially among The Compass Players troupe, which was directed by Paul Sills.
Steam Powered Giraffe (SPG) is an American steampunk musical comedy project formed in San Diego in 2008, self-described as "a musical act that combines robot pantomime, puppetry, ballet, comedy, projections, and music". Created and led by identical twins David Michael Bennett and Isabella "Bunny" Bennett, the act combines music and improvisational comedy on-stage, although their studio works focus almost solely on music. Steam Powered Giraffe has its own fictional mythology, with the band members portraying characters both on stage and on record; its fictional universe has been explored via several comic books mainly written and drawn by Isabella Bennett. Although the band underwent several line-up changes, it always focuses primarily on three robot characters (played by the Bennett siblings and a third performer, although the original line-up featured four robots), with several "humans" assisting and performing comedy, music and dancing on stage, and several smaller robots being performed via puppetry or voice acting.
Arkin had an "introducing" credit in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) and brief appearances in Valley of the Dolls (1967), All the President's Men (1976), and Cannonball (1976). His television credits include Hawaii Five-O, Whitney and the Robot, and a season-long appearance as the character Gabriel Kaye in the CBS television series Storefront Lawyers, co- starring Robert Foxworth and Sheila Larken. He also appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and on the Joey Bishop and the Steve Allen late night shows with the Hollywood Sunset Strip improvisational comedy troupe The Session (which included Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Larry Bishop, Bobbie Shaw-Chance, Marj Dusay, and Phil Mishkin); he later performed with The Second City touring troupe. Arkin wrote Human Cargo: Great Escapes, which his wife Anne E. Curry later produced with their company Old Dime Box Productions for the Showtime television network as Escape: Human Cargo; it starred Treat Williams and was filmed in Israel.
During this time frame, the emcee was Andi Matheny. Although the games played on the show were familiar to fans of improvisational comedy, and the show's title and opening suggested that it was improvised, the performers in fact had advance knowledge of the challenges and had already rehearsed the sketches weeks in advance. (As the show's hosts explained at the beginning of each episode while laying out the rules, "we allow [the contestants] to cheat," although how much time the contestants were given to rehearse was never specified on air.) The show launched with a limited-run pilot season in 1995, which was distributed by Hearst-Argyle Television (via their Milwaukee station, WISN-TV, which helped to coordinate the pilot tapings) and Beau & Arrow to stations throughout the Midwest during the test run. Nationally, the show debuted on September 20, 1996 and was canceled in the midst of its third season in 1999 (during which time the spelling of its title was altered to Quick Witz).
Then, with Holly Robinson Peete, he co-hosted the 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards on March 4, 2011. On May 3, 2011, he appeared on Dancing With The Stars as the lead performer in a tribute to James Brown, celebrating what would have been Brown's 78th birthday in the Macy's Stars of Dance segment. He has also been a special guest of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza on GSN. Brady made a cameo in the 2011 song "Dedication To My Ex (Miss That)" by Lloyd featuring Lil Wayne and Andre 3000, narrating Lil Wayne's section of the song. He appeared as a special guest star in the March 14, 2012, episode of the TV series Psych. Brady starred in the 2012 ABC improvisational comedy series Trust Us with Your Life, and returned for the revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the summer of 2013. Brady guest-starred as Don in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Where's Pinky?" on June 7, 2013, and for one week, February 9 to 13, 2015, guest-hosted The Late Late Show on CBS.
The move to television came with an immediate problem - although the adaptation was aimed at maintaining the same regular cast as the radio show alongside a rotation of guest performers, Fry had begun to dislike performing improvisational comedy and opted to pull out of the show before filming began, leaving Sessions, convinced by him, to remain as a regular performer for the first series. Whose Line was a success, effectively helping with the careers of its regular performers, Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, and Tony Slattery, and was boosted by the introduction of Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Greg Proops, reaching its peak by the end of the sixth series. The latter halves of the third and fourth series were filmed in New York, while the tenth series was filmed entirely at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. By the end of the tenth series, having run for 136 episodes between 1988 and 1999, Channel 4 decided to axe the programme following the eventual slump in the show's viewing figures.

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