Improv As An Artform w/ Lisa Woods

This episode will focus on Improv as an ongoing artform. Speaking with Lisa Woods who has delved into nearly every class that has been available to her in all different types of improv, Lisa takes her craft seriously. We at For The Love of Improv have a strong belief that Improv is never perfected, and is always being learned. We can all improve and we are all perfect as we are right in this moment.

_______________

Lisa started improvising as a New Year’s resolution. Starting at a Playground Night at Reno Improv eventually led to classes, and performing, leading jams, and teaching. Falling in love with the art of it, Lisa became a Jack of all trades in her craft taking classes as far as they could go, leading online jams through COVID, doing stand-up, and even clowning. Lisa has written sketch comedy and performed her own shows. Like Katie, her latest passion is clowning and absurdity in performance art. 

Where Stand-up & Improv Meet w/ Kat Simmons

What does Stand-up comedy and improv have in common? Well, let’s break it down. If one is the loneliest number, carry the two for duo improv, multiply by an improv team of 7 and divide and conquer. What do you get? Um….a really weird math problem that makes no sense. Don’t worry, in this episode of For The Love of Improv, stand-up comedian, Kat Simmons, is going to sort it all out for us. Not only has she performed standup professionally for decades, she dabbled in improv for many years. If anyone can help us understand the connection between stand-up and improv, it’s Kat Simmons.

_______________

Kat Simmons is a 35 year veteran of the international comedy club circuit. You may have seen her at The Improvs, Catch A Rising Star, or on the Comedy Channel, Fox’s Comedy Tonight, or Candid Camera. She has appeared with Tim Allen, Rob Schneider and Kevin Nealon to name a few. She toured with The 3 Blonde Moms, and won the eWomen Network’s international talent contest in Dallas in 2009. She also presented a TedTalk titled “Create Your Life by Honoring Your Own Voice” Kat has taught stand up comedy workshops for 26 years in Minden, NV. 

Clowning w/ Chad Damiani

Improv and clowning have gone hand in hand for centuries, even before improv as we know it in America was invented. Tonight we will speak with world renowned clown, Chad Damiani about how improv affects clowning and what improvisers can learn from the ancient art of the clown. 

_______________

Chad Damiani is a clown and improviser based in LA. He is one of the pioneers of LA’s contemporary clown scene – having performed over 600 shows with his groundbreaking improv/clown duo, Jetzo. He’s also an original member of The Murge (the former flagship show of The Idiot Workshop) and Dr. Brown Builds a Show at The Lyric Hyperion. The latter ensemble currently appears on the FX comedy show CAKE. He works as a clown consultant and performer for Spiegelworld, the largest circus company in America. He also recently served as a clown choreographer on the upcoming TV show The Broadcast, produced by The Duplass Brothers, and founded and performs in Clown Zoo – a weekly outdoor event that mixes clown and theatrical mask. Chad has traveled all over North America – teaching and performing his clown-inspired standup routines. One of his characters appeared on the 2020 season of America’s Got Talent. 

Improv In Real Life w/ Joe Van Haecke

Your life is one big improv stage and you get to play any character you want. In any given situation, most of us are just making it up as we go anyway. Why not make improv off-stage as fun as it is on stage? From supporting your scene partner, to active listening, to getting to the real relationship behind the words, improv skills seriously translate to real life. Joe Van Haecke has dedicated his life to sharing improv skills with the world for personal and professional development among fellow humans. 

_______________

For over 20 years, Joe has studied, performed, and coached improv. As the Chief of Inspiration at Inspire Me Mr V, Joe brings improv into business, education, and 1:1 coaching. Improv skills help us be better communicators, better collaborators, and stronger leaders. Improv is not just for actors anymore!

Solo Improv w/ Mike Brown

Who better to kick off season two than Mike Brown talking about Solo improv? In this episode we will talk about all things solo improv, Mike’s amazing travels around the world playing and teaching improv, and some deeper issues around our love of this amazing art form. Stay tuned, this episode is in production and on it’s way to your ears! Check back soon for its release.

“Mike Brown’s Biography is the biography of Mike Brown.” – Perd Hapley

Mike is an improviser, teacher, producer, casting director, and YouTuber living in New York City who occasionally moonlights as a flight attendant just, you know, to pay the rent.

His impressive toy collection seems to impress only himself, and he takes much pride in it.

Though not the founder of Solo Improv, Mike considers himself a pioneer in this area, and has made it his signature style of improvisation since 2009.

In 2017, he was brought on to teach full time at the People’s Improv Theater (NYC), and simultaneously produced a running monthly show (Fury: Earth’s Mightiest Improv), and a yearly Halloween themed show (The Improvised Escape Room) on the same stages.

In the months leading up to the global pandemic, Mike took a job touring internationally with BeerProv, a short-form improv show performing nightly aboard the MSC Meraviglia, a cruise ship sailing through Eastern Canada and the Caribbean.

Mike met his wife in improv class. They once did an improvised musical together about ants bravely defending their colony against scorpions. Mike’s character turned out to be a traitor. All the ants died.

Courtney Ropp

Courtney has been performing improv and theater on and off since high school. She was a Combat Photographer & Videographer in the US Army for 6.5yrs. Currently, she works freelance on film and photo sets and is the Media Director at Good Luck Macbeth.  Courtney is in preproduction for a feature film she wrote with previous guest, Taylor Riedeman. 

In this episode we ask the question: what does a scene need? Courtney offers some tools and tricks to use on  stage when a scene falls flat, gets stuck in negotiation or is just plain boring.  We also discuss how to know when to add something or when it’s a good idea to just leave a scene alone. When one of us royally messes up an improv game (what? there are no mistakes in improv, I say!), we talk about the very fundamental improv concept of “listen and respond” and turn the clock back to 1974 when John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd became a strong improv duo.   We hope you can join us on our 6th episode of “For The Love Of Improv”!

Aurora Boles

Aurora Boles is a Co-founder, player, and Level 1 teacher at Reno Improv. As a graphic designer and stop motion artist, she is the creative mastermind behind most of Reno Improv’s branding and digital marketing.  Aurora performs regularly  at Reno Improv on her team, ‘Sensitive People.’  You can also find her most Saturday nights at Reno Improv hosting the Playground and helping out with weekly shows. 

In this podcast, we talk to Aurora about short form.  After teaching the Level 1 class at Reno Improv for many years, she is well versed in short form, warmups and games that teach beginning students the fundamentals of improv.  Not only do they learn how to “yes, and,” Aurora shows them the importance of listening, heightening, supporting your scene partner, and much more.

You’ll hear us talk to Aurora about the difference between short form and long form. We will hit on topics like the Harold (not a dude, but rather another improv form), organic transformation (not a science experiment, but an improv warm up,) and eggs (not a typo, but… well, just listen to the podcast).  Hope you can join us on this 5th episode of For The Love Of Improv!

Tim Mahoney

Tim Mahoney is an improv coach and teacher at Reno Improv. He would rather be doing improv than almost anything else (who wouldn’t?), so you’ll see that beautiful, bearded face consistently around the improv scene, at conventions, or anything improv-related.  

In this episode we talk narrative improv, secondary characters, Theatre Sports, and much, much, much, much, much more. (Let’s just say, Tim is never at a loss for words and that’s why we love having him on our podcast!).

We also experiment with the 8-step narrative format on which he bases his newest improv group, Ghost’s performance that looks something like this.

 Justin Kavanagh

This episode is dedicated to the late, great, and hilarious Brad Vance. Dear Brad, although your play has ended, your spirit will continue to grace our stage and our hearts for now and always. 

Join us for a very special episode of “For the Love of Improv: Remembering Brad Vance”  As we grieve for the loss of our very dear and funny friend, we thought it appropriate to discuss improv as a tool for processing grief and trauma.  With whom (love it when I have to use “whom”) better to discuss it than Justin Kavanagh.  Justin loves to use improv as a tool for self-discovery and strongly believes that the same principles that make us better improvisers also make us better people.  As an improv teacher and coach, Justin emphasizes this philosophy and encourages the application of improv skills off-stage as well as on-stage.

Can improv games work off-stage as well as on-stage?  How can improv help us to be more engaged listeners and better at being empathetic humans?   And what is up with intermittent fasting and why is everyone and their dog doing it?! Answers to these burning questions (except maybe that last one) and more when you listen to this next episode of For The Love of Improv!