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Todd Stashwick is an improviser and actor who started out at Second City and now frequently appears in TV and films. (Please, imdb him.) Jimmy sat down with Todd at the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival to talk to him about how he works so much in TV, his physical approach to improv and how […]

Improvisers in Chicago have it really hard today. I can’t tell you how many improvisers I know who fell in love with improv in their home towns, and then moved to Chicago with stars in their eyes about arriving in the improv Mecca. And within a year, they are discouraged and depressed and don’t know […]

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Tom Booker is the owner and artistic director at The Institution Theater in Austin. Jimmy sits down with his old pal and talks to him about the vibrant Austin improv scene, his desire to be famous, and why he likes to name drop. In this very candid and very funny episode you will hear a […]

We all deserve to be treated like a stars. And if you are waiting for someone or some big, magical job or a part in a show to give you permission to act like a star, you’ve got it all wrong. Nobody is going to treat you like a star until you start treating yourself […]

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During the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin, TX, Paul Brittain, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live, sat down with Jimmy and talked about how he got started in comedy; his uncle, Bob Newhart; and how he develops characters like “Sex Ed Vincent.” You’ll love this episode, especially the improv!

Improv Nerd, the live comedy podcast hosted by Jimmy Carrane, is excited to announce our guests for our upcoming 2014 fall season! This season’s guests include Antoine McKay of Comedy Central’s “Review with Forest McNeil” and the new Fox drama “Empire”; stand-up comedian and former Second City e.tc. cast member Chris Redd; and Rachael Mason, […]

I am in improv rut. The last couple of shows I have felt like I’m experiencing improv-vu, doing the same flat, uninspired, boring scenes over and over again. I am pulling the same stock characters out, making the same choices, and I can't for the life me understand why it's not going better. If you’ve […]

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During the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin, TX, the delightful Lauren Lapkus of Orange Is The New Black and Comedy Bang Bang fame sat down with Jimmy to talk about starting improv at a very young age, the differences between training at iO and at UCB, and more.

I promise I will make this brief. Yes, more and more improvisers are eliminating object work from their repertoire, myself included. But really, when we do this we are only cheating ourselves. Today’s improvisers often think object work is gimmicky and silly, something that’s beneath them. But recently, I interviewed Todd Stashwick – a well-known […]

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Jimmy celebrates his 100th episode! For the big occasion, Jimmy interviews Brian McCann, the Emmy-winning writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He is now creating his own show, The Brian McCann Leasure Hour. The former roommates talk about Brian's path from cartooning to improv to stand-up to sketch, his relationship with Conan O'Brien and […]