It’s spring in Chicago and that means the Cubs have our hopes up, it could snow at any moment and the Chicago Improv Festival will be taking over the city. This year, the Chicago Improv Festival is taking place from May 2-8 at venues all over the city and will feature tons of shows from […]
Grief is new to me. I really have not had that much experience with it in my life, up until now. I have had grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends die, but I have never experienced this level of grief before. It is confusing based on my relationship with my dad. He was not my "best […]
After interviewing Jon Favreau recently for an episode of Improv Nerd in a swanky hotel suite off Michigan Avenue in Chicago, I crawled back into my therapist's office in pain and said, “He could not have been happier to see me, he gave a great interview, he even gave me a souvenir from the movie, […]
This week, I am writing my blog in LA. I am here for two reasons: To get some episodes for the podcast and to pitch the idea of Improv Nerd as a TV show. If you are an outsider, you probably think this trip is going pretty well. I have already had three meetings with […]
I have written in previous blogs about my father who has been sick and dying. Last week he died. I am not going to lie: I had a complicated relationship with him and I am grateful that in the end I showed up and got to say goodbye. On Wednesday night, Lauren and I spoke to […]
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my life lately. As you probably know, my wife and I are having a baby, my dad is dying, and my birthday is coming up in a little over a month. All good reasons to spend time thinking about how I would have done my life differently. […]
If you’re an improv teacher, you’re probably familiar with the concept of side coaching, where you make subtle comments to your students while they are doing a scene to give them some direction. The concept of side coaching is to help your student see something they can’t see in the moment. Sounds easy, right? But […]
Let me tell you something that drives me nuts. A person does improv for five or six years and starts getting good at, gets on Harold team, maybe two, and he is killing it. Naturally, he wants more from his the career, which means he would like to get paid. So he saves up enough […]
Years ago when I first started teaching corporate improv workshops, other improvisers would give me crap saying I was selling out. Wow, have times changed. Today, corporate improv workshops are more popular than ever. And guess what? I still love teaching them, because I believe the concepts of improv are not just great on stage, […]
There has been a lot of discussion in improv lately about classes where students (women in particular) don’t feel safe. And many people who teach improv are now thinking about what the best way is to handle these kinds of situations in class. Recently, Jay Sukow, who teaches improv classes in Los Angeles, received a […]