Oh man, the holidays are upon us, which means we have to start thinking about giving and getting gifts, for ourselves and others. I love books. I love reading them, I love buying them, and if you’re curious about what to get me this year, I love getting them. (Though I really prefer a Barnes […]
Next week is Thanksgiving, and I think the older I get the more I am starting to understand gratitude. When I started out doing improv in my 20s, I was so obsessed about becoming famous. So much so that it took all the fun out of it and affected my relationships. Fame was my higher […]
Thank you for all of the feedback on my most recent blog. I have taken all of your reactions on this post on social media and my website to heart. Based on your comments and after re-reading the blog, it is clear to me that I could have been more articulate in getting my message across. I […]
This blog post originally had a different title, which I have changed. Please see my additional blog post where I clarify some of the points made here. I believe in comedy we always have an opportunity to heal others. We may heal the audience, people in our group, or more importantly, ourselves. Certainly, making people […]
Today, many improvisers want to shy away from certain taboo topics. As artists that is their right, and as a teacher, performer and human being, I try to respect people’s individual boundaries to not do scenes about things they don’t want to talk about. But as a teacher, I also don't want you to miss […]
You know why I think so many people are drawn to doing improv? I don't think it's because they want to be famous, or even that they think they're funny. I think it's because improv gives people a sense of belonging and community, something that gives people a powerful sense of meaning in their lives. […]
We are told improv is great for finding your voice. Everyone who markets improv uses that phrase, but until recently, I really didn’t know what people meant by it. And surprisingly, I am learning this through another art form — storytelling. After a bit of break, I am back to doing storytelling and I am […]
I love reading books on spiritually as much as I love ones about improv. And one of my favorite things to do is see how spirituality and improv overlap. Recently, I having been reading a book called Love Is Letting Go Of Fear by Gerald Jampolsky, which is loosely based on some of the concepts […]
Improv is collaboration. That is why we do it, because we love to collaborate with other people. But when you have been improvising for a while, you can get set in your ways. You can start to feel comfortable only playing a certain style of improv or playing only with certain people. I know this works […]
In improv, we are always striving to be authentic on stage, but teaching authenticity can be a tricky thing. One of the people who taught it the best was Del Close, an improv teacher I studied with who influenced a generation of comedians from Bill Murray to Chris Farley to Tina Fey to Amy Poehler to […]