As you know, a little over three months ago, Lauren and I had our first child, a beautiful baby girl named Betsy Jane Carrane. Being a parent is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I am a glad I did not know how hard this would be or I wouldn't have […]
Kicking a member out of your improv group is something nobody wants to do. Most groups avoid it because improvisers hate confrontation. But sometimes it has to happen, and if you do have to let someone go, remember what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. So here are some tips to help prevent you from […]
Tonight is the 2016 Emmy Awards. It's a big night for the television industry, and it's also a big night for the improv community. When I was looking at the list of nominees the other day, I couldn't believe how many improvisers were nominated in all categories -- acting, writing, and directing. Here is our […]
What still excites me about improv after all these years? I get this question a lot. And the answer may surprise you. It is the teaching. I love teaching. I love teaching improv even more than doing shows or the podcast Improv Nerd. And this will blow your mind coming from Mr. Self-Hatred and Self-Loather […]
This summer I taught two sold-out weekends of my Art of Slow Comedy intensives, and after the first two-day intensive, one my students from Denmark asked me: "What is the Art of Slow Comedy?" That is hard question to answer since I have evolved and so has my teaching. After I explained it, he said, […]
The Chicago improv community has lost another great one, this time to fucking cancer. Judy Fabjance was a beloved improv teacher at The Second City Training Center, a member of the ground-breaking group Gayco, and a mother to Daphne and wife to Kelly. She was only 41. She started taking improv classes at Second City […]
I really should not write a blog this week. I am fried and burnt out, and the best thing to do in this situation is just re-run an old blog. But I am not built that way. I am from the school of “push through the pain until something breaks,” and I rarely take my […]
Is improv art? Apparently not in the state of Texas, according to the Texas State Commission on the Arts. When the 15-year old non-profit, volunteer-based Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin recently went to apply for some funding, they were told flat out by the commission that "improv is not art," and therefore OOB […]
I recently had a chance to see Mike Birbligia's latest independent film, Don't Think Twice, which was released in limited theaters on July 22. It's the story of a popular New York improv group and what happens when one of the members gets a big break and gets hired by a Saturday Night Live-type of sketch […]
I would like you to meet our daughter, Betsy Jane Carrane. She was born Saturday, July 2 at 2:51 p.m. CST in Evanston, a northern suburb outside of Chicago. She came out weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz., measuring 20 inches long and looking like an little angry old man. I was worried. Nobody wants an ugly baby, […]