Workshops

Step up your Stand Up with Jeff Singer
All three sessions are now sold out.

(Session 1 - Saturday morning) SOLD OUT
Date/Time: Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10:30 am (3 hours)
Location: Mottley's Comedy Club


(Session 2 - Saturday afternoon) SOLD OUT
Date/Time: Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 2:30 pm (3 hours)
Location: Mottley's Comedy Club

(Session 3 - Sunday afternoon)SOLD OUT
Date/Time: Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 12 pm (4 hours)
Location: ImprovBoston

Jeff is offering three-hour, intensive versions of his workshop, heavy on performance, feedback and Q&A for stand up comedians. The fundamental skills that producers and judges look at, including your material, performance, stage persona, originality, delivery, point of view, character, set structure, timing,  working the room, connecting with the crowd, maintaining energy and momentum, and more.

You will learn: How to analyze your strengths and weaknesses on stage, how to achieve your uniqueness and distinction as a performer, how to find the keys to your own original material, learning to navigate the business and maximize your work opportunities, setting and realizing your goals, preparing for auditions, ...and more.

Jeff Singer is currently the Executive Consultant for the Just For Laughs International Comedy Festival, a post he has held for the past decade.

URL: www.stepupyourstandup.com

Check out WICF's in-depth interview with Jeff here!

Legally Funny^TM / The Worth of Mirth^TM
Date/Time: Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10 am (60 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (mainstage)
Tuition: $35



Attorney, producer and professional comedienne Karen Morgan guides you through the business of being funny. Learn valuable tools to help you create worth from mirth. Karen Morgan is a licensed trial attorney who now makes her full-time living as a producer, corporate speaker and professional comedienne. In this workshop, Karen shares knowledge gleaned from the legal, business, and comedy worlds to help you learn to create real worth from mirth. You will learn how to:

Get prepared…
Make sure your act is honed before you step on stage;
Get booked…
Managers, booking agents and clubs – oh my!
Get paid…
Prepare performance agreements and contracts so that you receive fair compensation for your work in a timely manner;
Get noticed…
Create effective marketing, websites, branding, promotional materials and merchandise;
Get to the next level…
Learn how to market your performance for corporate and theatre audiences; and,
Give back…
How to assist nonprofits with comedy fundraisers

URL: www.karenmorgan.com

Silence is Golden: the art of physical comedy
Date/Time: Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10 am (90 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (studio)
Tuition: $45



Silence is Golden: the art of physical comedy. Second City alum Laura Grey leads a workshop that will infuse your improv with meaning from the moment you step onstage until the moment you exit. There is so much you are already saying without words, learn to tap into your physicality to create electric scene work. You will: Free yourself up to discover unexpected moments and characters. Allow scenes to develop organically. Find humor, joy, and power in silence. Never worry about finding the right words to say again!* *Maybe not in real life.

Laura Grey is an alum of the Second City in Chicago where she wrote and performed in two original revues and co-devised the all silent revue "Reverie" which debuted at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival. Prior to that she showcased at Sketchfest NYC, The San Francisco Sketch Fest, and The Chicago Improv Festival with the “ferocious three woman sketch troupe” Triplette. A seasoned comedic improviser, Laura trained at iO Chicago, The Annoyance, and Comedy Sportz Chicago. Laura currently improvises with the critically acclaimed long-form musical Baby Wants Candy (Chicago and NY casts,) Chet Watkins (The Magnet NY,) the improv/sketch duo Klepper and Grey (Key Party, Baggage UCB.)

Laura has over 10 years of experience teaching, directing, and coaching improv for every age level and walk of life.

URL: www.lauragreymatter.tumblr.com

Power Improv with Kurt Braunohler
Date/Time: Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 11:30 am (120 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (mainstage)
Tuition: $65



This class will teach you how to become a more powerful, confident, and affective improvisor by utilizing your emotional point of view to drive your character and scene. Scenes are all about relationships, and relationships depend on each characters' emotional viewpoint. We will focus on exercises designed to articulate the "language of emotion" and make you comfortable working emotionally and analyzing scene from an emotional point of view. The class will also teach you how to affect your scene partner powerfully by making strong choices for yourself.

Kurt Braunohler has taught for the past 8 years in New York City and around the world. A founding member of Neutrino, creator of the Neutrino Video Projects, which is currently being produced in multiple cities around the world under our name. Kurt has taught corporate improv workshops for Pepsi, Red Bull, various marketing companies, Columbia University and NYU. He's been a faculty improv teacher at the PIT, New York Film Academy, and Stuyvesant  High School and have taught workshops in America, Canada, and Germany.
 

Individual Coaching with Micah Sherman
Date/Time: Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 11:30 am (90 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (studio)
Tuition: $45



Thinking too much in your improv scenes? Worried about "the rules" while you're onstage? Let Micah Sherman help get you out of your head and playing again! With an emphasis on stage time in his workshop, Micah will have you on your feet and flexing your improv muscles in no time. Literally no time. Just do it!

Micah Sherman has appeared in four different regional theatrical shows for The Second City, four original mainstage shows for Improv Asylum in Boston, Sturgis at I.O. in Chicago and at various improv festivals throughout North America. He is a former improv teach at Improv Asylum and the Comedy Studio in Boston and has trained at I.O., The Second City and the Annoyance theaters in Chicago.

URL: micahsherman.com

Storytelling Workshop: What's Your Story? with Giulia Rozzi
Date/Time: Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 10 am (120 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (mainstage)
Tuition: $55



Take your personal experiences and turn them into an entertaining, engaging, and funny performance! In this workshop, you will learn the basic elements of storytelling and solo performance. This workshop will help you get more comfortable being yourself as you share stories about yourself. Through verbal and written exercises we'll work on point of view, character, stage precence, confidence, and finding the truth in the tale. Please bring a pen and notebook to class as well as any ideas of stories you'd like to turn into a performance piece.

Giulia Rozzi is a NYC based comedian, actress and writer whose very personal, blunt, and animated comedy has earned her the honor of being a Boston Comedy Festival finalist, one of The Friskys "Top 15 Comediennes You Should Be Laughing At" and two ECNY Best Female Stand Up nominations. She's appeared on MTV, Vh1, Italian Mtv, CNN, and is the co-host of the popular and highly acclaimed sex-themed storytelling show Stripped Stories at the UCB Theatre in NYC. Her first comedy album "A Very Pretty Name" came out this past spring on iTunes and Amazon. As a writer Giulia's work has appeared in Playgirl, NY Press, Lemondrop, Lifetimetv.com, Gawker, Huffington Post, the Mortified book series & the upcoming "When My Parents Were Awesome" anthology.

URL: www.giuliarozzi.com

Get Real: Playing the Relationship of the Scene with Rachel Klein
Date/Time: Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 10 am (90 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (studio)
Tuition: $45



This workshop focuses on really listening to our scene partner and responding in genuine ways that forward the scene, solidify characters and relationships, and heighten naturally. Instead of struggling to generate the funny of a scene on your own, we'll work on discovering it together--the scene, in effect, plays itself.

The premise of the workshop is based on an improv paradox: in real life, when we know someone, we jump into our relationship patterns with them instantaneously. In improv scenes, we’re most often told to “already know” the other character--to be mothers and children, husbands and wives, roommates. But how can we really know another character after a few seconds on stage? Instinctively, the best improvisers learn to simulate knowledge of a complex relationship dynamic seemingly without effort. By focusing on active listening and recognizing which details and emotions of the scene bear the most weight, we can learn to do this--to quickly gravitate to the heart of the relationship, and let the scene play itself.

The result is scenes that are easier to play and more satisfying to the audience. Everybody wins.

Rachel Klein was trained at iO and Second City in Chicago, and performed with the iO Harold team Chopper before moving to Boston. Here, she has coached the popular Harold team Maxitor, taught classes in improv and Harold at ImprovBoston, and taught her style of relationship-based improv to new and veteran performers in the improv community.
 

Visions of Comedy Dancing in Your Head with Katie Nee
Date/Time: Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 1 pm (90 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (mainstagw)



Participants will be asked to consider their overall life goals and then see where their comedy pursuits will help them be achieved. Do today's comics have a map for where they want their comedy to take them socially, logistically, financially? Once you know that you can and want to be funny - wouldn't it be helpful to define some life goals around it? Why or why not? This workshop is about exploring and creating a vision for your future that incorporates your comic talents and desires. This workshop will have a different outcome for every participant, there is no one "right or best" path for any of us.

Kate Nee is a CTA Certified Coach, a Certified Simple Abundance Workshop Facilitator (studied with the author, Sarah Ban Breathnach) and a comic. This particular workshop will be very interactive, as Kate has been working on her own vision too.

URL: www.katenee.com

The Feminine Comique
Date/Time: Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 3 pm (90 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (mainstage)
Tuition: $45



The Feminine Comique offers a structured, all-female enviroment wherein seasoned performers and newcomers alike can focus on the writing skills and performance confidence needed to tackle the standup stage. Outlining a set of writing exercises for use in building material from a basic joke structure, the course provides a framework to get students onstage, telling jokes, along with feedback and clarity in performance philosophy to allow students to take the stage from a position of strength and consistency.

Designed and taught by Cameron Esposito, one of Chicago's top comics, the Feminine Comique was created to encourage greater female participation in Chicago's renowned comedy scene. Since its inception in 2008, more than 100 Chicago-area women have completed the course, and Cameron has instructed workshops at the Second City, and the university and festival level. Isn't it time you joined the Fem Com revolution?

Cameron Esposito has appeared at Just For Laughs Chicago and the Aspen Rooftop, Leicester (UK) and Women in Comedy Festivals, on NBC, the Logo television network and WGN radio.

She acts as ringmaster for Chicago-based circus company El Circo Cheapo Cabaret, and created and teaches the world’s only all-female standup course, The Feminine Comique. Cameron is a producer of the Lincoln Lodge, Chicago’s longest running alt comedy showcase, and released her debut standup album, Grab Them Aghast, on Rooftop Comedy Records in 2010.

URL: therealcameronesposito.com

Writing For Comics with Steve Macone
Date/Time: Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 5 pm (60 minutes)
Location: ImprovBoston (studio)
Tuition: $35



Humor writing is a great way for comics to get their name out there. But not only is writing funny stuff hard, getting people to publish your writing can be like trying to break into a new club when no one will even tell you where the entrance to the club is, or who works there. Or if they even do comedy at that club. This one-hour workshop will provide a broad overview of different types of humor writing for publication, from cool little humor websites that people actually read to traditional magazines that sound impressive. There will also be a Q&A session to clear up some of the many misconceptions about freelance writing.

You will learn to:
distinguish tone and content differences among various publications/outlets

properly pitch story ideas, including humor pieces, to editors

etiquette, like not drafting witty hate letters to every place that rejects your work

Steve Macone maintains a busy standup schedule and is a contributor at The Onion. His humor writing and/or funny, weird essays have also appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Online, Boston Globe, Boston Globe Magazine, Boston Phoenix, Christian Science Monitor and AOL News. He's been featured on NPR and had a story about playing with action figures named a "notable essay" in the Best American Essays series.

URL: www.stevemacone.com