Past Events › Workshops

This workshop focuses on the Whys and Hows of social/political satire. Workshoppers will participate in a variety of exercises devised to help them connect to and think about the world around them, develop stronger satirical points of view and understand the difference between satire and a "political joke." About Julia Weiss Julia Weiss is a comedian, playwright, and former member of the Second City touring company. She is now one of Cards Against Humanity's head writers, performs with the improvised Star…

Do you ever watch The Daily Show, This Week Tonight, Mock the Week (etc) and think: "How do they come up with all those great jokes so quickly? They must all be comic geniuses or something!" Well, they're not. They just use writing techniques to mine that week's stories for the funnies, and I'm here to teach you how! This workshop will focus on analysing particular news stories for jokes. In this workshop, students will learn some invaluable techniques as a group…

No matter what style of improv you do, the main objective is to get to the fun of your scene and start really playing as quickly as possible. This two-part workshop focuses on 1) finding ways to frame your scenes in a fun way to get on the same page with your scene partner and 2) getting the most fun out of your scenes by making bold moves and truly exploring your ideas. Josh Simpson and Jake Jabbour both teach…

Get out of your head and onto your feet! This workshop will focus on owning the stage. Learn the most concise way to host an improv game or an entire show. In addition, we will dive into the ins and outs of editing in order to make everyone in the audience and on stage feel like rockstars. The best version of you is confident you! Stacey Smith​ is a loud Long Islander who recently relocated to Chicago by way of…

This workshop will help students create character pieces for variety and/or full-length shows for festivals like the Edinburgh Fringe.  We'll focus not only on the game side of a character, but also on creating a believable, even lovable person through which to tell these awesome jokes.  Students will bring in pre-written characters (or at least pitches) that will be fleshed out through in-class analysis and improv exercises focused on grounding, realism, and justification through emotion and point-of-view.  Students will also view…

This workshop will teach you everything you need to know to start being a kick-ass musical improviser! First, we’ll go over song structures, taking scenes into songs and different song types to create a full-length narrative musical (opening number, protagonist song, antagonist song, etc). Then we’ll put it all together and start creating musicals ON THE SPOT! We’ll also include tips and tricks for bringing out your most unique, powerful characters and the best way to sing memorable, improvised, GENIUS…

This class builds on the baseline level of fearless playing, strong/specific choices, and ability to attack the stage. Now, we will challenge ourselves with advanced improv techniques, such as how to find the "edge" in every scene and take it from good to great, exploring the role of the individual role in an ensemble, living dangerously in the moment-to-moment instead of plotting ahead, authentically acting and grounding your characters, and  diving into the dynamics that make up three-person, and group scene work.…

Transaction scenes, fight scenes, and teaching scenes. We are taught not to do them. BUT WHY? In this workshop we find ways to work around these improv traps and build beautiful scenes out of them. Alan Starzinski is an actor, teacher, improvisor, and writer living in Los Angeles. He has been at UCB since June 2007. He is also the creator and former host of the popular NYC show The Kaleidoscope. He has been on the Harold teams: Sandino and Rocks, the…