Valerie, Kaci, Roy and Kareem have been improvising together as P-Graph for 18 years. They share their history and process with host Kevin Scott.
BrianneHalveson and John Brennan, Artist directors of Front Porch Improv discuss their strategy and systems for running a commercially and artistically successful improv/comedy theater.
Katie Caussin chats with host Kevin Scott about her years being funny with The Second City, The Annoyance Theater and future as Co-Artistic Director of I.O. Theater in Chicago.
Jonathan Pitts talks with kevin Scott about his 20 years as a festival producer and what he's learned traveling the world as an improv teacher.
Jonathan Pitts is a improv theatre artist from Chicago with over 30 years’ experience. He’s a creator, director, improviser, producer, and teacher, and he’s also the Founder and Executive Director of Chicago Improv Productions.
He co-founded the Chicago Improv Festival and produced it for 20 years. He Has taught and performed internationally in 12 countries, as well as all over America. He is also the creator of shows including “The Make ‘Em Ups”, "The Oracle", "The Silent Movie", “Solo Plus One”, “Stopwatch”, and "Storybox Unscripted Theatre".
Jonathan taught at The Second City for 16 years and he’s a contributing writer to their book on improvisation. He taught story-based improv at Piven Theatre Workshop.
Pat from Centralia chats with Brian Stack about his years writing for Conan O'Brien on Late Night and the Tonight Show and his current job writing for Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. They also discuss Briens years doing improv and sketch and how that led to his writing comedy for TV.
Patrick McCartney chats what it was like writing for SNL, staying sober and her time with Second City. Cindy Caponera is Second City veteran, TV and movie writer, and producer her credits include Saturday Night Live, Shameless, I'm Dying Up Here, Nurse Jackie and At Home with Amy Sedaris.
Patrick McCartney and Jodi Lennon discuss starting scenes in the middle, coming up with characters and her time studying with Del Close and Mick Napier.
Jodi Lennon is an Emmy-nominated writer, producer and a director. She is an alumnae of Chicago's Second City, IO and The Annoyance Theater.
Shes worked on many TV shows including It's Personal with Amy Hoggart, At Home with Amy Sedaris, Difficult People and Exit 57
Patrick McCartney goes one on one with comedy writer Brian McCann.
They discuss Brian's career path from advertising copywriter through classes with Del Close to his 17 years writing for Conan O'Brien.
From 1995 to 2012 McCann wrote and made appearances on Late Night, The Tonight Show and Conan.
McCann is a stand up comedian and actor having appeared on 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation among other shows. He was also the head writer for "The Who Was? Show" an educational sketch show for Netflix and wrote for Nikki & Sara Live and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.
Centralia's Kevin Scott chats with fellow Bang Bang alum Bob Fisher to discuss Bob's days with The Second City, Annoyance Theater, Cardiff Giant and of course, Bang Bang. They also discuss how Improv has changed for them and the improv community at large since discovering improv in Chicago in the '90's.
Bob Fisher is a teacher and performer at The Annoyance Theater, Chicago.
Centralia's Patrick McCartney chats with Actor, Michael Shannon about his days a a young actor in Chicago, and his journey since then.
Michael Shannon has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in the Sam Mendes period drama Revolutionary Road and the Tom Ford psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals.
He has worked on the stage the stage with such companies as Steppenwolf, The Next Lab and the Red Orchid Theatre. He has appeared on Broadway in Grace, Frankie and Johnny in the Claie De Lune and A long Days Journey Into Night and London's West End in such productions as Woyzeck, Killer Joe and Bug.
His many film and TV credits include Knives Out, The Shape of Water, Pearl Harbor, 8 Mile, Vanilla Sky, High Crimes, Cecil B. Demented Tigerland.
Pat McCartney goes One On One with Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Alex Baze to discuss his days in Chicago in the '90's and his life at SNL and Late night and his journey to get there.
Centralia Pat McCartney has a one on one chat with his old pal Adam McKay to discuss his journey from improv student to Oscar winning filmmaker. Adam was head writer at Saturday Night Live before writing and directing hit films and series such as Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Vice, The Big Short, Succession and Don't Look Up.
Ashley Ward from Conyers, GA performed improv and sketch comedy in New York City for more than a decade before moving to Los Angeles. Ashley appeared in several off broadway shows including the New York Times Critic's Pick "50 Shades! The Original Musical Parody" which she also co-wrote. TV Credits include Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell and Middle of the Night Show. Ashley performs at UCB Sunset with Magic to Do and Baby Wants Candy!
Pat and Kevin chat will Bill Chott about touring the country Second City, His Saturday Night Live audition and how it got him the attention of The Dana Carvey show and his life as an actor, comedian and improvisor.
Bill Chott played Mr. Laritate on the Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place. Billt toured the country with The Second City until he landed The Dana Carvey Show, with a cast that included Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Robert Smigel.
His film roles include performances in Galaxy Quest, Dude Where's My Car, Brainwarp, Dante's Inferno, Wild Girls Gone, Dancing at the Blue Iguana and The Ringer.
Noah Gregoropoulos is an influential Chicago improvisor, teacher and director having taught for decades at IO and DePaul University.
Noah most notably directed the Lois Kaz show at Second City which features a who's who of long time comedy writers and performers.
Hosted by Kevin Scott
Will Luera has built communities at theaters in Boston with Improv Boston and in Sarasota Florida as the Director of Improvisation at the Florida Studio Theater. He's Artistic Director of Improv Asylum, Director of Big Bang Improv and serves as the Artistic Director Emeritus of ImprovBoston.
Patrick McCartney goes one on one with David Koechner best known as Champ Kind in the Anchorman films and Todd Packer on NBC's The Office as well as appearances in dozens of movies and TV shows including a year as a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
Pat and David discuss David's improv and acting journey, their thoughts on how to be a great improvisor as well as Chicago and improv in the 90's.
Dion Flynn & Nate Starkey created and perform in the two-man prisoners-on-the-run improvisational comedy Shackled. In this episode they join host Kevin Scott to discuss their trailer park childhoods and how they found Improv, comedy and each other. They also discuss the process of developing an improv show with recurring characters, themes and stories.
Heather is a UK based improviser with 20 years experience. She performs regularly with The Maydays, Showstopper! the Improvised Musical, and more as well as coaching people in improvisation and improv skills for life and work. She specializes in musical improvisation.
She is the the winner of the award for best female performer at Brighton Fringe & the Argus Angel Award for artistic excellence.
ROBERT Z GRANT is a New York-based actor and improviser and author of Improv and the Actor's Imagination: An Essential Guide to Get Yourself Into Trouble. He trained as an actor with Bill Esper at the William Esper Studio in New York, studied clowning and Commedia with Christopher Bayes at The Public Theater and at Juilliard, and honed his improv chops in the tradition of Second City.
Robert has been a cast member of the award-winning improvised musical comedy BROADWAY'S NEXT HIT MUSICAL since 2003, and he tours the country and internationally performing with the show. Robert is a founding member and former co-Artistic Director of The Collective NY and appeared in four seasons of INSIDE AMY SCHUMER (Comedy Central).
