Improv Interviews

Join me and meet Izzy Gesell, an organizational alchemist who helps individuals and organizations transform their thinking from commonplace to extraordinary. He is skilled at delivering meaningful material in a way that makes participants enjoy their time with him.

Izzy is also the author of Playing Along: Group Learning Activities Borrowed From Improvisation Theater, a co-author of Humor Me: America’s Funniest Humorists on the Power of Laughter, and a contributor of a chapter on Improvisation as a facilitation tool in the IAF Group Facilitators Handbook. His latest project is a deck of cards with improv games on them. Learn more at izzyg.org.

Join me and meet Dr. Kristin Krueger who is an internationally known Research Scientist at Rush University Medical Center and a Chicago based neuropsychologist who wrote the first evidence-based research paper on the effectiveness of Improv for Anxiety. The results of the study conducted by Krueger along with two Illinois Tech research collaborators were published in the paper “Thera-Prov: A Pilot Study of Improv Used to Treat Anxiety and Depression” in the Journal of Mental Health (July 2017).

Kristin took her first class in improvisational theater at the famed The Second City Theater and Training Center in Chicago in 2006 for fun, but she soon realized that improvisational theatre techniques could prove useful in her practice. She is currently working on a second study that seeks to categorize improv exercises based on cognitive activities. Her method involves inviting clinical neuropsychologists or trainees and having them participate in games, such as “Wind and Rewind,” which sharpens memory.

Kristin is also a member of The Therapy Players, an ensemble of mental health professionals from the Chicago area who are also trained improvisers.

Join me today to meet Jay Sukow, who has been performing scripted and improvised work professionally for over 20 years. Jay has trained with improv legends that include Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Jon Favreau, David Razowsky, Keith Johnstone, Dick Schaal, Del Close and Mick Napier. Jay is a faculty member of The Second City and has performed regularly as part of their “Those Who Can’t” Faculty Jam. He taught and coached teams at iO Chicago, where he was also head of its artistic committee, ComedySportz Chicago, Club Med International, Illinois State University, the New Orleans Improv Festival, the Phoenix Long Form Improv Festival, the C-U Improv Festival, and The Chicago Improv Festival, among others.

Jay teaches improv to people from every walk of life, from beginning students to executives at Fortune 100 companies. He was an ensemble member of ComedySportz Chicago and several teams at iO Chicago and has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Del Close Marathon, the C/U Improv Festival and the New Orleans Improv Festival.

Jay has been a guest performer at Boom Chicago, the Second City, the Second City ETC, the Second City Northwest and Messing with a Friend. Jay has written, produced and been a cast member of the narrative features “American Legacy” and directed “Trubadeuax: A Restaurant Movie,” both of which feature improvised dialogue within a scripted storyline.

Join me and meet Robert Cochrane, an award-winning filmmaker, with numerous narrative and documentary features to his credit. His touching relationship with his father who has Parkinson’s was the inspiration for Robert’s Parkinson’s-themed documentary series, Boys of Summer. He is a Ph.D. student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) studying the effect of improvisation on Parkinson’s Disease and Co-Owner of ComedySportz Las Vegas, which is part of an internationally-acclaimed improvisation league. You can check out some of his work as host and creator of the web series, Faces of Parkinson’s. Robert is part of the passionate team of Parkinson’s Place, whose goal is to refresh minds by connecting, empowering, and inspiring the Southern Nevada Parkinson’s community.

Dr. Dan Bacalzo - FGCU Drama Department by Margot Escott

Lisa Kays, LCSW studied improvisational theater prior to becoming a master's level social worker. She has been using improv as group therapy and to train therapists in this exciting art form.

Robert Lowe is lovingly referred to as The Godfather of Improv in Atlanta. During his thirty-nine-year engagement in Improvisation Robert has been a player, an Improv dancer, a teacher, a director, a producer, and a pioneer in the uses of Improvisation for purposes other than performance. He has taught Improvisation, and stand-up comedy, public speaking, and presentation, and community, and personal advocacy in a variety of venues.

He has also been a management consultant, a public speaker, an adjunct professor at Georgia State University, a corporate vice president and a U. S. Navy officer.

Join me and meet Lacy Alana and learn about her innovative Yes and Brain work. The Yes And Brain framework is the creation of a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, circus artist, and improviser Lacy Alana. As Lacy spent time in the clinical, educational, corporate, and expressive arts worlds over the last decade, she recognized that she was having great success blending facets from each discipline into the others.

When colleagues asked her to teach them tools to mimic her work, she developed the Yes And Brain framework to serve as a foundational framework for work in each setting. Over the years, The Yes And Brain Model is refined, with specialized sub-models and training pathways for many different populations.

Lacy has a varied professional history, including working in the corporate world (with a business/advertising degree), running specialized circus and improv theatre programs for neurodivergent and at-risk youth, training educators/helping professionals/medical professionals, and working as a therapist. Lacy provides one-of-a-kind training that fuses Interpersonal Neurobiology, therapeutic frameworks, business communication, and pedagogy from improvisational theatre and the circus arts.

Yes And Brain provides training worldwide. Lacy is based in Montreal, and the team home base includes Toronto, Montreal, Austin, Indiana, and Ottawa.

Meet Rob Snow who is the Creator and Director of The Improvaneer Method and Executive Director of Stand Up for Downs, he also performs his one-man show, We Need a Sign, nationally (www.weneedasign.net). Rob began his comedy career in the late 90s while training at the famed Second City Theatre in Chicago, performing at comedy clubs and colleges in the Midwest. 

In 2009 Rob and his wife Ellen had their second son Henry who was born with Down Syndrome. In 2013, they created Stand Up for Downs, whose mission is to enhance the lives of those with Down syndrome through humor.

Michael J Gellman now resides in Ontario Canada and is Artistic Director of The Process Theatre. He teaches at Loyalist College as well as Master Workshops for Second City International and Artistic New Directions NYC. He is an alumnus of the Second City mainstage and was a resident director for Second City in Canada and the USA for 25 years. He was Artistic Director of the Second City Toronto where his shows were nominated for 7 Dora Mavor Moore Awards including twice for Outstanding Direction, nominated for Best Director for Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, and won a Chalmers Award for Best Director. He is a senior faculty and founding member of the Second City Training Center where he was a Program Head and also Director of the NY training Center.

Michael was an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago teaching Acting For Directors in the Film Directing department and designed and taught Improvisation and Acting III for the Comedy Studies department. In addition to Second City and Columbia College he has taught and designed classes and workshops in directing, acting and improvisation since 1976 at such notable institutions as: Actors Centre London, The Audition Centre, Victory Gardens Training Centre, Act One Conservatory and Loyola Law School as well as master workshops for hundreds of Universities, festivals, theatre companies and improv groups around the world. He is credited with originating “Long Form” Improvisation and his book “Process: An Improvisers Journey” (Northwestern University Press) co-authored with Mary Scruggs is a summary of his workshops on improvisational training.