Improv Interviews

Lenny Ravich is an actor, author and leading expert in the field of humor and joy.

Today we speak with Lisa Bany and Angela Nino, trained Improv directors, performers and creative professionals who teach and facilitate the use of applied Improvisation in the improvement of mental health. Their organization is called Improv Therapy Group and I am proud to have recently been added to their advisory board. Lisa and Angela are not therapists, but they work with licensed therapists and group treatment facilities to bring Improv into the mental health environment.

Lisa Bany is Improv Therapy Group’s, Chief Improv Officer. She is also an instructor, director, and coach at The Second City. She has authored numerous books, including On Stage: Theatre Games and Activities for Kids; Show Time: Music, Dance and Drama Activities for Kids; Funny Bones; and Family Fun Nights. She started teaching at The Second City in the early nineties has directed and taught throughout the Chicagoland area. A graduate of Columbia College, Lisa is a member of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor.

Angela Nino is a Certified Forensic Interviewer and the Chief Executive Officer for Empathic Workplace. She teaches seminars on workplace interviews, investigations, and difficult conversations. Angela is a graduate of The Second City improv training program.

Learn more at

https://empatheticworkplace.com/

https://improvtherapygroup.com/

The husband and wife team, Carla and Craig Cackowski are the creators of the two-person improv show “Orange Tuxedo” in Los Angeles, California. The perform “Close Quarters”, with a focus on creating grounded relationships formed by eccentric characters. If you like comedy, you may have seen Craig wear various mustaches and costume pieces on Comedy Central’s Drunk History. If you like drunken history, you may have seen Carla drink various beers on Instagram.

Jeff Michalski is an actor, director, improvisor, teacher, mentor and so much more. He worked in comedy clubs across the country with the Original Comedy Ranger and was a member of the Groundling in Los Angeles before settling with the Chicago Second City in 1980.

During his years with the Second City, Jeff studied with Paul Sills and his historic Story Theatre. While traveling the country with Second City’s National Touring Company he continued training with Second City founder Paul Sills, and artistic directors Del Close, Fred Kaz and Bernie Sahlins.

In 1984 Michalski and his wife, Jane Morris, founded theSecond City ETC. His directorial debut , “Cows on Ice” made the ETC an instant hit and was followed by the even larger success of “Mirrors at the Border”. His achievements brought him to the Second City Toronto where he was nominated for a Dora Award for his direction of “Who’s Tory Now?” Michalski continued as director and Artistic Director of the ETC until 1988 when his success in Chicago led him to be chosen as director of the premiere production of the Second City in Santa Monica, also a critical success.

While still in Chicago with the ETC, Michalski also helped found the Second City Training Center, a comprehensive training program from which the next generation of Second City players are chosen. He also founded the Second City Training Program in Santa Monica.

Mr. Michalski and Ms. Morris founded the Upfront Comedy Showcase in 1990, and The Comedy Underground in Santa Monica in 1998. He is currently teaching people from all walks of life to improvise at the fanaticSalon in Culver City.

As a producer, director and performer, he has worked with Dan Castellaneta, Chris Farley, Amy Sedaris, Mike Meyer, Steven Colbert, Ryan Stiles, and many more. Jeff can be seen in the upcoming film The Laundromat with Meryl Streep.

Meet the wonderful Nathan Keats who has a Master's Degree in Autism from the Tizard Centre. He is currently involved in a research project on using improvisation to support individuals with Autism. Nathan began teaching improvisation in the UK in 2006 and quickly expanding his teaching to the United States. In 2007, he found a love for applied improvisation for autistic people and his enthusiasm continues to this day in his practice, teaching and his research. Nathan’s classes have been taught in festivals, schools, colleges, community centers and theatres to students from seven years old to students who are now retired. As a qualified teacher in the UK, Nathan brings a spontaneous and rationalizable approach to his teaching and now offers consulting services on using applied improvisation with individuals on the autism spectrum.

Nathan's motto: Be kind, be honest and be improvising.

#findthefunnytogether

Learn more about Nathan and his work:

www.NathanImprov.com

Part 1 - Howard Jerome & Michael Golding by Margot Escott

Part 2 - Howard Jerome and Michael Golding by Margot Escott

Jane Morris has improvised, written, performed, and directed shows around the world. Beginning in Chicago, where she helped found the Second City ETC with her husband Jeff Michalski, and later from her own theaters in Los Angeles, no one has done more to advance the art of improvisation than Jane.

As an actress with over 58 credits to her name she is best known for her roles in Raising Helen, True Lies, Frankie and Johnny and recently in Veep.

As a director Jane was nominated for a 1988 Joseph Jefferson Award for Director of a Revue for "Channel This" at the Second City Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Jane conducts a solo performance workshop that takes original work from idea to staging, to performing. The class works with actors and writers at any level of the process, whether they are just getting started, or almost ready to mount a whole solo show. Her workshop has produced 9 original shows and every participant has finished work.

http://scholarsy.blogspot.com/2017/04/jane-morris-explains-improvisation-and.html

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0606623/

http://janemorriswritework.blogspot.com/

Kay Ross – Imagining Possibilities

Kay Ross was born in Scotland, grew up in Australia, and has lived in Hong Kong for 25 years. She has been acting since she was a teenager, did stand-up comedy for a while, has been performing with short-form improv team People’s Liberation Improv in Hong Kong for 11 years, is a member of the Applied Improvisation Network, and leads Applied Improvisation workshops in Hong Kong and around Asia for companies, universities and community organizations.

Weaving together her interest and experience in improv, Applied Improvisation, personal development and healing (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual), Kay has created a card deck called “The Playground of Possibilities”. It has 52 questions for people to ask themselves, all starting with “What would be possible for me if I…?”, so they let go of their old, limiting thoughts, beliefs and stories about themselves and the world, choose more useful ones, take inspired action, and improvise more resourceful, joyful ways of being. She leads public workshops using the card deck, some mindfulness exercises and some improv games, and has done a TEDx talk about how life is both an improvisation game and a playground of possibilities.

She’s also an editor/copywriter and a corporate trainer about marketing.

The common thread in all of that is storytelling – the stories we tell ourselves and each other, about ourselves and the world.

Discover more about Kay at www.kayross.com

Visit The Playground of Possibilities at https://playgroundofpossibilities.com

And see Kay’s TEDx talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4yibOcDfQc

Kay also loves finding, curating and sharing useful information, so she has compiled a 4-part series of blog posts titled “All About Improv, Applied Improv, Creativity, Play, Innovation…” – each one includes a link to a different list of resources (articles, videos, podcasts and books) by many people. Here’s Part 4 – it includes links to Parts 1-3.

http://www.kayross.com/blog/2017/04/26/all-about-improv-applied-improv-creativity-play-innovation-part-4/

Over the course of his seventy plus year career, Ed Asner has simultaneously established himself as one of the most legendary actors alive while championing social and charitable causes. Ed was born in Kansas City, Missouri, attended the University of Chicago, and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, appearing in plays put on for the troops as they toured around Europe. After the war, Asner joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago, but left for New York City before members of that company regrouped as the Compass Players in the mid-1950s, a company that included Mike Nichols, Elaine May and Del Close and eventually developed into The Second City. Asner came back to guest star frequently on Second City’s stage, but also developed his acting career by appearing in plays and later unforgettable characters in influential television shows that include The Untouchables, playing Lou Grant in both the long running Mary Tyler Moore show and Lou Grant, as slave-ship captain Thomas Davies in Roots, Santa Clause in Elf, Carl Fredrickson in the animated film Up and most recently he can be seen in Netflix new series Dead to Me. Among Asner’s numerous awards and nominations were five Golden Globe Awards, Seven Emmys and a SAG Life Achievement Award. His legacy of service includes two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and The Ed Asner Family Center whose mission is to promote self-confidence in differently abled individuals and bring balance and wellness to those individuals and their families.