Comedy Pros

One of my favorite improv teachers, Jet Eveleth, led me to Paola Coletto. When I interviewed Jet, several times she brought up the study of clown and its effect on improv, and when I asked Jet for more, she recommended I speak to Paola, her physical theater teacher. Of course, clown is not the circus thing- it's something much deeper and more rewarding for improvisers, and even stand up comedians. I am hoping I can get up to do some classes with her in the next year.This interview, truly, has some of the most out-of-the-box and impactful content we've seen! We talk about red nose, neutral mask, embodying animals, vulnerability and mime. 

Matt Besser was one of the four co-founders (along with Amy Poehler) of the Upright Citizen's Brigade, which not only had a Comedy Central show, but was the first improv comedy theater in NYC, and included folks like Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, etc.), Armando Diaz. Before that he trained at iO (Chicago) with Charna Halpern and Del Close, and was part of the improv group The Family. Matt also has done stand up comedy (longer than improv!) and has a podcast called Improv For Humans. You can download his comedy albums for just $1.99 each here. Also, he just finished co-writing The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy improvisation Manual.

I already did the amazing bio in our first interview. She's back! Our first interview was so great, and I felt like I had so many more questions, we had to do more. The follow up is at least as good. I tried to be more excited in this one. Chicago's most enthusiastic cheerleader, Tara DeFrancisco.

Luke Ashlocke, who was Luke Francis when I interviewed him, is a super-prolific Scottish comedian. The Glasgow, Scotland native arrived in the United States on a mission. From the minute he stepped onto the comedy scene he has been making waves. From Appearances on The Comedy Network's; "The Great Canadian Laugh Off" and "The Montreal Comedy Festival" to The CWB's "The Daily Buzz" and NBC's "Night Shift" and"New Day", to reviews such as "Funny As Hell" -Good Times Magazine, Long Island, NY & "This is what live stand up is supposed to be" - Weird Magazine, Austin, TX. Luke is one of the hardest working comics in the industry today. In 2011 Luke was voted break out artist of the year at the Los Angeles Comedy Awards and won BEST Actor for his role in "Vicky and Sam" at the London Film Festival. You can hear Luke's unique brand of humor on one of his three Albums- "Ill be Nicer When You Are Smarter", "If My Jokes Dont Kill Them Im Sure This Gun Will Help", and "Head Full of Tales" or on Bob and Tom and XM radio station RAWDOG on heavy rotation. To add to this, Luke plays over 15 instruments, and has one of the best crowd interaction shows in the history of live stand up comedy. Apologies, we had to switch phones a couple times to complete this interview, but what Luke has to say about writing a comedy act is well worth sticking with it!

Despite having a hard to pronounce name with way too many consonants, Jessie Shternshus is a thoroughly charming go-getter who has created an improv dynamo in Jacksonville, Florida.  As the founder and owner of The IMPROV EFFECT, Jessie weds her lifelong passion for and expertise in applied improvisation with the fast paced demands of the corporate world. In her classes and workshops she helps people become better listeners, team players, leaders, and communicators. Her physically engaging and playful workshops are relevant to all fields of life; participants of her workshops vary from college professors to engineers and from web developers to lawyers. Jessie gained her formal education at USF and NYU. Throughout her career she has worked with Fortune 500 companies and companies such as CBS, Paramount Pictures, MTV and Sesame Workshop. She also facilitates communication skills workshops and speaks at conferences worldwide.

Gene Perret is a guru of comedy writing. He has written jokes for comedians such as Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, Tim Conway, and many others. He earned three Emmy Awards for his work on The Carol Burnett Show. He wrote for Bob Hope from 1969 until the performer’s retirement, serving the last 15 years as his head writer. Gene's television career includes producing Welcome Back, Kotter, Three’s Company, and The Tim Conway Show. Other credits include Mama’s Family, All in the Family, Laugh-In, and many others. Gene has authored 40 books on comedy. His book Comedy Writing Step by Step is considered by many to be the textbook on comedy writing. A revised and updated version of this book -- The New Comedy Writing Step by Step was released by Quill Driver Books in 2008. Other books include Talk About Hope; Become A Richer Writer; and Damn! That’s Funny! Writing Humor You Can Sell. Gene's first novel, Breakfasts with Archangel Shecky, has just been released. For additional books visit our store. Gene has written for many national magazines including Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Toastmaster and wrote a regular humor column for Arizona Highways for many years.

Frank Caeti is an alumnus of The Second City Chicago. One half of the acclaimed duo FrankenMatt. Performs consistently at Second City Hollywood, iO West, and Upright Citizens Brigade LA. Series Regular on MADtv. Face and/or voice have appeared in over 40 commercials. Guest star roles on NCIS, Key and Peele, and Reno 911

Frank Caeti is an alumnus of The Second City Chicago. One half of the acclaimed duo FrankenMatt. Performs consistently at Second City Hollywood, iO West, and Upright Citizens Brigade LA. Series Regular on MADtv. Face and/or voice have appeared in over 40 commercials. Guest star roles on NCIS, Key and Peele, and Reno 911

This is as close as I've gotten to interviewing someone who "needs no introduction..." but if you aren't THAT into improv... the list of people's she's trained and worked with is a who's who of the funniest actors on TV and in movies right now. But if you're not part of the improv world, you need to know that Charna worked with Del Close, who trained many of the Saturday Night Live folks everyone knows, and together they created long form improv... before which improv was mainly exercises for actors (a la Viola Spolin) and short form games like you see on Who's Line Is It Anyway. Charna also founded iO in Chicago, which is one of the major improv theatres in the world, and which has expanded with another branch in Los Angeles, CA. When Lorne Michaels is looking for new SNL cast members, one place he turns is to Charna... and there's a great story in this podcast about her and Chris Farley.