Comedy Pros

As the talent booker for A&E's Evening At The Improv, working with folks like Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno, and as Bud Friedman's talent booker at the L.A. Improv, Dave Schwensen has some insights for stand up comedy careers. I read two of Dave's books when I was starting with stand up comedy in 2006. Then I took a stand up career class put on by Bill Word in Orange County, CA and taught by Dave. 

Matthew Craig is a professional improvisor, actor, writer, and director. He is an alum of The Second City in Chicago, having performed in their Resident Company for over three years on both their Mainstage and their ETC theaters. He spent several years traveling the world with their touring company and has worked for their corporate training division as a writer/ performer/ instructor/ director for over fifteen years. Matt began his career at Washington University with the troupe Mama's Pot Roast. Previous theater credits include The Annoyance, iO, iOWest, Disney Cruise Lines, Brave New Workshop, The Second City Touring Company, The Second City ETC, and The Second City Mainstage. Matt fills his days with occasional commercial, voiceover, and television work, appearing on “The Office,” “According to Jim,” and on “Mobbed”, where Matt, an ordained minister, marries unsuspecting couples. He teaches improvisation and sketch writing at Second City Hollywood and performs all about town with his two-man improv group FrankenMatt. (www.frankenmatt.com) Most recently, Matt worked as a writer on “Saturday Night Live” during the 2010-2011 season. He currently resides in Los Angeles.

Also, I went to school with him and he thought my dad was like Mike Brady.

Matthew Craig is a professional improvisor, actor, writer, and director. He is an alum of The Second City in Chicago, having performed in their Resident Company for over three years on both their Mainstage and their ETC theaters. He spent several years traveling the world with their touring company and has worked for their corporate training division as a writer/ performer/ instructor/ director for over fifteen years. Matt began his career at Washington University with the troupe Mama's Pot Roast. Previous theater credits include The Annoyance, iO, iOWest, Disney Cruise Lines, Brave New Workshop, The Second City Touring Company, The Second City ETC, and The Second City Mainstage. Matt fills his days with occasional commercial, voiceover, and television work, appearing on “The Office,” “According to Jim,” and on “Mobbed”, where Matt, an ordained minister, marries unsuspecting couples. He teaches improvisation and sketch writing at Second City Hollywood and performs all about town with his two-man improv group FrankenMatt. (www.frankenmatt.com) Most recently, Matt worked as a writer on “Saturday Night Live” during the 2010-2011 season. He currently resides in Los Angeles.

Also, I went to school with him and he thought my dad was like Mike Brady.

Brad Montgomery never planned to be a professional speaker and business humorist. He planned to be a lawyer. Brad now speaks to corporations and associations who need a lift, bringing laughter and magic with a simple-yet-powerful message about creating more humor in our lives. His corporate clients include Kraft, Proctor and Gamble, IBM, General Mills, Microsoft, The CIA, The IRS, The US Air Force, COMSAT, Merrill Lynch and Honeywell. He’s a speaker. Author. Comedian. Thought leader. Happiness expert. Magician.  Facilitator.  Audience participation master. He isn’t just another talking head blow hard.  He’s a nice guy who happens to be very funny when delivering meaningful business programs.

Jet Eveleth- the woman, the myth, the legend. Just kidding. Not really. Jet Eveleth is a member of the Harold team The Reckoning at the iO Theater and performs in the show Adsit and Eveleth and Jet and Paul. She has appeared in The Barb Lameter Show and The Armando Diaz Experience, and has understudied at The Second City. She toured in the two-woman sketch show I Live Next Door To Horses, winner of the 2008 Del Award for Best Scripted Show. She has performed at the Andy Kaufman Awards and was listed as New City magazine’s "Top 50 Players" in 2010 and 2012. She studied clown and physical theater with Paola Coletto and Philippe Gaulier. She has taught at the Comedy Studies Program at Columbia College, the Second City Conservatory, the iO Theater, and is the former artistic director of the Chicago Improv Festival. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

Andy Engel has produced New Talent Shows in New York City for 20 years at the following clubs: Caroline’s Comedy Club, Comix, and is now the exclusive booker at Gotham Comedy Club, Levity Live!, and Metropolitan Room. Andy is also currently a Consultant and Talent Scout for Ryan Seacrest & Mark Cuban’s AXSTV show “Gotham Comedy Live”, and an Associate Producer for David Brenner’s “What’s So Funny?”. His New Talent shows have been featured on BBC America’s “Crash Course with Richard Hammond”, MTV’s “Made”, and MSNBC. He also runs the Manhattan Comedy School.

Sean Patton is a comedian based in New York and Los Angeles by way of New Orleans. He cut his teeth doing standup in the Crescent city and since have performed at Caroline’s, The Comedy Cellar, Gotham, The Improv, UCBNY, UCBLA, The Melbourne International comedy festival (2011), The Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival (2008, 2010), and many other clubs around the US and Canada. He made his Basic Cable debut on Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham” (2009) and my Network TV debut on “Late night with Jimmy Fallon” (2010). He  appeared on “Conan” (2011). In June 2012 he recorded his first album, Standard Operating Procedure.

Full episode:

Preview:

Is it possible for great improv to spring up independently of Chicago, New York and L.A.? Yes. This Greg Tavares, one of the founders ofTheatre 99 in Charleston SC, author of Improv For Everyone, and proof along with Brandy Sullivan, Timmy Finch, and others, that there are many ways to approach improv and still make it awesome to do and watch.

Get the notes here (opens new window)

Preview:

Full episode:

The Free Press called Tara DeFrancisco “The Funniest Person In Chicago”. She won Top 25 Funniest Women in Curve Magazine.  Tara started in stand up but switched to improv! Tara teaches improv and sketch-writing classes at iO, Second City, and ComedySportz, and coaches a Harold team at the iO theatre as well. She performs for the Second City as an understudy for the resident stages, and at CSz several times a week. Her iO team Chaos Theory performs Saturday nights. She is now in four LasVegasDotCom commercials airing nationally (one of them is embedded below). And Tara is the only person so far that I absolutely had to interview twice right away. I don’t know why. Maybe cuz we’re both from Ohio.

Read all the notes and see the funny pictures here (opens new window).

Full Episode:

Video preview:

Bill Word is a fixture in Orange County, California comedy, probably the best known name in stand up comedy contests out in California and has had some success on YouTube as well. He has some great perspectives on how a stand up comedy develops, why comedy competitions are good for your development, and how different venues are for different comedians.

Read the notes for this interview here (opens new window).

Full episode:

Watch an 11 minute preview of the full interview: