Audition Notice!

Improv Asylum is having auditions for their NXT cast!

You can read all the details about it on the website.

I auditioned onto the NXT cast in 2007 with Stephanie Jones while we were still seniors in college performing with Mission:IMPROVable at UMass Amherst. I met some great people, performed with really talented comedians and worked under fabulous directors. After just under two years I was invited to join the mainstage company, where I continue to perform today. If you want, you can contact me to talk to me more about my experience before or after you email Stacey and book an audition slot.

Do it. You know you want to. Do it.

Woo and Bieber: Roommates - Episode 4

Justin doesn't want to use his comp tickets on Woo

Woo and Bieber: Roommates - Episode Three

The latest in the Woo and Bieber series:

MischMash on YouTube

Well, everyone. One of my performance - related goals for 2010 was to be in more video sketches.
By more, I mean any. So with not much time to spare before that ball drops...

Four Loko:




Justin Bieber: Frozen Yogurt

Happy Father's Day from Improv Asylum

Fathers Day from Improv Asylum on Vimeo.


Writer /Director: Evan Kaufman

Director of Production, Editor, Composer: Chris Loughran

Produced by Improv Asylum

Featuring: Kirstin Opstad, Evan Kaufman, Matt Catanzano, Kiley Fitzgerald, Dan Faneuf, Misch Whitaker and Richie Moriarty

Nightmare on Hanover Street

Last Sunday night I attended the opening of the new Improv Asylum NXT show, Nightmare on Hanover Street.

I LOVED it.
Disclaimer: I work at Improv Asylum.
Other disclaimer: But not on the NXT cast.

As far as shows go it continues to follow the Improv Asylum structure of improv and sketch blend, although it takes the blending further than usual. This can be seen in a couple of places in the show where improv transitions smoothly into written material, or where written material incorporates audience input seamlessly.
For example, the improvised musical that ends the first Act. It has just enough structure to be spot -on successful, while leaving plenty of room for improvised play. Like a sonnet. A big musical improvised sonnet with awesome lights and tight choreography.

I won't spoil the closer for you, but the title of their show hints at the theme at the very least, as do some of the cast portraits popping up on facebook. Think about everything you loved about Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and you still won't know exactly what you're in for.

Under Jeremy Brothers' direction and guidance the cast found new interesting ways to get and use audience input for improvised scenes. It's part of the fearless creativity that permeates the entire show, in the improv as well as the content and execution of the sketches.

You should definitely get out to see it sometime soon.
Nightmare on Hanover Street
8pm Sunday Nights
Improv Asylum

and the sky starts to change

This just in:

Improv Asylum will be presenting a Second City revue in Boston from late April 2010 to late May 2010.

So, for any friends, coworkers or family who aren't improv savvy/geeky, a quick background: The Second City started in 1959 in Chicago and is a comedy theater. A ton of famous people have started their careers there including Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and John Belushi. It now also has theaters in Toronto, Los Angeles, plus multiple touring companies. So... it's big.

So in 2010, from late April to late May, the owners of Improv Asylum are sponsoring a company to come to Boston to create a show that will run for about three weeks. The shows at IA will continue as normal; the Second City show is at a different theater in Boston. IA's producing it; the writers and directors are all Second City folks. They will most likely bring actors from other places, like Chicago...

... but they are also holding auditions amongst Asylum actors and alumni for (at least) two slots on the cast.

Which is very, very exciting.

The most exciting thing about it isn't that, though. It's what this could do to stir up more interest in comedy in general in the city. People who have never heard of "sketch," by that name, or whose only experience with improv may have been a bad one may undergo a conversion.
And when Second City leaves at the end of May they will look to other venues for their comedy fix. Boston is about to become an even funnier place (hopefully).