iO West Sketch Team Auditions Sat May 18th
& Callbacks Sun May19th
To Audition as a performer, sign up on the audition sheet on the Student Board (by the greenroom back door), then go to the iOWest web site, download and fill out the Sketch Team Application Form; bring it to your audition along with one original sketch that you’ve written and your head shot and resume.
Be prepared to show 2 minutes of original characters or impersonations. You will be doing a cold reading.
To submit as a writer, go to the iOWest web site, download and fill out the Sketch Team Application Form and submit it along with three original sketches. Make sure to have your name on every page of your sketches.
Writer submission packets can be dropped off at the iO West office Noon-6pm or at the box office 7-11pm.
Contact James Grace, with questions.
Hey Teens! Get your improv groove on!
New Workshops for You!
Teen Improv Workshop (5 days, 3 hour classes) – $250
iO West’s Teens classes introduce the fundamental skills of improvisational comedy, the hilarious art form that sparked the success of comedians like Tina Fey, Jason Sudeikis, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler and many more! Classes will focus on teamwork, characters, storytelling, and truthful comedy through imaginative games and scene work. Through their study of improv, students will learn valuable skills that are not only must-haves for television, film, and commercials but for performing, comedy, and life. All classes culminate in a final performance where they will have the chance to show off their improv chops on the iO West Mainstage!
Monday through Friday, from 1pm – 4pm. Class shows on Saturdays. Take one or both weeks!
Begins 06/17/13 – 1:00 PM – DCT – Tiffani Mills
Begins 06/24/13 – 1:00 PM – DCT – Tiffani Mills
Festival Workshops are UP!
Workin' It
Register for workshops with Visa, M/C or cash
via phone: (323) 962-7560 or at 6366 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
A portion of all workshop revenue will be donated to The Chris Farley House.
Elizabeth Mihelich is a writer, actress and producer who was born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado aka “P-town” or “The Land of Nothing”. She completed iO West’s program in 2002 and spent a year on the Harold Team “Assisted Living”. She is a graduate of Second City’s Conservatory and was a member of “American Standard”, a Tuesday night grad group where she performed long form improvisation weekly from 2008-2009 under the direction of Mike Ross. She can be seen in the newly formed DCT team, DCT, performing Fridays in The DCT. She’s been waiting tables longer than she’d like to admit but was relieved to realize that she’s actually in control of her tables and has been having fun and making money ever since!
HAVE FUN and MAKE MONEY! (2 hours) – $30
Sunday – 06/02/13 – 10:00 AM – DCT
Are you stuck working in the restaurant industry in order to have the freedom to pursue a career in film or television? Not sure why you’re getting 10% tips? Want a way to make money and enjoy your “support while you make it” J-O-B? Learn how to take the prinicples of improv and apply them to your serving job; taking control of the table from the beginning, understanding a customer complaint, suggestive selling and reading your table. Elizabeth will also help you understand energy, how to ground it, set boundaries and to serve with an open heart. Don’t leave your restaurant gig frustrated for one more day! Learn how to Have Fun and Make Money on your way to Career Success!
Katie Nahnsen is an actor, writer, improviser and teacher. She was a series regular on the syndicated comedy Sports Action Team, which was distributed by MGM and aired on HDNet and NBC affiliates across the country for two years. A pilot she co-created and starred in, The Venue, recently won the NYTV Comedy Central Short Pilot Competition and is currently in development at Comedy Central. Katie performs and teaches regularly at iO West and The Second City Hollywood. Currently she performs with the improv ensembles Spirt Cat, Virgin Daiquiri, and CatNip.
Emotions in Improv (aka Express Yourself) (2 hours) – $30
Monday – 06/03/13 – 2:00 PM – Main Stage
This workshop is all about emotions.. and emotions are comedy GOLD! Exercises will focus on creating characters and scene work with an emotional point of view. Topics include: creating an emotional POV by choosing the character’s want, using emotions to heighten the game of a scene, and committing to a character by staying true to the emotional point of view.
Mike Funt is an actor, clown, and director in Los Angeles with a BFA in Theatre Performance and has worked in Theatres across the country. He has taught Physical Improv for the last couple years at iO West and iO in Chicago. He is the Production Manager for Four Clowns and was Assistant Director for Sublimity, and performer in That Beautiful Laugh, a darling of the Hollywood Fringe. Clown training includes work with David Bridel at The Clown School, Philippe Gaulier, John Gilkey of Cirque du Soleil, Avner the Eccentric, and instructors from Ringling Bros. Mike can currently be seen in his two two-person clown shows The Day the Hung the Elephant and Jackson-Lafitte: A Vaudeville. He formerly taught at the San Francisco Comedy College and is the current head of the Theatre Department for the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program.
Physical Improv (2 hours) – $30
Monday – 06/03/13 – 4:00 PM – Main Stage
Students will gain better control and awareness of their physical presence onstage and learn how to utilize movement, gesture, and silence to enhance improv acting. This class explores clowning, slapstick comedy, Commedia dell’Arte, and the work of everyone from Viola Spolin and Jacques Lecoq to Charlie Chaplin and Looney Tunes. Move away from the dreaded “talking head improv,” and get pushed from your physical comfort zone in this playful class.
Member of long-running improv ensembles Local 132 and Kind Strangers, Zach Huddleston has been doing improv, standup, and sketch comedy in LA and at the IOWest for the better part of the last decade. He’s done a lot of Harolds and genre-based improv and specializes in playing infuriated police captains.
Shooting a Cannon Out of a Canoe (2 hours) – $30
Tuesday – 06/04/13 – 2:00 PM – Main Stage
You can’t shoot a cannon out of a canoe, even if that cannon is filled with insightful pop culture references and uncanny fart noises. We’ll work on laying down the solid concrete foundation of honest scenework so that your improv can soar through the heavens and into the castle walls of comedy. Get on dry land sailor!*
Workshop will not cover extending metaphors beyond reason."
*Brian James O’Connell is a working actor, writer, director, filmmaker and improviser in Los Angeles. Brian is a graduate of the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts (David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill,Ben Best, Peter Hedges, Mary-Louise Parker, Tom Hulce,Terrence Mann, Chris Parnell, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeff Nichols) and moved to Los Angeles to follow his dreams of a career in filmmaking. Read more about Brian here on his website
Art of Mimicry (2 hours) – $30
Wednesday – 06/05/13 – 4:00 PM – Main Stage
The Number One hurdle to becoming a better and more interesting improviser is the necessity of another person to run scenes. This workshop relieves you of that burden. In this workshop, Brian O’Connell gives you a mathematically based way to run “drills” and form a “workout regimen” in regards to your long form improvisation. You will learn the 10 Questions To Every Scene, The 4 Basic Scene Types, Instant Character Composition, The 3 Points of Character Work, and, of course, Nuclear War. You can go to the gym and work out alone to make yourself a better, stronger basketball player. The Art Of Mimicry and How It Leads To Nuclear War gives you the tools to make you a better, stronger improviser. All from the comfort of your own home.
Mike McLendon is an actor, improvisor, comedian, and writer of short bios originally from Austin, Texas. In addition to performing on the mainstage at iO West, Mike has performed around the world with The Second City Theatricals, Mission Improvable, and The Dinner Detective. Mike is a proud member of the iO West mainstage Harold Team “Bandit” and the cagematch juggernaut, “Orpheus Roy”. In addition to living and breathing improv at stages across Los Angeles, Mike also teaches at Second City, iO West, and does a variety of workshops across the U.S.
Scenework That Works (2 hours) – $30
Thursday – 06/06/13 – 12:00 PM – Main Stage
Are you stuck in a rut of stalled scenes? Do you have trouble sticking with a clear and precise point of view? Using drills and exercises that focus on a characters behavior and world view as opposed to funny accents or physicality, this two hour workshop will focus on finding the comedic premise and then heightening and exploring via tag-outs and walk-ons.
Dave Hill is an actor, improviser and writer from Chicago where he trained at the iO and Second City. Here in LA he performs with Hill Jones, King Ten and the Armando Show in addition to numerous other theaters around town. His work can be seen in a variety of commercials, the upcoming Hulu series “Quickdraw” and past episodes of “Reno 911”.
Just the Facts (2 hours) – $30
Thursday – 06/06/13 – 4:00 PM – Main Stage
Do you find yourself lost in improv scenes? Not sure which pieces of information are important and which aren’t? Tired of ending your scenes grasping for anything and leaving scenes feeling like they were about nothing? “Just the Facts” will help you develop the ability to zero in on what is most important in your scenes so that you can enjoy the fun that is possible in every scene.
Josh Tariff has been a long time performer at IO West, most notably known as the host of The Cagematch. Along with creating and hosting various shows at IO such as ‘Match Game’ and ‘Cut That Promo’, Josh has also spent several years hosting Dinner Theaters, game show pilots and sports and wrestling programs. Most recently Josh has begun hosting podcasts for ‘AfterBuzz TV’ where he hosts the post game shows for NBC’s ‘The Voice’ and ‘WWE Main Event’. These podcasts combine to be downloaded by over a million people each week on ITunes.
You’re in Control: How to Host a Show! (2 hours) – $30
Friday – 06/07/13 – 10:00 AM – Loft
Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the show!
Sounds a lot simpler to say than it actually is. Have you ever thought of yourself as someone who should lead a morning radio show? Do you see yourself sitting down and leading an interview with a big time celebrity? How awesome would it be to be the person to tell a contestant that they just won a brand new car?
’You’re in Control: How to be an effective host and carry a show’ will help you learn how to drive through any type of show you see fit. Whether it’s a podcast you do from your basement for 5 listeners, or you’re in a studio explaining the rules of a game to 5,000. This workshop will help you with your leadership, you’re quick wits, and you’re confidence to grab the audience by yourself.
Troy Conrad is the creator and co-producer, with Paul Provenza, of the improvised stand-up show, Set List: Stand-up Without A Net, now a 14-episode TV series in Australia and the UK, as well as winning “Best unscripted stand-up show 2012” from LA Weekly. Troy performs and produces comedy at festivals worldwide including Montreal, Dublin, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Syndey, London, Chicago, Vancouver, and Austria. After training in the improv and writing programs at iO West, Second City Los Angeles, and Upright Citizen’s Brigade, he created the live show and DVD The Comedy Jesus Show which also toured worldwide. His latest show, Prompter is his latest way of bringing performance into the moment in new and creative ways. Troy is also an award winning filmmaker for the film he directed, which began as a Funny or Die series, Runyon: Just Above Sunset starring Eddie Pepitone.
Creating Material With Solo Improvisation (2 hours) – $30
Friday – 06/07/13 – 12:00 PM – DCT
The principles of solo improvisation can help you more than you might think. Geared for all levels of solo performers, this workshop is for those who want to be more in the moment than ever before – creating on the spot is exclusive to no type of performer. Learn how to put yourself in hot water and start taking risks. Comedy without risk is engaging. Risk strengthens your instincts and intuition. The adrenaline-inducing world of solo improv is growing. Find out why, and how to do it with integrity.
Gian Molina is an actor and comedian born and raised in Long Beach, CA. Joined Ultimate Improv while in high school and has been actively performing in the comedy community for a little over 10 years. He is currently performing with “Bandit” at Hollywood’s Improv Olympic West as well as hosting a weekly podcast with Nina Tarr called “The Nervous Jerk Podcast”. Gian is also a co-founder of The 11th Hour Show, which he host weekly with his Upright Citizens Brigade based group “Imaginary Friends”. Some TV credits include G4’s Attack of the Show, Weeds, NBC’s Community, Reno 911 and HBO’s Funny or Die: Presents.
Improv Chemistry and Group Mind (2 hours) – $30
Friday – 06/07/13 – 12:00 PM – Loft
Mike Hughes is the co-executive producer and a director of and writer for Top Story! Weekly, the award-winning news-based comedy show new every Sunday night here at iO West. He is a writer for the morning radio prep service the Complete Sheet, which distributes content every morning to over 500 radio stations in 12 countries.
Turning Headlines Into Laughs: Topical Comedy (2 hours) – $30
Friday – 06/07/13 – 4:00 PM – Loft
This workshop will focus on methods for creating sketches and two-line jokes from the headlines of the day, whether from politics, pop culture, or human interest. Topics to be covered will include how to figure out where the comedy is in a news story, how to hone your point of view, how to determine the best medium and structure for your subject matter and how to tailor your material for your audience.
Kevin McDonald founded The Kids in the Hall with his friend Dave Foley. In the troupe’s TV show and stage shows, he portrays several popular recurring characters, such as the King of Empty Promises, Sir Simon Milligan, and Jerry Sizzler. Since The Kids in the Hall’s end in 1994, he’s played many roles in movies like Boy Meets Girl, Agent Pleakley in the Lilo & Stitch series, and Harry Potter in Epic Movie.
Writing Sketches Through Improv (2 hours) – $30
Friday – 06/07/13 – 4:00 PM – Main Stage
The class will learn the process of improvising scenes and then “write them into sketches”.
James Mastraieni has been improvising all over the place for awhile now. After moving to Los Angeles in 2005 he decided to take on the daunting task of taking classes at Second City, iO West, and Upright Citizen’s Brigade at the same time. After all that hard work, dedication, and confusion he was one of the first people hired out of LA to tour for the Second City cruise ships. He spent two years at sea, returned to LA and picked up where he left off, spending three years on iO West Harold team, The Cartel, followed by a year with the Harold team, Sweeterhouse. Now, he regularly performs at iOWest every Friday night at 10pm with Orpheus Roy on the mainstage and over at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade on the Harold team The Ruckus. He’s been teaching at iOWest for over a year now and coaches many teams including DCT Harold team Hooligan and he coached two Time Best DCT Harold Team Del Close Award winner Popular Science.
Finding the Funny with Purpose (2 hours) – $30
Saturday – 06/08/13 – 10:00 AM – Loft
Some people believe it is taboo to openly use the F-word in the world of improvisation because improv, like all art is subjective. The F-word I’m referring to is “funny.” In reality, every improviser wants to be funnier. Anybody can be funny on accident once or twice in a scene. But can you be funny consistently throughout your scenes and know exactly why it’s funny? In this workshop, we will focus on finding one simple idea to explore, based off of your choices, to make your scenes funnier. We will focus on identifying unusual behavior, turning it into comedic point of view, and framing it into a high stakes situation. This approach gives you instant game of the scene, as well as relationship within the first few lines of your scene.
Eric Hunicutt has been performing scripted and improvised theatre continuously since he was 15 years old: everything from Shakespeare at Lincoln Center to sketch comedy in dive bars (with a lot of improv shows throughout). Eric has studied and performed with Improv Olympic (iO) Chicago, The Second City Chicago, Comedy Sportz, Steppenwolf, and is a proud alumnus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a working actor and director in film, TV, live theatre, and performs weekly at iO West, as well as touring nationally with the acclaimed Chicago-based ensemble The Reckoning. Directing credits include shows at The Comedy Central Stage, iO West, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, The Second City (L.A. & Chicago),The Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theateres (NYC & L.A.), and the University of California San Diego. In addition to iO West, Eric teaches at Steppenwolf Classes West, Warner Loughlin Studios, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Cal State University’s Summer Arts, and recently served as a Guest Faculty/Director at UC San Diego.
Keep Calm and Carry On (2 hours) – $30
Saturday – 06/08/13 – 12:00 PM – DCT
The first moments of any scene contain a huge amount of information. Often times, we ignore what’s right in front of us – clues to Character, Relationship, Point of View, and Game already exist, sometimes even before we speak. In our rush (sometimes panic!) to establish the scene, we concentrate so hard we forget to pay attention. This workshop offers an alternative way of approaching the beginnings of a scene – slow down, look and listen, proceed accordingly. You’ll find you don’t have to work nearly as hard as you think you do – the scene is there for you to discover, no need to invent.
Annie & Levin O’Connor
Annie grew up in NW Indiana has been performing improv since 1997. In 2001 she helped found the children’s improv touring group, Smarty Pants Theater Company in Cincinnati, OH before making her way west to Los Angeles where she trained at the iO West Theater.
Over the years of training and performing a strong philosophy of team over individual emerged. With this idea in place, Annie began coaching which eventually turned into teaching. She currently teaches at MI’s Westside Comedy Theater, AMDA and at iO West where she also runs the student performance program, The Lottery. She also teaches and tours with her two man show, NOW? w/Annie & Levin and has performed at festivals in cities including Chicago, Vancouver, Honolulu, Austin, LA & San Francisco. But you can see her with the Del Close Award winning Harold Team, Uss Rock n Roll, every Wednesday at iOwest.
During the day Annie is also a working commercial actor and has appeared in several national and local spots. But mostly she gets totally jazzed-off about improv, and yes, that is how she talks about it.
Levin began his improv career in Chicago studying at iO(Formerly ImprovOlympic) and The Second City. He has been fortunate enough to learn from some of the great minds in this craft and works hard to pass that along. Improv is more than a means to an end for Levin, it is a life philosophy. This Del Close Award winning “Coach of the Year” has lived in LA for the past four years and performs weekly at IoWest with USS Rock ‘N Roll and The iO Repertory Company.
The New Earth Army (2 hours) – $30
Saturday – 06/08/13 – 2:00 PM – DCT
Joe Canale has been writing and performing comedy for the last 15 years. In Chicago he wrote and performed 4 revues on the Second City mainstage, as well as countless shows at iO Chicago and the Annoyance Theatre. He wrote sports themed sketches for ESPN radio in Chicago. He also spent a year working at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. Since moving to LA, Joe has written numerous videos for the Second City Network and with his sketch group Mr. Johnson.
Sketch (2 hours) – $30
Saturday – 06/08/13 – 2:00 PM – Loft
Joe Canale has been writing and performing comedy for the last 15 years. In Chicago he wrote and performed 4 revues on the Second City mainstage, as well as countless shows at iO Chicago and the Annoyance Theatre. He wrote sports themed sketches for ESPN radio in Chicago. He also spent a year working at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. Since moving to LA, Joe has written numerous videos for the Second City Network and with his sketch group Mr. Johnson.
Stand Up (2 hours) – $30
Saturday – 06/08/13 – 4:00 PM – Loft
Andrea Kittleson is an award-winning playwright, a Los Angeles theater critic and co-founder of Hyde and Turk Performance Works, a San Francisco-based theater company which produced, during its tenure, diverse works of theater and performance art. She holds an MFA in Theater Performance (writing, acting and directing) from SFSU. With six solo shows and hundreds of other works of theater under her belt, Andrea has come to understand what makes solo performances either flop or soar.
Her book “How to Put On Your Own One Person Show” is used as the textbook in university programs and is a comprehensive and practical guide that addresses every aspect of solo performance from creation to production.
Solo Performance for Writers and Performers (2 hours) – $30
Sunday – 06/09/13 – 10:00 AM – Loft
Create a solo performance that capitalizes on your unique strengths (and hides your weaknesses!) and goes brilliantly beyond first-person autobiography. There is so much more to explore! Want to tell the story of your child’s birth? Why not be the sperm that finally broke through? Want to share with the world your persistent fear of death? How about a ninja musical with comedy, movement and original songs? Want to sing and improvise and share stories of your small-town Kentucky youth? Be the state of Kentucky replete with Bourbon and caves and a rich history. Learn how to add dimension and meaning to your stories so they become award-worthy theatrical plays. It’s easier than you think!
Mark Amato’s credits include writing for “Baby Daddy”,“Suite Life on Deck with Zack & Cody”, "Saturday Night Live,” “Son of the Beach,” “Tripping the Rift” “Men in Black”, as well as a spec comedy feature turned ABC/Family hit “Revenge of the Bridesmaids”. Mark began his career working as an assistant at ICM, then at management powerhouse Brillstein-Grey where he quickly ascended to the ranks of executive before heading to Sony Television as Director of Comedy Development. Quickly making the segue to full-time writer, Mark has written in almost all fields of television including sketch, half-hour, Sci-Fi, animation and movie-of-the-week. Having pitched and sold three network pilots before even becoming Story Editor, Mark knows a thing or two about getting executives to turn their heads and take notice. Mark has written television abroad as well, working in Toronto, Montreal and the U.K. Beyond earning shekels for the written word, Mark consistently finds new ways to tickle audiences like co-creating the hilarious showbiz skewering website DAILYANXIETY.com (which Entertainment Weekly dubbed, “wickedly mischievous”), wrote and starred as Jerry Lewis in “The Last Telethon” at the Comedy Central Theater last December, as well as winning the dubious title of “Best Christopher Walken impression” after his YouTube video “Christopher Walken as a Nursery School Teacher” went viral. When not writing, Mark works tirelessly at finding fresh ways to get his kids to roll their eyes at him.
How to Craft the Perfect Spec Script (2 hours) – $30
Sunday – 06/09/13 – 2:00 PM – Loft
EVERY GREAT SPEC STARTS WITH THE STORY – Throw a stone in this town and you’ll find someone who has a script they want you to read. But where dialogue and character are some of the easier attributes most writers can master, the key to any great half-hour spec always lies with a terrific story. Most writers tend to either neglect or get so carried away with hurrying the story process to start “writing”, they give the short shrift to one of the most import process to deliver any great script. Whether its a half-hour spec or a pilot story you’re itching to write, learn the tricks of the trade to come up with something UNIQUE and FRESH rather than tried and true or worse, cliche. Learn how to break a terrific story, including A, B, and sometimes C story into a workable outline that will have you saying “the script wrote itself” because it was that good!
Jason Horton is a Los Angeles comedian, actor, writer, & improviser. He can be seen in over 500 million viewed videos on the Internet, and written over 300million viewed videos. He has written commercial content for Foot Locker, Sony, Netflix, Nintendo, and done online campaigns with people like Shaquille O’Neil & Friday Night Lights Aimee Teegarden. He can also be seen in commercials for Honda, TV Land, Exxon Mobil & Hyundai. He can also be seen on TBS’ Conan, & his videos have been featured on Funny Or Die & Comedy Central’s Tosh.0. Jason has written two feature films that have been optioned, one that started as an Internet video. He is a former writer for Rogue Films online & UCBComedy Originals, and a former staff writer/content creator at Maker Studios with Horatio Sanz, and has done creative consulting for movies studios and reality TV. He recently made his nationwide feature film debut in Smiley, & featured on The Today Show & ABC News Australia, Huffington Post, Jason teaches & performs at the iO West with his Harold team Waterloo, & is a former sketch director at iO, & studied sketch at UCB with Matt Besser. Jason also co-created the Two White Guys Podcast, which has millions of views online. He recently won YouTube’s Next Comic which was featured in Forbes & CNN Money. He is currently working with Ford on the Fiesta Movement, & writing and creating digital content for Russell Simmons & All Def Digital.
Taking Your Comedy to a Bigger Stage: The Internet & Beyond (2 hours) – $30
Sunday – 06/09/13 – 2:00 PM – DCT
You can write for the stage, but will it translate to video? You wrote it, now how to you produce it? You produced it, now how do you get people to look at it? You got people to look at it, but how do you get the RIGHT people to look at it, and turn it into an online resume, and even a career? Take your comedy, and put it front of hundreds, to thousands, and even millions of people. This workshop will focus on what works for video, how to produce it, and take a finished product and make it as accessible as possible on the Internet. The workshop will cover sketch writing for video, social media, some production, & turning your hard work into a vehicle for success.
Brian Stack has been a writer/performer with “Conan” for 16 years, the first 12 years at “Late Night” in New York. Before that, he worked for several years in Chicago at Second City, I.O., and in various groups like Jazz Freddy. He still performs at IO-West and UCB here in LA. He has also appeared on such TV shows as “30 Rock”, “The Office”, and “Eagleheart”.
Conan 101 (2 hours) – $30
Sunday – 06/09/13 – 4:00 PM – Main Stage
Conan writer for 16 years, Brian, will take you behind the scenes of how a Conan show is created. From opening monologue, to desk piece to remote; he will illuminated the process from idea to show night. If you’re interested in writing for late night television, this is the workshop for you.
Joe Spence
TBA (2 hours) – $30
Sunday – 06/09/13 – 4:00 PM – DCT
CLASSES: FREE, one-day improv class coming up!
The first taste is free.
iO West is having a FREE improv class on Saturday, June 1 from 3:30 – 5:30pm on the Mainstage.
This is a great opportunity to see first hand what our improv training is like. In the class you will experience some of the exercises from our Level 1 class, Introduction to Improv.
Sign up soon, space is limited. This class is for first-time attendees only. To enroll in this free class please email your full name, email address, and telephone number to dropinclasses@ioimprov.com.
The iO Water Cooler.
Virtual home of iO Alumni.
We’re always proud and excited to see more and more names and faces of the iO family pop up in the comedy entertainment industry, so we’ve created this site to show them we’re extremely proud of their accomplishments and to help promote their successes.
As you will see, our main purpose is to share and promote any of the cool things our alumni and friends are doing in television, film, or any other form of entertainment.
We encourage you to visit the site and also follow us on Facebook and Twitter (iowatercooler) when you get a chance and join in the social media fun!
Although the site’s Research, Social Media, and Writing teams are based in Chicago, we would love to include anyone from the iO West community that would like to be a part of this new and exciting project.
If you feel you can contribute in any way, please contact cesar@ioimprov.com and he will follow up with you as soon as he can to get you involved.
We hope you enjoy the site!
Stop by the iO bar for HAPPY HOUR specials, every weekday from 6:30-8:30
Drink up.
The iO doesn’t just do comedy. We also drink and encourage others to do the same. Come on by during the week between 6:30 and 8:30pm for one of these amazing specials.
Monday: $3 Well Drinks
Tuesday: $7 High-Low (The top shelf meets the bottom: a great beer and a not-so-good shot, or vice versa.)
Wednesday: Drink Wheel! (Spin the wheel and get the discounted drink it lands on.)
Thursday: $5 Bourbons and Belgian Beers
Friday: $5 Absolut Cocktails (all flavors)
Promote your work and get paid to do it.
Show up.
Do you wish there was an easier way to promote your team and reap the benefits of performing on a world-class stage?
One of the best ways to be taken seriously as a performer in Hollywood is to treat your craft like a business. You also know that putting your work out into the world and becoming someone who gets recognized is a great way to network.
Now there’s an easy way to do all of that at once – plus, you can even make money while you do it!
Simply showcase your team at the iO West Main Stage to help make your name (and your team’s name) the one that everyone’s talking about. Some of the biggest names in comedy today started at iO, including Tina Fey, Vince Vaughn, Amy Poehler and Mike Myers, just to name a few.
One of the best things about showcasing on the iO West Main Stage is that it’s easier than you might think to bring in some real dollars for your team. Think you might find a way to use some extra cash? Most local improv theaters simply take all the earnings from the box office, or don’t allow showcases on their main stage.
If you’re looking into doing a showcase for your team, then you likely run your team like a business – just like we do our theater. We want great acts to be able to show off what they do, bring people into the theater, and put on a show that’s mutually beneficial. That’s why we structure our Main Stage rentals the way we do – we want to make it as easy as possible for you and your team to have a great experience, make money, and reap all the benefits a showcase can offer you while still allowing us to keep the lights on.
For a half-hour showcase slot, you take 85% of the house earnings after the first $200 in tickets are claimed. That’s just 20 people at $10 per ticket!
For an hour showcase slot, you take 85% of the house earnings after the first $400 tickets are claimed. Again, that’s just 40 people for an hour-long show at $10 per ticket… after that, you take home 85% of the cash!
What’s more industry members are always comped.
Contact James Grace at 323-962-7560 or email james@ioimprov.com to find out more about scheduling your showcase and promoting your team for an upcoming show!
1st LA Scripted Fest a huge success!
Sketch, Storytelling, Standup wins big!
LA Weekly gives rave reviews on iO West 1st Scripted Fest!
Click here to read the article