The First 30 Seconds Improv Workshop with Joe Bill

In Improvisation scenes, the ending often lies in the beginning. I will show you how to begin your scenes with focus & playfulness and how to begin to bring your inner Engineer & Jazz Musician into Harmony through the way that you listen. We’ll focus on the first 30 seconds of a scene to discover your characters (How they do, What they do, Who they are) evolving from the recognition of “How am I?” and “How are you?” & “How are WE?” I’ll help increase your awareness of the two types of dialogue (Circumstantial & Interpersonal) to give you the best chance to play an honest, grounded scene rooted in depth and discovery AND how comedy & story come as a consequence of connection rather than goals you’re desperately chasing.

Date: 12/28/2023 12:00 pm -3:00 pm

Location: 5700 6th Ave S Suite 109 Seattle. WA 98108

Maximum Students: 16

Cost: $180 ($189.57 including booking fees)

Prerequisite: None

Ages: 18 and above

About the Instructor: Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Improvised Storytelling and Scenic, Longform & Duo Improvisation in North America today. He is one of the founding members of Annoyance Theater Chicago where, for 12 years, he performed in and/or directed more than 60 different shows. Joe is ½ of the first touring Improv Duo in North America, BASSPROV, created in 2000 with Mark Sutton. They are still performing at Festivals and theater engagements globally 24 years later. Since then Joe’s been touring all over the world teaching, directing, and improvising with several other amazing Duo Partners like Patti Stiles (Our Play), Jill Bernard (SCRAM!), Stacey Hallal (Stacey & Joe, We Slept Together) Lee White (Paradigm), Heather Urquart (Blues Hammer), Felipe Ortiz (Les Disciplinos) and David Razowsky (Razowsky & Bill), ALL in different, original formats and styles. He’s touring his solo scripted show, written as he successfully took on and survived Surgeries & chemo associated with 3 different cancers from late 2022 to early 2024, Joe Bill: Surviving Consciousness, (Lessons learned from Cancer, LSD & Michael Jordan) all over the U.S. and the world. In April 2024 he debuted it at the Auckland Imrprov Festival in Auckland, NZ. He has since preformed it at Festivals and Theaters across the USA and will record it at Curious Comedy Theater in Portland, OR in early 2025. He is the creator and host of Story Chain, a virtual (and now sometimes live!), 90-minute, international story sharing event that he developed in 2020 during the Pandemic. He was the Director of Corporate Training at iO Chicago for 15 years and started training and performing there in 1985. He was a Guest Artist in Residence at The Second City Training Center & Conservatory where he taught intensives in Duo Improvisation and Improvisation for Actors for 10 years.Award (Best-Taped Live Performance – The Minnesota Wrecking Crew), with The Imponderables nominated for the same award.

He was recently in Montréal as a part of the Just for Laughs Festival with the reunion of The Kids in the Hall, and also with his show “Hammy and the Kids” with Craig Northey, based on his two dysfunctional families, his father (“Hammy”) and The Kids in the Hall.