Intro to Improv

This class will be a lighthearted romp through easy theater games designed to prepare participants to perform made up comedy scenes on the spot. If you like working on your listening, collaboration, creativity and communication skills, you'll love improv!

This class has a rating of R, meaning subject matters, attitudes and presentation of material may be as adult as content routinely found in R rated movies.

Jon Branch, Instructor Bio

Jon (Jonathan) Branch is a veteran improviser living in New York City. He was the founder and artistic director of House Improv in Gainesville, Florida until 2022. He is a graduate of Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), Magnet Theater, and the World's Greatest Improv School (WGIS), and has been honing the craft of long-form improv for the last 7 years. He has taken workshops and classes with world-class teachers and performed with notable improvisers such as Will Hines, Sarah Claspell, Michelle Gilliam, Terry Withers, and Jason Perez. He has studied with world-class teachers and performers such as Will Hines, Sarah Claspell, Michelle Gilliam, Terry Withers, Michael Delaney, Billy Merritt, Alex Berg, Shannon O'Neill, Connor Ratliff, Sebastian Conelli, Tim Martin, Ali Ghandour, Lou Gonzalez, and David Theune. He has performed in the Edinburgh International Improv Festival, Plam Beach Improv Festival, and Baltimore Improv Festival. You can catch him performing in Brooklyn at Young Ethel's as part of an improv residency. When Jon isn't performing, you can find him watching improv shows, teaching at the Radical Agreement Project or coaching improv teams. He also co-hosts two weekly podcasts about everything related to crypto and has future projects in development.

When he isn't living, breathing, or dreaming about improv, Jon enjoys traveling, creating craft cocktails, playing chess, cooking high-end meals, and playing the drums at deafening volumes.f UCBNY's best when he starting out, including Zach Woods, Joe Wengert, Charlie Todd, Will Hines, Michael Delaney, Armando Diaz, Kevin Hines, Chris Gethard & Neil Casey.

Along the way he himself has taught or performed with many comedians who have gone on to recognizable success onscreen. That success is of course not because of him, but no one ever stood up and yelled "Fraud!" If you take his class, we guarantee that you also will not yell "Fraud!" at him.