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International Guest Teacher: Game Brain, Scene Brain

  • Jeays St Community Centre 12 Jeays Street Bowen Hills, QLD, 4006 Australia (map)

Learn to understand immediately what is going on in an improv show/scene/game, in ANY context by the time you leave this workshop!

About the Workshop:

This workshop will help improvisers who are early in their studies of improvisation, to understand the difference between how their brains work when they are playing improv games vs. when they are improvising scenes. We’ll cover how the harmony of the 'Engineer' and 'Jazz Musician' in your head can be vital in playing Scene Longform, Narrative and “Game of the Scene”.

There are psychological differences that happen when we play for comedy as the goal vs. when we play for comedy as a consequence of emotional and psychological connection. I’ve studied psychology and behavioral neuroscience for more than 30 years and I aim to help anyone who is in the first 10 years of their improvisation journey to understand immediately what is going on in an improv show/scene/game, in ANY context, by the time they leave this workshop. I will help you gain confidence and feel more connected so you can just PLAY!

About the International Guest Teacher:

Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Scenic, Longform, Duo Improvisation, and Improvised Storytelling 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 and still performed a few times a year. Since then he’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 and performing his solo scripted show, Joe Bill: Surviving Consciousness, all over the world in 2024 and will be filming it in Auckland, NZ in May and releasing it towards the end of the year. 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.

Joe has taught and performed on every continent on earth, except for Antarctica which remains on his bucket list.