Let The Character do the Work

Let The Character do the Work

This workshop emphasizes listening, slowing down, and understanding that improv is NOT writing on your feet or contemplating what you are going to say next but instead it’s making choices that propel the scene, support the theme, feed your partner, and come from the ‘who’ you are in the moment.

In improv we don’t have weeks of character study to indulge in method acting technique or explore the depth of the character we have instantly chosen or had thrust upon us. As Second City Director Del Close would say, “In improv we simply put on a mask and become whatever that mask implies”. Improv is play, make believe. As children we don’t think, we just are what we pretend to be. As improvising adults, we return to that ‘in the moment’ state, but with a much greater depth of experience and awareness of purpose in our choices. In my workshop we find the way to do that through listening, patience, and allowing the scene to come to us. Everything is a gift for us to use. Slow down, enjoy.

Bill McLaughlin

A very brief bio:

International performer and instructor, Bill McLaughlin is a founding member of The Chicago City Limits, New York City’s longest running comedy revue. He was also a member of New York’s The First Amendment Improv Company, with whom he performed at Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He also toured Europe with the NYU Russian Constructivist Theater Company. He has voiced cartoons, radio ads, and corporate training videos and has performed in commercials, TV, films, and worked as a comedy writer/performer for Nickelodeon TV, HBO, and FOX NY affiliate’s ‘Made In New York’ Show.

His New York City teaching credits include instructor at The Chicago City Limits, Director of Improvisational Studies at The Manhattan Comedy School. and guest instructor for Gotham City Improv. Outside NYC, he conducted classes at The Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope Pa, and was adjunct faculty at Bucks County Community College for ten years. He has been a guest instructor and coach for improvisational comedy at The Nursery Theatre in London UK, The Station Theater in Houston TX, and in the Philadelphia area at Philly Improv and Wickline Casting. 

When not teaching, Bill produces entertainment in the corporate sector as a writer, director, and performer for Trade Shows, National Sales Meetings, Team Building, and Product Launches. Bill is the creator of IRON COMEDY COMPETITION – THE COMEDY TRIATHLON. He is also a contributing program creator with AppleStick Media Group, LLC.