Classes

Level 3 intensive The Game of the Scene

2 hours Sundays only 10 people for 6 weeks

Retake it or take it for the first time.

Let’s go!

1-3pm September 28th - November 2nd

$150

At Chaos Bloom Theater

70 S Broadway

Taught by Amey Goerlich

Showcase November 6th 8pm Improv Emporium Galorium

Puppetry with Natalie Lien-Bowdish & Faron Nuff

Sunday July 20th/27th 1-3pm with Showcase 7/31 8pm at Improv Emporium Galoriam ($40)

Chaos Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway

Join Denver comedy locals, Natalie & Faron as your guides amid the thrilling and profound experience of externalizing your self expression through the freeing art of puppetry. Whether you are new to puppets, improv, or performance in general, these tenured instructors are here to take you step by step “by hand” into furthering your artistic enrichment via puppetry. The course will cover puppet manipulation 101 as well as touch on the clown pedagogy Faron & Natalie apply to their specific brand of high-excitement audience interactive puppetry techniques. You will leave this class with a deep well of puppetry resources as well as confidence to go out there and be your authentic weirdest self on stage.

Level 1 Clown: Finding Your Clown

Instructors: Alice Gillette & Madly Rosett

Prerequisite: None

Study modern clown fundamentals with the artists making Denver “an incubator for new work” in alt-comedy. Through playful exercises inspired by Lecoq, Lucille Ball, Eric Andre, Nathan Fielder and others, you’ll discover your inner clown and tap into the parts of you onstage that are honest, ridiculous and deeply human. This is a space where we take risks, bomb joyfully and find brilliance in the mess. No experience required: learn stage presence, build a shared clown vocabulary and craft an absurdly meaningful bit.

Cost: $150

12 students max

When: Sundays- August 10, 17, 24, 31st

3-5:30pm

Where: Chaos Bloom theater 70 S Broadway

Class showcase: 9/4 8pm at Improv Emporium Galorium

Improv Salon Pitching Your Start Up with Brian McCarthy

August 24th 1-3pm $20

at 11 East Bayaud our Annex Space

Want a taste of Joe Bill Come do our Drop in with Joe Bill Oct 2nd Thursday 6-7:30pm for $20

Limited to only 20 people you must get your ticket beofre hand no walk ins accepted

WHERE: 70 S Broadway

COST: $175

WHEN: Wednesdays 10/8-11/12 7-9pm Annex Showcase 12/20 8pm takeover Mainstage 

Taught by Sarah Shoen & Ben Gstalder (Final Notes from Amey Goerlich)

In this six-week class, you will learn the basics of sketch comedy. We’ll explore content creation, editing, script structures, and take sketches from page to performance-ready in six weeks.

Introduction to Standup with Andrew Orvedahl

WHEN: Sundays 5:30-7:30pm 10/12-11/16

SHOWCASE 11/20 8pm at IMPROV EMPORIUM GALORIUM SHOW

WHERE: 70 S BROADWAY CHAOS BLOOM THEATER

COST: $175

ANDREW will teach you how to write and perform a tight five or as close to that as we can get using your own life experiences and stories. Andrew is a pro and he has taught his class here twice and everyone has had a blast so third times a charm.

Andrew Orvedahl is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in Denver, Colorado. He has performed comedy coast-to-coast since 2003, from legendary clubs and theaters to the tiniest forgotten dive bars. He has performed stand-up on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon as well as on Comedy Central and NBC. He has two albums with over 2 million listens in Spotify and his third album and first special "Doom Math" will be released this fall. In addition to his own comedy, Andrew has written material for some of the biggest names in stand-up, as well as punched up numerous scripts. Andrew co-created and co-starred in the sitcom Those Who Can't which ran for three seasons on TruTV and HBO. Andrew also created the storytelling show The Narrators, which is enjoying its 15th year and has spread to other cities. Andrew is a member. of The Grawlix comedy trio, who put on a monthly show of all-new material as well as the weekly Grawlix Saves the World podcast.  

Making Failure Funny: Advanced Clown for Comedy Performers

WHEN: Oct 6 - Nov 10th (6:30-9pm) 6 weeks

WHERE: Chaos Bloom (11 East Bayaud) Our Annex space

COST: $150

12 STUDENTS MAX

NO SHOWCASE

How do you save the show when things don’t go according to plan, or win back the audience after you’ve lost them? More importantly, how can you harness the special qualities of your unique self to your advantage? We will learn to play less with what we THINK is funny, and more with a sensitivity to what the audience tells us IS funny. Come fail big, tune in to the audience, and follow your fun! This class is for comedy performers at any level—including improvisers, clowns, sketch writers, actors—who are looking to find more precision in their work. While all levels and backgrounds are welcome, please be prepared for the pace and intensity of an advanced class.

The course will root itself in foundational physical theater techniques and Clown, including fixed point and mime, levels of tension, and creating characters through physicality. Through different games and exercises, we will work solo and in groups to tune in to our sense of play as performers, as well as how we pivot, edit, and most importantly: fail.

We will practice failing a lot: failing big, failing small, failing messily, failing gloriously, and failing like there’s no tomorrow. By playing to the best of our ability, we will create a supportive environment to take bold risks and find out what our instincts are when we fail: how we hide, sabotage ourselves and our scene partners, or play from fear. As such, this kind of work can be emotional, revealing, joyful, empowering, and everything in between, and you will come away with a better understanding of yourself as a performer, and a person.

By the end of this course, everyone will devise at least one seedling of a solo and/or group number, as well as gain a toolkit of skills to create or sharpen future material. You will come away with a better understanding of how audiences perceive you, and how to play with and against it in a variety of contexts to heighten what is uniquely funny about you. 

About Soleil: Soleil Kohl (she/they) is an experimental performance artist based in Denver, Colorado specializing in clown and interactive theatre. Her work ranges from absurdist satire and character work to embodied physical theatre and dance. Soleil has brought solo shows and immersive experiences across the US and abroad, and has been featured on BBC Scotland and No Proscenium. Her teaching style is informed by several years of improv comedy, physical theater, and clown studies, and pulls from several teachers, including but not limited to Spymonkey (Aitor Basuri and Toby Park), Giovanni Fusetti, Christopher Bayes, Donna Oblongata, and Avner Eisenberg. She holds a Masters in Learning, Developmental, and Family Sciences, and integrates modern education research into her teaching practice.

MA Learning, Developmental, and Family Sciences '21

BA Emergent Digital Practices & Creative Writing '19

Where: 70 S Broadway

Cost: $175

WHEN: 11/5-12/10 7-9pm (No class 11/26)

Limited to 10 students

Showcase:12/20 show a piece you have directed at Improv Emporium Galorium 

Taught by Amey Goerlich

Intro to Directing Sketch & Improv 

This 5 week class will get you into the process of directing actors for your own sketches, other pieces of theatrical work selected by the teacher and improvised scenes.

There will also be an opportunity to bring in your own sketch or improvised pieces to work on directing stage compositions or formats.

Amey will introduce you to approaches that help you while directing people in sketches and improvised pieces. 

She will also stretch you to find creative ways to stage written theatrical pieces that may seem simple but will allow everyone in class to get creative and deliberately hone in on their individual voice.

Amey has a BFA in Theatrical Directing from Marymount Performing Arts from NYC.  She had Internships under Richard Foreman at the Ontological Hysteric Theater in NYC on his production Hotel Fuck as his tech script supervisor and with Charles Busch working with him on his off Broadway show Shanghai Moon as his puppet shadower and bellboy number 1.  She also directed several off Broadway shows and directed pieces for Ann Bogarts Columbia grad students final thesis projects.  In 1998 she was awarded one of the best up and coming female directors.