Have a question?
Message sent Close

LMA TA Tony Spirovski spent some time in North America on holiday and managed to squeeze in some improv classes at The Annoyance Theatre.

Earlier on this year I was on holidays in North America, while I was there I was able to squeeze in some improv classes, so I thought I’d share my experience with you.

(P.S.  That’s me, top left.)

I spent two weeks in Chicago, and while I was there I took a one-week intensive course at the Annoyance Theatre. If you don’t have a lot of time to spend overseas, this is a great option to gain experience.

As the name implies, the course was intense. The main classes were jam-packed from Monday to Friday 10 am – 5 pm. If that wasn’t already enough, there were a few extra classes thrown in from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm during the week (told you it was intense!).

The way the days were structured is that each day covered one level (e.g. Monday covered Level 1 of their curriculum, Tuesday covered Level 2, and so on). And the evening classes were additional standalone classes (e.g. genres, puppetry, etc.).

On the Friday evening after our last class, we had our own graduation performance at the Theatre! Our show started at 6 pm so we didn’t have a huge crowd (not necessarily a bad thing), in any case, it was really nice to perform as a group and put in to practice some of the things we learned during the week.

If you’re planning on heading to the US I’d definitely recommend you check out the Improv schools there. There are so many to choose from (the big schools IO and Second City, but many of the other smaller theatres hold their own too).

The Annoyance Theatre offers these one-week intensive courses once a month during their summertime. Another bonus was that as a student we had free entry to all Annoyance improv shows during the week (if you had any energy left in you). There were shows on every night from 7:30 pm to roughly 10:30 pm.

This was another thing I couldn’t believe at first, with all the improv theatres in the city, there were so many shows to choose from every night of the week.

Review: Summer Improv Intensive at the Annoyance Theatre The Home of Improv and Sketch Comedy in Australia
Tony with Mick Napier (Founder, Annoyance Theatre)

If you want to know more about the summer intensive course and my experience feel free to get in touch. I also recorded some summaries of each day while I was there. 

Tony talks about Day 1 of the Annoyance Theatre improv intensive course

Day 2 - Annoyance Theatre Intensive

Day 3 - Annoyance Theatre Intensive

Day 4 - Annoyance Theatre Intensive

Also, if you’re in Vancouver make sure to check out the Improv Centre on Granville Island. They have shows on every night of the week and I found them super funny!

They’re really good with crowd participation too, so if you go to a show be bold and volunteer to get up on stage.

They also have a Saturday morning drop-in class if you want to sample their improv philosophy, below is a photo of the awesome bunch in the drop-in class I went to. 

And, lastly, it would be remiss of me not to point out that, if you can’t make it to Chicago. LMA brings the best of Chicago to you with all their great improv classes and sketch comedy classes.

So if you haven’t already, get into it!

Review: Summer Improv Intensive at the Annoyance Theatre The Home of Improv and Sketch Comedy in Australia
Tony attending the drop-in class of Improv Centre on Granville Island (Vancouver)

Author: - LMA

Review: Summer Improv Intensive at the Annoyance Theatre The Home of Improv and Sketch Comedy in Australia

Leave a Reply

Let us tell you about upcoming classes, Early Bird rego and more.