Training

Fast-thinking. Creativity. Bravery... and Improv. Guest Blog by Oliver Shawyer I recently returned from holidays, and in doing so, set myself an aggressive task of getting out and about to try new things. Things that both confronted me and reminded me of how much there is on offer when you actually put yourself out there. There's [...]

Make This One Thing Mandatory for Millennials If you happened to catch Simon Sinek’s recent interview on Inside Quest about millennials in the workplace, then you may already be familiar with his theory about why they are the way they are. If you haven’t seen it, he blames their typically entitled, narcissistic, unfocused, lazy, self [...]

"Awards Chatter" THR Podcast - Matt Walsh (Veep, UCB) The co-founder of Upright Citizens Brigade and Emmy nominee for his portrayal of Selina Meyer's bumbling press secretary explains why he abandoned a career in psychology for comedy, why he's drawn to improv and what it's like working opposite perhaps the funniest TV actress alive today. [...]

Vulnerability Sucks* Thanks to a timely tweet back in February, I took a risk and joined my first ever improv class at Laugh Masters Academy. Having only 20 minutes to run to the theatre, I came in late, sweaty and out of breath. In front of me were 12 friendly strangers waiting to be introduced [...]

What Vanilla Ice Didn’t Tell You About Agile/Lean Methods I have been working in the IT Industry for over a decade and in that time we have seen massive changes in how people are approaching how work gets done, people at all levels are collaborating in entirely new ways. From processes and practices thought up [...]

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Improv Class It's the start of a new term, and that means you're about to be walking into a room ready for some make-'em-ups with a batch of new (and some known) faces. Here's some tips for getting the most out of your class, whether it's the [...]

Improv Photos from the July 15 Blue Note Show! On Friday night we had the LMA’s first Blue Note Comedy Night! - Student Showcase, an evening of amazing comedy featuring a fantastic lineup of Australia’s rising improv and sketch comedy All-Stars. This special evening consisted of LMA's own Practice Team "Shut Up Darryl!", Sketch Team "The Pursuit [...]

Improv Photos from the Level 2 Gold Coin Show! On Thursday night we had the LMA’s Gold Coin Comedy Night - Student Showcase, an evening of “Nearly Free” comedy featuring a fantastic lineup of Australia’s rising improv and sketch comedy All-Stars. This special evening consisted of LMA's Level 2 Improv Grad Show - with a [...]

PWC Get Into (and a lot out of) Improv Business Training Improv Business Training LMA recently ran an introductory improv for business training session with some of the lovely folks at PWC in Sydney. Here you can listen to a few of them share their thoughts on the experience. Can you guess what they all [...]

Kristin Hensley: Business Improv Training is Invaluable The lovely Kristin Hensley recently came over from Los Angeles to facilitate some workshops and corporate training sessions with LMA. Here she shares a few thoughts on why improv business training is vital for innovation and teamwork, and how saying "Yes, and..." and using Active Listening to support [...]

We had an awesome “Hangin’ with Harold” intensive workshop with Kristin Hensley (UCB, i.O., Second City, WestSide Comedy Theater). These are the notes from the class which will be of value to anyone currently performing – or learning to perform – Harolds at LMA or elsewhere.

No Joke! Improv is Seriously Good for Business. There’s more to improvisation than comedy - and it’s not just for funny people. In fact, improv is primarily about learning to react authentically and stay in the present moment at a very high level. This awareness has all sorts of business benefits which is why we [...]

Use Your Words We'd love to hear from you. Write about your favourite show, most recent class, training you did overseas, how improv has helped/changed you, Top Tips you'd like to share, pet peeves... whatever. Pitch us your ideas and chances are we'll say "Yes, and..."

The Hard Truth: Be Kind I frequently have performers ask me for the hard truth, the tough note. "Be brutal" they might ask, or "tell me like it is" or "I haven't got feedback on my work in a long time. Help!" or "People like my work, but I feel bored. What is wrong?!" It [...]

Kristin Hensley Joins the LMA Roster We are thrilled to welcome Kristin Hensley to LMA and look forward to having her down to run some of our very popular "Intro to Improv" weekend intensives,  a special "on camera audition" workshop just for Actors, and her famous "How to Break into Hollywood" class. It's all coming your way, [...]

Guest Blog: Kate Murphy, Backbone Brisbane Introduce yourself and what you do: Hi I'm Kate, I work at Backbone Youth Arts as a workshop facilitator. I teach students age 9-13 yrs. We do lots of fun things in class, ranging from performance skills, story building and characterisation. I myself am an improvisation junky... I introduced [...]