Where can you study Improv in New York City?

Answer 1

The Magnet Theater 254 West 29th Street New York, New York 10012 The Magnet Theater offers classes, workshops and shows. At times you may even catch Mike Myers improvising here. The Theater is run by Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman and Alex Marino. Armando is widely regarded as one of the best improv teachers in New York City and beyond. His list of teaching credits is a long one: the ImprovOlympic Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Peoples Improv Theater, and Michael Howard Studios. He has trained dozens of actors who have performed or written for Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Mad TV, and The Daily Show. A Chicago native, Armando studied improv under Del Close at the ImprovOlympic, Mick Napier at the Annoyance, and graduated from the Second City Conservatory. He performed in and helped create one of the most popular improvised longforms in Chicago, "The Armando Diaz Experience...." For the last decade, "the Armando" has been performed weekly in Chicago, and is now taught and performed in many other cities including Los Angeles and New York. In addition to writing and producing short films, Armando wrote sketches for the show Upright Citizens Brigade on Comedy Central, and has performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Ed has been teaching performance improvisation for over 10 years. He grew up in Chicago and after graduating from Northwestern University, he began working at The Second City as a member of their National Touring Company, and at the ImprovOlympic Theater as an instructor. In Chicago, he was trained by and performed with his idols: Del Close, David Razowsky, and the original members of the UCB. After performing improv at the Aspen Comedy Festival, he moved to LA where he helped start the ImprovOlympic West. He performed in a handful of really great stage shows, and starred in a bunch of really crappy pilots, both of which he enjoyed very much. Ed has created and/or written shows on MTV and VH1, and was a contributing writer on Season 2 of HBO's Da Ali G Show. Recently he wrote the innovative “Webisodes” for Lincoln Mercury called MeetTheLuckyOnes.com, named in Adweek’s Top Ten Ad Campaigns of 2004. Alex is a writer and animator living in Brooklyn. He has written, directed, and produced several plays including his own adaptation of the movie Rushmore. He studied improvisation at the IO West in Los Angeles where he learned from Bob Dassie, Pete Gardner, Miles Stroth, Scot Robinson, James Grace, Jeff Drake, and Paul Vaillancourt. He performed at the IO West with Bounce Castle, The Deconstruction Derby, the Spontaneous Shakespeare Company, and retired Cage Match champions Blaine is Obviously Gay. Since coming to New York he has studied under Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman, TJ Jagodowski, David Pasquesi, and David Razowsky. He has most recently directed Flea Flurkus in their presentation of the Evente and the Necroplitans' presentation of the Wake. He currently performs with his Megawatt team Hello Laser.