Megan K, Improv 101
Improv 101 was the most fun, gratifying, and confidence-building class I have ever taken. If you’re hesitating at all, my advice would be to just go for it!
Myles is a wonderful teacher. He takes the time to explain each and every activity and exercise very well, and he is always open to questions. I found his feedback style to be helpful, positive, and supportive. I never felt embarrassed when I messed up a scene – rather, I felt encouraged to just try again. Myles has a knack for creating a very safe space where creativity, silliness, and fun are nurtured and grown.
After this class, my willingness to approach creative projects has grown ten-fold! I also feel like this class has helped me build up a lot of self-confidence. I would highly recommend this class – can’t wait for the next session!
Zoya D, Increasing Options: Improv for Organizations
I highly recommend the Increasing Options: Improv for Organizations workshop for any unit in any organization that wants to do a team building activity or a retreat. It will help staff come together as a unit, and pick up valuable skills in collaboration and creativity plus have tons of fun in the process! This is a wonderful workshop for teams that primarily work remotely and lack an opportunity to develop shared experiences in the office to create informal connections.
Did I already say that this workshop was a lot of fun – let me say this again!
Adelaide G, Improv 101
As the first improv class that I took, Improv 101 is amazingly built over the course of 8 weeks to get a sense of what improv is and how to trust oneself in these settings. Myles is a great and accessible teacher. He instilled a climate of trust and care that I really appreciated and made me feel comfortable. I learned a lot on how to accept spontaneity and interact with others (and myself) in uncertainty. 1000/10 would recommend.
Elizabeth H, Increasing Options: Improv for Organizations
For our training workshop, Myles was faced with what might typically be a tricky situation of having half of the attendees in-person and half of the attendees participating virtually. Myles navigated our hybrid model seamlessly and in a way that made both parties feel connected as one in the activities. Myles’ expertise as a facilitator also shone through in his ability to create a playful, judgment-free environment for the session, one in which participants were welcome to snowball ideas off of each other in collaborative exercises. Finally, I appreciated how Myles explicitly connected the dots between the selected activities and the life skills the exercises strengthened, such as active listening. We hope to work with Myles and JP Improv again in the future.
Sarah B, Improv 101
Taking improv 101 with Myles was a chance to learn some new skills and have fun in a supportive class environment. Try something new and go for it!
Judi T, Improv 101
I’m brand new to Improv and didn’t expect to have both a ton of fun as well as a chance to interact with others without editing or thinking about everything that I say. I didn’t realize how often we do that. The experience was freeing, challenging and again, a lot of fun. Myles is a great teacher and coach. I will be following him to his next class.
Julia P, Improv 101
As someone who appreciates control in social situations, I never thought I could stand up in front of an audience and do improv. This class gave me the confidence and trust to be more spontaneous not only on stage but in life as well. I found our weekly sessions informative, therapeutic, and hilarious. I will never forget the experiences I had here!
Joseph M, Improv 101
I work as a scientist, which mostly involves emails and spreadsheets, analyzing data all day. Having just moved to Boston, I was looking for a creative outlet, and I saw a flier for Improv 101. Boom, destiny was calling me.
I’d done improv club in college, which was mostly playing games, and being reminded to say, “Yes, and…” with very little theory work. We were very funny and always had a packed theater, but learning the theory has kicked my work up a notch. Myles clearly knows his way around the stage, and is willing to work with you specifically to make improv-ments. It was great to meet a variety of interesting people, and I recommend taking this class.
Amy F, Improv 101
I don’t see enough people because I work from home; I figured improv would zap my brain in a beneficial way (it did). The class was great because the people were very nice; everyone had a good sense of humor; the number of participants was ideal. I would recommend the class to anyone who appreciates absurdity and creative thinking.
Kelli F, Cumberland Striptease
Myles McDonough has been my improv coach for the past two years at The University of Tennessee and has been an exceptional leader. During his two years in Knoxville, Myles singlehandedly took a group of students who had little to no improv experience and formed us into a highly talented, regularly performing troupe. Without any outside support, Myles created our improv troupe, Cumberland Striptease, by hosting auditions and training us from the steps of learning “yes and” to regularly executing long form improv at shows both on campus and around Tennessee.
Myles’s ability to design practices that challenge our troupe to hone in on necessary skills has taken us from a group of novices to a confident and competent improv troupe. Myles has been an integral part of my growth in improv. I remember one practice specifically; Myles had organized a set of activities focusing on emotional commitment. Before this practice, I felt as if my scenes had no basis in reality and were largely attempts to get laughs with cheap jokes. Myles saw this and asked us to do serious improv scenes without attempting at being funny. This practice revolutionized how I perform improv. Myles’s instruction allowed me to realize how to find the emotional kernel in a scene after months of not understanding the concept. I am confident that Myles will foster this same growth, both on a group and individual level, to any troupe he engages with.
Myles’s practices are smart, concise, and well organized. For the past two years, he has been able to coach a loud, rambunctious group of students and maintain a sense of direction and calm in every practice. Myles McDonough would be an invaluable asset to any improv troupe.
Reise K, Cumberland Striptease
Before I joined Cumberland Striptease, I was performing with another local improv group. During my time with that group, I thought I was learning all there was too learn about the world of improv. Boy, was I mistaken.
It wasn’t until I joined Cumberland Striptease that I realized improv was so much more than just being funny in a scene, and I owe it to Myles for teaching me this lesson.
Myles has taught me that improv is as much a personal endeavor into one’s self as it is a hobby. He has taught me the fundamentals, such as “yes, and” and “never start a scene with a question,” all the way to the more complex notions of improv, like how to utilize groupthink and how to completely envelop yourself within a scene.
Without Myles, I truly would not be the performer I am today. He has set a foundation and given me the tools to become a great improviser. Quite honestly, I most likely would not be doing improv today had it not been for him showing me the deeper sense of self within improvisation. Myles has supplied me with a wealth of knowledge about improv and beyond. He is a phenomenal teacher, point blank. Myles is a great friend and an even better teacher. Any student would be lucky to have him as an instructor.
Katie C, Cumberland Striptease
The past two years at the University of Tennessee, I have had the pleasure of being a member of Cumberland Striptease, an improv group started and managed by Myles McDonough. I had never done improv before the day that I tried out at UT on a whim; it wasn’t even something that was on my horizons. You could not have found a cleaner slate. I was never intimidated, though; Myles showed us all that improv is something that is accessible to anyone who is willing to put themselves out there. I imagine that learning improv can be overwhelming. For me, it never was. It was just fun.
Growing a club from nothing to a (niche) campus staple in 18 months is not something that just anyone can do. I would attribute this success to how impressively things were organized from the very beginning. Myles led us to small victories, breaking each week down into a more manageable lesson: characterization, object work, emotional commitment, etc. Things were never pushed or frantic. The pieces, and the group as a whole, came together one by one.
Myles looked out for the dynamics of our group, as well as all the members individually. Earlier in the school year, when I was overwhelmed and needed to take a sabbatical, he reached out to me almost immediately, asking how things were going and letting me know that I would always have a place there. That was a gift that I am still processing. Our group, 8 boys and 4 girls, was sometimes known for letting its girls be talked over. He was always aware of this dynamic; he took executive action when necessary, and otherwise encouraged us to get out and make our presence known. As a girl and as a performer, this group, and Myles’ leadership, has been valuable to me because of the subtle transition from “I belong in this scene” to “I belong in this place.”
Myles McDonough established a group of supportive, committed individuals that has developed a voice of its own. I strongly believe he would be an asset to any improv troupe, new or established. We will feel his absence every day.
Lukas M, Cumberland Striptease
Myles McDonough was my coach for improvisational comedy. We were in the troupe called Cumberland Striptease. Myles brought us all together and was the reason we took ourselves seriously as an improv group. He organized the practices and had a very visible understanding of what it took to make an improv team.
Starting out, I had no idea how to do improv. I was bit by the improv bug after my first practice. I was terrible, but had a lot of fun. Myles taught me the simple rules of “yes and” and I was golden ever since. Myles is an incredibly hilarious and hardworking guy. He has made my college experience infinitely better.
Daniel H, Cumberland Striptease
Myles McDonough ran my first college improv troupe for a year and a half, before announcing he was graduating and could no longer host. He passed that on to me, and over the past semester has spent a lot of time mentoring me to be the great leader and host he was. He has a very natural talent for improv, as well as leading.
Not only was he a leader in the team, but also in the classroom. I had the pleasure of having him as my Creative Writing professor, and he is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He taught in a way that all of us could relate to, and just made complicated things simple.
I owe a lot to Myles, because if he hadn’t put up some posters around campus announcing he was putting together an improv team, I wouldn’t have any of the friends I have today. In conclusion, Myles McDonough is an amazing leader, naturally a comedian, as well as a writer, and a poet. He’s also a good friend.
Walt B, Cumberland Striptease
I cannot emphasize enough how lucky I was to have Myles McDonough as a mentor. Myles has been my improv teacher, my writing teacher, and my friend and he has been incredible at all three.
The first time I ever did improv I was so nervous that even the warmups scared me. It has been a little over a year since then and I have done multiple shows without any nervousness. Myles created an environment where I felt supported and had fun while always improving.
Myles gave me the opportunity to do improv but also to improve myself in improv by learning the fundamentals and ideas behind it.
I feel like in improv it is easy to try and coast by playing it safe. I think it is easier to go up to bat and just hit the ball down the middle every time. Myles makes me want to go up and either hit a home run or strike out, and I know if I do strike out I have the world’s best coach waiting for me back at the dugout.
Ryan W, Cumberland Striptease
What I expected from this venture was a way to destress once a week, an outlet for making jokes and exhausting pent-up creative energy. I was given exactly that – but more importantly, week after week, I was also given a philosophy lesson that transcended the bounds of our practice room and followed me into my everyday life. Under Myles’s direction I learned to maintain emotions, when to channel them, when to hold back. I learned to observe my fellow improvisers, that their contributions to scenes were just as important, if not more so, than mine. I learned to intuit, to feel, to not be afraid of following paths to new and strange places, because at the end of each one was something gratifying beyond words. I learned the importance of groupmind, and object work, and trusting scene partners – concepts which before would have evoked the response, “Who cares? It’s just improv, all you have to do is tell jokes.”
I learned that improv was not just “telling jokes,” not even close – it’s a filter through which to deal with the world, to capitalize on the humorous moments of everyday life and to take every day’s small blunders in stride.
Ready to experience improv for yourself? Register for class today!