RISE Comedy Summer Improv Intensive 2026

About

RISE Comedy is excited to announce that we’re holding a summer improv intensive. We’ve brought some of the best teachers and performers in improvisation together for a 4 day intensive. You’ll get 6 hours from 4 great instructors for a total of 24 hours of improv training. Intensive students will also form an ensemble team that will get a performance slot in the RISE Comedy Festival taking place that same week. From 7/27 to 7/30 class sessions will start at 10am and conclude at 5pm, with an hour long break at 1pm from Monday thru Thursday. Wednesday night we will be holding an improv jam for our community where you’ll get a chance to play with our intensive teachers. Payment plans are available through the checkout process. Select the checkbox when entering your payment info. Instructors and Content: Holly Mandel is teaching Expanding your Improv: A Deep Dive into Scenework & Character Development Designed for improvisers ready to strengthen and expand their scenework. You’ll focus on how to sustain a scene—staying in it, building moment to moment, and discovering instead of inventing. Through guided exercises and feedback, you’ll learn to deepen connection, heighten discovery, and keep scenes alive without forcing or rushing them. We’ll explore how to avoid common traps like over-planning, bailing too soon, going for laughs, or manufacturing problems, and instead develop the instincts that support authentic, grounded play. Character work will serve as one of your main tools—fueling point of view, emotional truth, and the relationships that make scenes dynamic and rich. We will work on building improvisable, multi-dimensional characters to help you sustain and grow your scene work. Holly Mandel is an improviser, teacher, director, and creator whose career spans over 30 years in Los Angeles and New York City. A former Main Company member of The Groundlings, she performed, wrote, and directed there for six years and created LA’s longest-running longform show, The Crazy Uncle Joe Show—still playing every Wednesday night. She was the first female founder of an improv school in NYC and teaches Improv and Sketch Comedy Writing at Pace University in Manhattan, where she helped design the BFA in Comedy Studies program. Holly is also the creator of Good Girls Aren’t Funny, a unique program exploring cultural conditioning and societal expectations, and how it impacts specifically women’s creativity, freedom, confidence, authenticity, comedy and improv. Her forthcoming book on improvisation will be released in 2026, along with her new creative venture, The Yes Factory—a space where everything is made with a YES! – dedicated to having an effin’ blast creating and collaborating on the edge. Nerd out on Holly here: www.hollymandel.com Brian Palermo is teaching Playing Emotion & Relationship in Scenework In this high-energy scenework workshop, Brian Palermo guides you through improv’s most vital tools: Emotional Choices and Relationship-Based Play. Designed for all experience levels, the class replaces “wait-and-see” defaults with committed, grounded emotional points of view that instantly drive scenes. You’ll learn to prioritize your partner as a source of inspiration, allowing authentic relationships to organically create story and game without overthinking. Expect a playful environment full of laughs and “aha” moments. Walk away with sharper instincts, concrete tools, and a more connected, expressive style. Denver, let’s make some scenes worth remembering! Hi, I’m Brian Palermo . I’m a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. I love Nature and Playfulness. I don’t just teach improv; I have spent decades living it Los Angeles. I’m a long-time member of the legendary Groundlings Main Company and an original cast member of their hit weekly show, The Crazy Uncle Joe Show ,’ I’ve clocked thousands of hours learning and sharing the art improv. I credit my improv skill set for my career working in TV, stage and film. My target coaching persona is “encouragingly critical” – slathering on the fun and support while also pointing out ways to evolve your playing style. I am so grateful that I get to teach and perform internationally. Tashika Campbell is teaching Mind the Gap Most Improvisors are taught strong initiations, heightening and callbacks, but there is a fertile space in the middle of a set, where we are often trying to figure out what happens next. The gap between the opening scene and the closing scene is the most powerful, but often the place where we lose our way the most. This workshop is an exploration of maintaining creative power in the middle. After you have initiated and found the unusual thing, but before the final edit. This workshop will focus on group games, tag-outs, runs and object work. Jessica Austgen is teaching Acting for Improvisers An exploration of scripted acting techniques and how they can be added to your unscripted performance skills.