Rich Talarico Workshop Series

Sketch (10-15 spaces cap)

This 8-hour intensive focuses on insights and techniques Rich has learned from his 30 years of experience in comedy and late-night TV (SNL, MADtv, Key & Peele, The Tonight Show) and from having co-written five resident company shows for Second City in Chicago. Students will have an overview of writing essentials: how to write jokes, how to identify and use comedic devices, how to brainstorm, and how to develop ideas. This workshop will also focus on story structure and coming up with endings, as well as how to properly format how to contribute to other students' pitches and work, a valuable writers’ room skill.

Sketch workshop: $150

Improv (15-20 spaces cap)

This 8-hour intensive is all about the bones of the scene. Improvisers, have you ever come off stage and said "Great scene, WHO were we?" or "Great scene, WHERE were we?" Like any other narrative form of storytelling, improvisers need to be able to answer ALL the questions of the scene and performance. WHERE? WHO? WHAT? HOW? WHY? WHEN? Crucial questions in storytelling. Often, one or more of these important questions can be left unaddressed in an improv performance. This is a class Rich has been teaching for many years in LA, NY, Chicago, and around the US. Learn how improvisers play WHERE (object work), WHO (point of view and character), WHAT (games or playable dynamics), HOW & WHY (the gift-givers) and WHEN (dealing with time, linear and shattered narrative).

Join Rich Talarico, a 30-year improv vet and alum of The Second City and Improv Olympic, as he leads this workshop that will leave you with many tools to create organic characters and worlds instantly.

Improv workshop: $125

Purchase both workshops at the same time for the discounted price of $250!

About Rich

Rich Talarico is a Peabody Award-winning and four-time Emmy nominated writer and producer best known for his work on Comedy Central’s Key & Peele. Rich wrote Key & Peele favorites like Substitute Teacher, Kareem and Jahar, Dueling Hatz, Racist Zombies, Teaching Center, and many more. Rich has also written/produced “Review” for Comedy Central, FOX’s “MADtv,” NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” as well as “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Rich wrote on the NBC Must See TV: Tribute to James Burrows as well as NBC's Red Nose Day and NBC's New Year's Rockin' Eve hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Rich produced and wrote comedian Frank Caliendo's “Frank TV“ for TBS. Rich was a writer/performer on “The Sketch Pad” for HBO. Rich did script punch-ups on Tina Fey's “Mean Girls” and Jordan Peele's “Get Out.”

Rich took his first improv class from Stephen Colbert at Chicago’s Second City in 1992 and then did a stint on the road with Second City’s National Touring Company performing "The Best of The Second City." Rich co-created five original sketch comedy revues with Second City's Etc. and Main Stage Companies. While in Chicago, Rich worked extensively at Improv Olympic (now iO) under the direction of Charna Halpern and the late Del Close. Rich performed with the early casts of Chicago’s longest running improv show, “The Armando Diaz Experience, Theatrical Movement and Hootenanny,” and performed on iO house teams “Mr. Blonde” and “Faulty Wiring.” Rich co-created the scripted hit parody "The Roof Is on Fiddler" with TJ Shanoff and co-created the long-form improv shows “Strap Heads,” “Trio,” “Close Quarters,” and “Dasariski.”

As an actor, Rich has appeared on Comedy Central’s "Review,” "MADtv," “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and the feature film “High Fidelity.” Rich has appeared in numerous TV commercials, most notably A&W Root Beer’s classic ad, “Mr. Dumass.”

Twitter: @richtalarico

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Website: richtalarico.com