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| - There's a lot to say about improv, and my first classes were here at Second City. My friend dragged me to a drop-in class $15 (now offered Mondays and Tuesdays) where I met Cary West.
Immediately I was hooked into improv, the environment where people are supportive and are not afraid to embarrass themselves... It's funny because Cary noted that improv is like therapy. And he is right. You are surrounded by positive, supportive people. They never judge what you do. In improv, YOU are always right (you're wrong when you say you "don't know" and you're wrong when you don't support others). You learn to break down your defensive wall, let go, and you learn to stop judging yourself. You also learn to listen so you can "yes and" your classmates.
There's a whole deeper level (psychology!!) in terms of studying and applying improv to your own life (career, personal, anything).
Second City offers a wide variety of classes from improv to stand-up to music.
From here, I dropped into other improv classes around Toronto (Bad Dog Theatre $5 and Black Swan Comedy $5). Second City opened my eyes to Toronto's improvisers, and now I regularly watch shows at Bad Dog Theatre and Comedy Bar. Instead of going to the movies, I bring friends to an improv show.
I loved my level-A Thursday classes with Lisa Merchant. I am in level B now and my teacher is Cary West! How blessed I am to be a student of these two fantastic teachers. Level B is more about character building and acting, which I absolutely am not enjoying. That's just me....
As a student, there are fantastic perks -which I totally neglected oops!!! such as:
- 10% off the Charlotte Room (where my improv classmates and I visit weekly, argh! if only I knew)
- free rush tickets 30 minutes before the show (REALLY?)
- 2 for 1 advance tickets (OMG I paid full-price last time for a date. like $61)
- zipcar discount!???
geez I wasted two semesters' worth of perks!
Second City is also where I met Paul Bates, from Illusionoid the improv podcast show. And he's super funny.
Thank you Second City for spreading more art into Toronto!
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