About the workshop:

A highly focused and challenging scene work class for experienced improvisers looking for refinery in grounded scene work. It’s easy in improv to let details slide and move from fact (plausible, conceivable) into fiction (abstract and/or absurd) too quickly. Practice what it’s like to fully play in the laws of our own reality and represent the well observed truths of what is funny about being a human being.

About James:

James Mastraieni is a live improv and sketch performer and founder of the indie comedy theater, “The Shared Experience Studio” in Los Angeles. His background is extensive and varied. He’s toured with Second City, performed for a decade at iOWest and almost 20 years with The Upright Citizen’s Brigade.

At UCB he was a mainstay on Harold night, performed weekly with “Outside Dog Gets One Star,” and produced monthly shows including “Spectacle” and “I’m Too Effing High” which sold out every show for almost five years. He also wrote for and had a recurring role on the tv show, “Florida Girls” He has written sketches for Comedy Central, Funny or die, and The UCB Show and was a talent evaluator and producer for the stand up comedy club, “The Hollywood Improv.” 

James has accumulated over 25,000 hours of teaching and coaching. He’s a dedicated teacher whose taught all over the world, coached over a dozen Harold teams at UCB and iO, and taught comedic acting and improvisation at the esteemed Beverly Hills Playhouse. His Advanced Drop In has been the most popular drop-in class in Los Angeles for almost ten years. He also teaches US Army soldiers how to use improv to express themselves creatively and restore their safety in collaboration with others.

James teaches a practical, organized framework that combines traditional theories and philosophies of comedy with the nuances of theater acting and improvisation. His guiding principle is “The Shared Experience” which is a theory of live comedy that highlights the performers understanding of the abstract connective tissue that exists between the performers and the audience.

What sets him apart is his hands on focus toward the development of each individual student’s comedic instrument. He has a passion for helping his students meet their standards and his classes are fun and focused with honest but encouraging feedback.