IMPROV COMEDY WORKSHOPS

Improv Drop-In Workshops with Norm Holly
Sundays – 10am to Noon. Cost: FREE or Pay-what-you-can on site.

Learn the styles and forms of improvising a complete one act sustaining character characters and storyline in this 4-week class.

In this 4-week workshop, learn how to develop sustainable characters that can apply to existing texts and to execute pre-existing scenes from plays and audition techniques for theatre.

Norm Holly ‘s artistic experience includes 25 years as Artistic Director and Conservatory Head at The Second City in Chicago, where he was also a Resident Company and Touring Company Director and Harold Ramis Film School faculty member. He is part of the Columbia College Comedy Studies faculty and the former Asst.Chairman of the Columbia College Theater Dept. 

Every great improv scene contains more than one opportunity for comedy. Many improvisers discover one strong comedic idea and stay with it. This workshop explores how to keep finding new comedic opportunities as a scene evolves, allowing performers to create richer relationships, bigger laughs, and more dynamic long-form scenes.

Using Jeff Quintana’s S.P.E.C.S. framework (Specifics, Physicality, Emotion, Context, and Status), students will learn how each element can become its own comedic engine. Rather than relying on a single pattern or repeating the same move, performers will practice shifting their focus to unlock new avenues of play, giving every scene room to grow organically while staying grounded in authentic relationships.

Whether you’re performing Harold, montage, narrative formats, short form, or completely organic long form, S.P.E.C.S. provides a practical framework for discovering multiple playable dynamics within a scene. The result is improvisation that feels more connected, more surprising, and consistently funnier for both the performers and the audience.

This workshop will focus on:

• Finding multiple comedic dynamics within a single scene
• Unlocking new games using the S.P.E.C.S. framework
• Switching between playable dynamics as scenes evolve
• Heightening without repeating yourself
• Building stronger relationships that naturally generate comedy
• Making bold choices with confidence
• Creating richer, more surprising long-form scenes
• Keeping scenes dynamic from beginning to end
• Building comedy that grows organically from the relationship
• Giving yourself more tools to discover the funny in every scene

Jeff Quintana is a comedian, director, educator, and creator of The Circuit Method and the S.P.E.C.S. Performance System, developed through more than 23 years of continuous performance, teaching, and research. He has trained with nearly every major school of American improvisation and has taught at The Annoyance Theatre, iO Theater, Home Comedy Theater, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, One Group Mind, and The Playground Theater. Jeff headlines nationally with The Powerful Hourful starring Antonio Quintana, Motivational Speaker, an immersive avant-clown stand-up experience that blends improvisation, audience interaction, and physical comedy into a one-of-a-kind live performance.