Rachael Mason & Susan Messing – Improvisers

Join us in this laugh-filled podcast with the dynamic duo, Rachael Mason and Susan Messing. During this episode they share their experiences in improv comedy. They also give great notes on getting out of the judging mind and how to have fun and play on stage.

Rachel and Susan can be seen with The Boys at the Second City Training Centers the last Friday of every month at http://www.secondcity.com/shows/chicago/the-boys-2/, a must-see show! Rachael will be teaching at the First Annual Improv and Psychology Conference (http://yes-and-mental-health.site123.me/conference-details/master-improv-workshop). There is still room in their Long Form Immersion class at Second City in July (http://www.secondcity.com/classes/chicago/long-form-improv-immersion/)

Rachael Mason moved to Chicago after college to study improv comedy with Del Close. She is now the head of Advanced Improvisation for The Second City where she created the Scenic Improv and Dramatic Improv programs, and The History of Satire Series for The Second City Training Center. She has performed musical improv with Baby Wants Candy at The Edinburg Fringe Festival, directed and performed at The Annoyance, played with The Hot Karl at ComedySportz, and had almost every job at iO (where she was Training Center Director for 8 years), done The Spoletto Festival with The Second City National Touring Company, and is currently in the cast of The Second City Improv All-Stars at The Up Comedy Club as well as with Second City’s first resident improv show “The Boys,” the last Friday of every month at 9 pm.

Susan Messing, a NJ native, has been an improviser and comedian for over twenty-five years. She is an alumna of the iO Theatre, Second City’s Mainstage, and a founding member of Chicago’s infamous Annoyance Theatre. Susan created and teaches her curriculum at iO Chicago, iO West in Hollywood, The Annoyance Theatre, The Second City, and around the country. Susan is an adjunct instructor for DePaul University and teaches for The School at Steppenwolf, and The University of Chicago. Her standup act with her puppet, Jolly, was featured at the HBO/US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and NBC’s Late Fridays, and her most impressive bit movie role was as a bad stripper in a halo brace in Let’s Go to Prison! You can see her play every Tuesday night at the iO in “Molly,” every Thursday night in her critically acclaimed show “Messing with a Friend,” now in its 10th year at The Annoyance Theatre, and the last Friday of every month at The Second City with “The Boys.”