Welcome to Improv Asylum

Welcome to Improv Asylum

welcome to improv asylum

This is Norm b ' b He's the guy that talks He’s a performer and director who’s been producing sketch comedy theatre for over 20 years. He’s the Founder and CEO of Improv Asylum with venues in both Boston and New York. He helped create Laugh Boston, a comedy club and events venue in Boston's Seaport District.

Norm is also a partner in a slew of entertainment venues throughout the region, including Woo Ha Ha and ROAR at MGM Springfield.

Each night our cast of super-talented improv performers command the spotlight with sketches and improv sets created with the help of a rowdy audience. Guaranteed to produce a new show every time, audience participation creates the vibe that drives the action on stage, with unexpected and hilarious results. You’ll be blown away by what thousands of hours of professional training combined with a lifetime of crap day jobs have done to these guys. They’ll say and do just about anything to hear just four words at the end of the show. Improv Asylum Shows

Sh*t! That was funny!

Improv Classes & Training Center

Whether you’re trying improv for the first time, or are a professional actor looking to add to your repertoire of skills–Improv Asylum can help you achieve your goals. Our philosophy on improvisation is simple: we teach you the essentials of good scene work. By learning the essential tools that lead to good scene work, students can apply them to whatever style of improv, acting or writing that they so choose. We emphasize confident choices and unfailing support of your scene partner. And we do this in an environment that is above all fun and accessible to all experience levels.

improvasylum.com Classes starting all the time, sign up at

Exclusive Private Events

It is your venue! Your room! You tell us what you want to do. From memorable holiday parties to VIP Corporate branding events, we offer it all! Add a customized show featuring our hilariously talented cast or an incredible and funny line up of Stand Up comedy to make it a night to remember. Our venues, Improv Asylum and Laugh Boston, both have great bars so we can deliver the full package, including snacks and/or full-service catering if you wish. No charge for creativity, raw talent and endless fun! Contact:

Jerri Sternstein Sales and Events Manager 617.729.2652 [email protected]

Customized Private Shows Laugh with and strengthen that bond with your team as you enjoy Boston’s best Improvisers acting out your inside jokes, familiar characters and corporate “secrets” on stage! You supply the material, we supply the funny! Our show features 4-6 actors, a musician, and a technician. In addition to the specific customization, the actors will also bring volunteers up on stage, ask the audience it’s your show! for suggestions for their scenes, and interview someone you select and then reenact their life in a fun and comfortable way on stage. We can provide our hilarious brand of customized comedy at either Improv Asylum or Laugh Boston, or we can bring the fun directly to you! Reach out to Jerri Sternstein to learn more.

[email protected] | 617.729.2652

Asylum Productions Entertainment Is Our Biz. Let’s Work Together.

FULL PRODUCTION /CREW DIRECTING ALL CREATIVE /SCRIPTING CASTING / TALENT EVENT DEVELOPMENT & SUPPORT We have a full production staff in house, so we can literally develop and produce anything for you. Find out how we can help your organization. Contact [email protected] We’ve worked with tons of clients to create anything from written content for live shows to full-service high quality advertising productions.

Corporate Training

Improv skills are all about knowing how to build on an idea put forward by a team member to move a story forward. And that’s exactly what most leaders are trying to foster in the workplace. Listening, collaboration and momentum.  Learning how to think on your feet starts with knowing how to listen, and our innovative, tested and impactful approach to interactive trainingemploys awhole slewof techniques that foster active listening. Ideas move forward instead of being shot down or restated over and over again because nobody is picking up on a concept. Keeping a thread alive on stage is no different from developing corporate strategy or pursuing innovation.  So, let us help. Our Corporate Training Program brings the art of improv to the corporate world in a way that makes learning to listen, collaborate and create both engaging and fun. Picking up a few improv skills will help your team members work together more effectively, bolster their confidence, and help them process complex information quickly. It’s a new approach to an age-old problem – and it works (did we mention FUN too!)  We can’t teachyour people tobe funny, butwe canhelp themdevelop the skills that have made us able to think on our feet, collaborate on a project, refine ideas and produce effective results. Remember when corporate training involved a day of boredom followed by a rubber-chicken dinner and an evening of Brenda from finance hogging the Karaoke mic? NOT ANYMORE.

Let’s create your own Innovative Experience! BOB MELLEY [email protected] 212.203.5435 | 508.726.1968 cell (24/7)

iainnovation.com

Nobody knows anything. The longer my career continues, the more I am certain of this. People think they know shit. They have ideas about things. They have thoughts and theories, hypotheses, and past studies. Yet the more things I do and the longer I do them, I have come to discover that most everybody is making shit up on the fly. And that is a good thing. No longer do you have to feel that creating something is the domain of chosen virtuososwhohave either been tappedby thegods or spent all of their time studying in their chosen field with the most eminent teachers available to them. If you have access to either of those things, then good for you. For the rest of us, sucking is the first step to greatness. Or at least mediocrity. Mediocrity leads to proficiency, proficiency leads to mastery, and mastery leads to excellence. It is heartening to know that the best of the best sucked at one point. If you're looking for motivation, here's Norm's pep talk: This is Norm Laviolette’s Magnum Opus, published in 2019 by Wiley. It contains the best advice he could come up with after 20+ years in the business, but it won’t teach you how to become an improv star. Instead, Norm demonstrates how the skills of improv can be used in business to build teams, move ideas forward and achieve innovative results. Become an Unstoppable Powerhouse

improvasylum.com 216 HANOVER ST | BOSTON | 617.263.6887