EVERYONE!!! It’s Nick Armstrong!!! NOT ONLY is he an incredible improviser (King Ten, Local 132) but he has also been an instrumental part of connecting and building the larger improv community with Camp Improv Utopia, theImprovNetwork.com, and Rise Comedy Theater in Denver, CO. Nick has strengthened the world’s improv community, and as a result, he’s helped cultivate the growth of improv as an art form. Nick Armstrong is a treasure. === In this episode, we cover how trusting your gut might...

We have matching “We Love Greg Hess” tattoos. And it’s true - we always have. Always will. Greg is a core member of the legendary improv team Cook County Social Club, one of our favorite improv teams in the world, as well as a member of the ensemble of The Improvised Shakespeare Company. He is also co-host of the hit podcast MEGA, a serial comedy set in the world of a fictional megachurch. Greg is someone we’ve often turned to for inspiration and guidance, so it was a true delight to sit down...

It was a pleasure to mind meld with the artist’s brain of Shaun Landry! We talked about why improv is important to her and how it can be beneficial to anyone who performs it, the current state of the improv community and the importance of accepting community, and her journey founding The Ledge Theatre, the FIRST Black-Owned improv theater in Los Angeles. You can follow her on instagram @ShaunLandry1 and @ledge_theater. As always, thanks for joining us! This community of artists is an...

We’re back with Gametape - our patented series where we review our recent shows - noting what we’re grateful for, what we could have done differently, and what made us break character and laugh out loud. We’re working to A) get on the same page as an ensemble and B) be more skillful with the wild, untamable beast of an art form we call improv. In this episode, Anatasha, Travis, and Andrew review our last Shakeytown Shakedown show on October 17th. We talk about the joy of having all three of...

Niccole Thurman (The Opposition, Everything’s Trash, Kenan) sits down with Stormchaser to share how she became a writer, actor, and comedian. We cover a lot, and we dig deep into why it can be beneficial to say yes to what life sends your way - even when it terrifies you - and the process of getting into a writers room. Niccole is funny, charming, and has a dynamic Artist’s Brain. Follow her on instagram and twitter @niccolethurman. As always, thanks for being here. This community of artists...

We’re back with Gametape! Our continuing mission: to explore our improv shows; to seek out new insights and new understandings; to boldly learn where we haven’t learned before. In this episode, Anatasha, Travis, and Andrew review our last Shakytown Shakedown show on August 20th. We celebrate - surprise surprise - our imperfection; we talk about how we can improve, especially now that we feel we’ve shaken off the pandemic rust; and we note how our “mistakes” are still our great...

Stormchaser talks with actor, film producer, and big time improv nerd Jacob Sorling. We talk about how Jacob became obsessed with improv, comedy, and making art. We dig into his recent inspirations including meditation, self improvement, and poetry. And we pick his brain on his current thoughts on improv and art like how to have fun with your work, pulling inspiration from real life, and how being a better artist can lead you to being a better person. You can find Jacob on instagram...

In this episode of The Stormchaser Improv Podcast Show, we’re back with more Gametape. The only thing better than surviving an improv show (that maybe wasn’t your best) is watching it back with your friends and then talking about it in front of MILLIONS of listeners. In this episode, Pish and Travis review our show from July 28th at our show The Shakeydown Shakedown and we talk about quickly switching from “producers” to “performers”, the importance of treating your scene partners as...

We’re back with Season two of the pod and we’re starting off with Gametape from our LIVE show on June 26th! We watch “gametape” to get better. Trav, Tash, and Andrew sit down and discuss what worked in our show and what definitely didn’t! Side note, As you may or may not know Anatasha isn’t currently performing with us because she’s a real life working actor performing 8 shows a week at The prestigious Utah Shakespeare Festival! But she still found a way to jump on the pod after watching...

Stormchaser talks with the actress Alex McKenna - well-known from her lead role in Red Dead Redemption 2 as Sadie Adler. We talk about the multi-year process and challenges of being a lead actor on what Travis calls “the best-acted video game he’s ever seen,” the process of self-producing her short film, her new podcast on dealing with grief called Good Grief: The Gains of Loss, dealing with emotions as a performer while maintaining your emotional health, and what the HELL is up with F1! You...

Improv assassins unite! Travis has cooked up this bite-sized Stormchaserology episode to cover “throwing daggers.” He talks about how to make your improv more exciting by improvising more deliberately, how to treat you and your partner’s choices as important by trusting that those moves are exactly right, and how to be vulnerable and open yourself up to stabbing and being stabbed! So all you improv assassins better listen up because it’s time to sharpen up your improv! You can connect with...

In this Artist’s Brain interview, we sat down with one of the GOATs - Paul Vaillancourt. For those who don’t know, Paul is a veteran improviser of over 30 years. His credits and credentials are too long to list here, but they include: being a member of the legendary improv team Beer Shark Mice; founding iO West and the Revolution Theater; writing not one but two books on improv (The Triangle of the Scene and 5 Things Improvisers can do to Stay Creative, Feel Inspired, and Have Fun!); and...

Let’s roll the tape from our show on May 26th! We watch “gametape” to get better. We discuss what worked in our shows and what definitely didn’t. (The only thing we want in life is to grow as artists and improvisers - ya know?) So here we are...just growing away. Life. Finds. A. Way. (We recorded this episode without Anatasha. She was asked to come off the bench for the Utah Jazz in round two of the playoffs. Not even Kawhi can slow her down. (With Anatasha’s help, experts are predicting...

On this Artist’s Brain episode we had the pleasure to sit down with Kiff VandenHeuvel. Kiff’s an improv and sketch comedy veteran - he’s an alumni of The Second City comedy theatre and at Second City Hollywood, he’s directed sketch comedy and taught voiceover, improv, and directing. Kiff is also consistently working as an actor, and has appeared in hundreds of TV and radio commercials, and is well known in the video game community as the voice of Zachary Hale Comstock in Bioshock: Infinite,...

In this episode, Andrew Pish (maybe you’ve heard of him: handsome, talented, smart, not quite as tall as Travis, and as you’ll hear in this podcast, profound and insightful) adds to our Stormchaserology collection with a great episode about growth mindset. Inspired by psychologist Carol Dweck, Andrew digs into the difference between growth and fixed mindsets and how this can apply to improv and our lives in general. This understanding can help us to let go of comparison and people-pleasing,...

On this Artist’s Brain interview, Stormchaser sat down with actress and improviser Keiko Agena. Keiko’s improvised for years with Ham Radio, Aisian AF, and many other teams. You may know her from one of her many roles on television: she played Lane on Gilmore Girls, Pam Bradley on 13 Reasons Why, and she’s currently playing Dr. Edrisa Tanaka on Prodigal Son - which you still have time to catch up on season 2 on HBO Max before seeing the last couple episodes live on Fox. If that isn’t enough...

There are a lot of similarities between athletes and improvisers: consistent practice, performing in the moment, and of course, the way we look with our shirts off. But we can also watch our gametape like our favorite athletes, and Stormchaser has found that watching shows and discussing what worked and what didn’t is an efficient way to strengthen our improv muscles. With our gametape episodes, we wanted to share some of those discussions so that you could learn from and possibly relate to...

This is another episode in our Artist's Brain series where we interview improvisers and other artists about their creative process. Our guest today had an enormous impact on my (Andrew Pish’s) life, and first, let me set the stage… In 2009, I was an engineering student in my first internship which was at a naval research laboratory in Austin, TX. My desk was directly across the hall from a door that had a sign that said “TOP SECRET” in big bold letters. The door also had a keypad with a code...

This is another bite-sized, one-bite-couldn’t-hurt, Stormchaserology episode where we share some of the improv lingo that we’ve picked up on our journey as an improv team. On this episode, Anatasha talks about an incredibly important concept for performing comedy - unity of opposites. It’s the way in which a comedian can 100% hold joy in their heart while being 100% committed to their angry monologue about why the price of bananas is too damn high! An authentic connection to playful joy is...

Welcome to another Artist’s Brain episode where we interview improvisers, artists, and creatives to talk shop about creativity. Our guest on this episode is very very very special to all of us, and especially to Travis and Anatasha. Wendy Penrod is one of the founding members of Off the Cuff Comedy (OTC) in Cedar City, Utah, where Anatasha and Travis first tasted the magical waters of improv. So if it weren’t for Wendy and OTC, Stormchaser would not exist today, and for that, we are eternally...

Welcome to another Gametape episode where we review our improv shows like athletes would for their games. We recently made it all the way to the Championship match in the March Madness of Improv Tournament put on by Socially Distant Improv and Highwire Improv, and so in this special edition, we review not one show, but SIX! We review our favorite moments and talk about making your partner’s choices important, the playful confidence that comes with competition, the greatness of Socially...

This is another bite-sized, fit-inside-your-Easter-egg, Stormchaserology episode where we share some of the improv lingo that we’ve picked up on our journey as an improv team. On this episode, Travis talks about the importance of starting a new improv scene by being patient and checking in with your partner on stage. When we’re improvising, we can regularly get stuck in our heads when we worry about making a bunch of fun improv choices, and when we’re stuck in our heads, we can lose a...

Welcome to an interview with one of our favorite artist’s brains. Holly Laurent is one of Stormchaser’s long time coaches and mentors and has been one of our greatest influences. Holly brings joy, love, and poetry to the improv community. She injects humanity into her characters and breathes authenticity into her work, and if you’ve met her, you’ve undoubtedly felt her warm and sunshiny presence. Holly Laurent is the creator and host of the hit podcast MEGA, she’s the co-host and producer of...

Welcome to another Gametape episode! Stormchaser, exactly like Tom Brady in every way, watches gametape to win more Super Bowls. While we don’t have as many rings as Tom (yet), we are slowly getting better at improvising - so that will have to do . Here, we dive into our show from Feb 24th where the suggestion was TIME TRAVELER. We talk about delighting in inspiration, why Anatasha and Andrew enjoy making fun of Travis, the joy of surprising yourself and your teammates, what “DRAMAVILLE”...