Understanding the Art of Comedy from Stage to Page

“There is no art without order. There is no art without structure. Art is not the moment of free expression — anybody can do that. That's just masturbation and therapeutic purging. There's no art in that. Where the art comes in is in the control, in taking this material that could spew off in any direction and imposing upon it, or discovering within it or revealing, the inner order of this seemingly random, disordered or unordered behaviour.” — Del Close, The Madness of Art

Improv Comedy Program

“Longform” is a sophisticated style of improv that takes a single audience suggestion and builds out a whole show from it, layered with social commentary, thematic exploration and hilarious, gut-grinding comedy. Our Improv Comedy program teaches you the essence of the art of comedy in a way that will make your scenework explode. This is what we do.

We are the only training centre in the country that specializes in teaching this style of improv. We teach the Harold, an improv format that teaches the keys to creating great comedy and helps you learn and perform amazing longform improv. You'll love it.

If you have never taken an improv class before, our approach breaks it down to its simplest, most practical elements that allow you to perform interesting, emotionally charged improv scenes from Day One. After that, you we will push you to get better and make more interesting choices.

If you have taken an improv class before and/or are an experienced improviser, our approach is completely different than any other style of improv currently being taught in Canada, anywhere. Many experienced improvisers who have finished two years of training at other training centres claim to have not felt as though they really started to learn about the depths of improvisation until they began studying with us. Their words.

Many famous comedians have studied and performed Harold and attribute their success to longform improv. Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jason Sudeikis, Bobby Moynihan, Jordan Peele, Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch, Stephanie Weir, and many, many others.

Sketch Comedy Writing Program

Based on the techniques taught in our improv program, anyone can come into our Sketch Comedy writing program and begin to write great comedy. Our program is geared towards anybody with an interest in writing comedy for the stage or screen. We get to the root of what makes comedy work and set you up with the tools to move torward a career in entertainment.

Our Sketch Comedy program shows you how to develop ideas and utilize the "game of the scene" technique to writing sketch that really gets to the heart of what makes comedy work. The program is designed to be open and accessible to people interested in writing sketch comedy who may have no interest in performing. The program will also help improvisers translate their onstage, spontaneous scene-writing skills to the written page.

Our writing room provides a structured, professional environment where you can learn the craft of sketch comedy writing, develop your ideas in a constructive and critical environment, and produce work to help build your portfolio.

Screenwriting Program

Our screenwriting program was developed to teach students how to take their ideas and expand them into long-format scripts written specifically for the screen. The demands of the program will teach students how to focus and devote time to writing on a daily basis and build a portfolio of work.

Students learn how to take their ideas from concept to completion. Through the process students will learn how to: pitch their ideas; write loglines, outlines and treatments; edit their scripts based on notes provided; write query letters; and more. The structured atmosphere provides students with an environment within which to develop their scripts in a way that simulates real-world production.

Subsequent courses will focus on specific topics such as original series development and pilot writing, and feature film script development through first draft completion. The Screenwriting program will feature guest instructors from writers, agents, and producers working in the industry.

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