I'll tell you a secret...
YOU ARE A STORYTELLER

You might not have realized it yet, but leveling up your career can be accelerated by learning to communicate more effectively and by becoming a better storyteller.

This is an on-your feet workshop. You will play games, do fun storytelling exercises and learn tools to help you connect to your audience. This class is for all levels of people who are looking to up their communication game.

Why Improv?

Forbes, the New York Times, Harvard Business Review and many other publications have  written about how improv training is amazing business and startup training. But what’s the deal? How does improv help technology workers?

Improv helps people:

• Listen and be present
• Be better communicators
• Tap into creativity
• Relieve anxiety/stress and release tension
• Celebrate making mistakes and be more resilient
• Gracefully deal with uncertainty
• Make your partners look good and collaborate on teams more effectively
• YES AND in addition to being useful, improv is fun!

What Takeaways to Expect:

• Develop deeper listening skills
• Hone your audience awareness
• Get in touch with your natural presence
• Embrace body language that makes you open and flexible to ideas instead of closed off.
• Be more comfortable going off-script (i.e. improvising) during presentations, in Q&A, and in life.
• Take the focus off yourself and serve your audience by “being interested, instead of being interesting”
• Use “yes and” thinking to collaborate more creatively and effectively with your team
• Take care of your teammates and notice when team members feel excluded or afraid to contribute their thoughts. Sometimes, great ideas go unspoken.

Who Should Attend:

Anyone who wants to strengthen their storytelling! All kinds of people from all walks of live attend Joy of Improv workshops! Past workshop paticipants have included: 

• Data Scientists and Engineers who want to improve communication, listening skills, and be more compelling.
• Current industry professionals and bootcamp students who want to feel more relaxed and confident in job interviews.
• Founders and executives leading teams
• Product Managers
• Designers
• Writers, Creative Directors, Video Makers, Copywriters, Marketers, who want a creativity boost and new storytelling tools
• Teachers, therapists, yoga instructors, health and wellness professionals
• Actors looking for a creative release and more flexibility on set

Class Agenda:

• 6:45 - 7 pm: meet and greet and announcements
  
• 7 pm - 8 pm: joyful storytelling games to warm up spontaneity, ignite our imaginations, practice being kind to ourselves and practice celebrating mistakes
• 8:00 pm - 8:15: bathroom break 
• 8:15 - 9:15 pm: Additional storytelling games / exercises
• 9:15 pm - 10:15 pm: Integration. Here’s where we put it all together and do group scenes, mock job interviews, improvised presentations and more fun games in front of the class.

Location Details:

This workshop will be in Galvanize's lower level theater. Just ask the lobby where to go when you arrive or follow the signs downstairs.

When to Arrive

Arrive between 6:30 pm and 6:45 pm. We're beginning class at 7 pm.

What to Bring

• A full water bottle
• A notebook and a pen or pencil to jot down notes or personal discoveries.

What to Wear

Anything from business casual to workout attire is fine. Most importantly, wear shoes are comfortable and that you can move in.

Our Mission

• Spread the joy of improv to underrepresented groups and to people who haven't had the opportunity to explore who they are and relate to others through play
• Help people realize that they are storytellers
• Help people get back in touch with their natural presence
• Share knowledge, techniques and tools to sharpen storytelling skills, build confidence and build resilience

Learn more about The Joy of Improv

Testimonials

“I had a lovely time doing improv with Jared! I felt so relaxed and happy afterwards. I feel like my neurons have been firing differently since. Improv play and improv thinking is helpful to me as a product manager.” - Adrienne Tran, Product Manager, Tesla

"I so enjoyed Jared's improv class. I work with people who have experienced chronic homelessness, and the games he taught have given me new, joyful, playful strategies for really *listening* to the men and women I have the privilege of serving." - Bethany Hebbard, Community Corps Director, Mobile Loaves and Fishes

“ Jared has a knack for bringing people together and establishing a safe environment to take creative risks, to embrace failure and learning. His exercises left our team with greater trust, empathy and we knew each other at a deeper level than before.” - Connor Warnock, Lead Engineer, Notable Labs

Read more reviews here.

Donations Encouraged

Donations of $20-$40 per person for this three hour workshop are encouraged but are optional.

Donations help us cover costs to continue offering these workshops to the community. This workshop usually costs $60+ per person.

Donation Methods Accepted:

- Venmo: @jaredpolivka
- Donorbox: Donate Here
- Cash

About the Teacher:

Jared Polivka
Jared currently serves at Donorbox.org and is an advisor for Artie.com. Jared previously served thousands of students in the education technology sector as Director of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Udacity. With a background in product management, design thinking, developer evangelism, storytelling and improvisation, Jared has found that improv skills are incredibly helpful to people dealing with uncertainty, stress and rapid change. Improv skills and empathy are also crucial for communication and storytelling. 

When Jared lived in the Bay Area, he studied improv at BATS Improv Theatre and with Tim Orr; he studied acting with Stan Roth, at the American Conservatory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. In Los Angeles, Jared studies improv at The Groundlings and Impro Theatre; he studies acting with Richard Seyd at Seydways Studios. 

Jared has worked with many organizations, including:
Google, Netflix, Workday, Angel List, StitchFix, Unity, Riot Games, Twitch, Uber, Lyft, Unity, Hakka Labs, Mode Analytics, eHarmony, Playstation, Twitter, Atlassian, Vevo, The League, Hive Global Leaders Program, Founders Embassy, DataCouncil, MLConf, PyLadies, PyData, Strata Hadoop World, etc.