INSTRUCTOR BIOS:

Rick and Laura met in Chicago in The Second City National Touring Company, and continue to write, teach and perform, both separately and together. Rick & Laura teach music improv workshops at colleges, comedy clubs, festivals and theaters around the world, bringing a unique dual perspective as an improvising actor and musician.
 

Laura Hall is best known as the improvisational pianist and Musical Director on all 20 seasons of the hit TV show, “Whose Line is it Anyway”, with both Drew Carey and Aisha Tyler hosting. Laura has toured extensively with “Drew Carey and the Improv All Stars” and performed with “Whose Line Live” at the Adelphi, the Palladium, and Royal Albert Hall in London.

While at The Second City, Laura was Musical Director and Composer for the Jeff Award winning E.T.C. revue, “Channel This!” She composed original musicals with The Annoyance Theater and Theater-A-Go-Go, including “Patty, Patty, Bang! Bang!” which won an L.A. Weekly award for Best New Musical. Laura has played with countless improv groups, including iO Chicago,
iO West, Theatresports, The Groundlings, Unexpected Productions (Seattle), ImprovBoston, Curious Comedy (Portland), “Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!” (L.A.), and “Hyprov” with Colin Mochrie and Asad Mecci.

Laura has composed scores and songs for several indie films, including; “Slice of Pie”, written by Rick Hall; “The Long Isolation”, recorded entirely remotely during the pandemic lockdown; two award winning holocaust documentaries, “Swimming in Auschwitz” and “After Auschwitz”; a romantic comedy, “Anatomy of a Breakup” written by Judy Minor; and “The Wheels on the Bus” children’s video series, starring Roger Daltrey as an 8 ft dragon.

Laura has recorded “Improv Karaoke”, fully produced tracks to help improvisers learn music improv. She’s created an in-depth online video course, “A Musician’s Guide to Improv Comedy” and a book, “The Improv Comedy Musician: The Ultimate Guide to Playing Music with an Improv Group” which both teach musicians the specialized skill of playing for improv.
 

Rick Hall was a founding member of Chicago’s Improv Institute. At The Second City he created and performed in two Main Stage shows, “John Paul Sartre & Ringo” and “Catch 27”. Rick uses his improv skills as a host/presenter at meetings and corporate events, as well as auditions, television shows and commercials.

Rick was a series regular on the improv-based TV show “The Factory”. He played Agent Johnson on 28 episodes of the hit Disney show “KC Undercover”, and has been on many other television shows including “NCIS”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “24”, “The Middle”, “Key & Peele” and “Seinfeld”. He’s been in commercials for AT&T, Centrum, Sabra Hummus and many more. Recently, Rick can be seen on the indie film circuit as Detective Chowder in “The Long Isolation”, written and directed by Deb LaCusta and Dan Castellaneta from The Simpsons.

Rick is an accomplished writer and storyteller, headlining at “The Reboot”, “The Otter Story Hour”, “Story Salon”, and “Open Words Expo”. His one man show “Pigboy”, featuring stories about growing up on a farm in Central Illinois, was chosen for the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and enjoyed successful runs in L.A., Chicago, and across the Midwest. Rick has recorded a cd of several of his stories and turned one of them, “Slice of Pie”, into a short film, which won numerous awards on the film festival circuit.