BIP Digital Programme

Emma Willmer

I've been teaching and performing improvised dance, psychodrama and, mostly, comedy improv for too long to say! I love the spirit of play and interaction in improv, and I believe when we clear out the cobwebs & static, we're all capable of great and funny things!

Jennifer Bagnall

Jennifer began improvising in early 2020, quickly adapting to the online scene during the global shift in live performance. Based in Manchester, she is a member of Improv on Demand (short form) and SkünkHaus (narrative long form) and is one of the founders of Jens and Frens, a group originally formed for the Women in Comedy Festival in 2023. What began as a festival team has since grown into a vibrant community in the Northwest, fostering connections across skill levels and creating performance opportunities new improvisers looking to increase their stage time. Jennifer is passionate about fostering creativity and collaboration and regularly brings new approaches to her improv teams.

Jen Hardy

Hailing from the North West of England, I'm an improviser, poet, teacher and coach as well as being Project Producer at Shakespeare North Theatre. I've performed in all-female comedy troupes and Liverpool's first UCB style team. I perform with multiple companies including Playing Dead Theatre and Rubbish Shakespeare in their sell out 5 star improvised show, The Incomplete Works of Shakespeare. I also created a fully improvised family show and continue to develop shows and formats both for myself and as a coach and director for others.

A trained teacher, I teach and coach across the country and internationally. This has included international festivals and teams who've gone on to perform at international festivals and individuals who've gone on to carve out professional careers.

As the co-director of the Liverpool Improvisation Festival, I'm passionate about exploring improvisation in all forms, and supporting communities to perform and learn new ways to be spontaneous.

Emma Boddy

Emma knew she was on to something the first time she ran an improv workshop for a women's group at Mind mental health charity 11 years ago...

Having already caught the Improv bug way back when, in her job as a Recovery worker at the time she was asked to facilitate and run a women's group, she asked the clients what they wanted to do and they mentioned 'drama'. She didn't have 'drama' exp. as such, but certainly Improv!

She knew first hand what incredible mood boosting benefits improv could supply and introduced it to the weekly group They loved it! She observed how this was one of the few times clients would laugh and let go for a while.

In this period she went on to train more deeply in short and long Improv, Playback theatre and The Meisner technique; getting involved in troops, performances, plays and short films.

She went on to teach on a regular basis for acting and improv classes as special guest, gained her core training and conductors training in Playback back in 2015.

Over the years she combined Improv with coaching, allowing people to explore and play with desired outcomes: where are you now? where do you want to be? and how you gonna get there?

Incorporating her Personal performance Coaching, NLP and solution focused hypnotherapy background to give participants permission to play, let go and come away feeling lifted with a new perspective!

To date has seen her working with many mental health charities such as Mind, Off The Record, Devon Partnership Trusts, Universities and wellbeing festivals around the UK — Buddha Fields and Into the Wild etc — sharing the many benefits of improv and personal development approach!

Jack Greenway

Jack is a Sheffield based improviser who has been a member of Stürike Comedy since 2016 years. He got his start in shortform improv with the University of Sheffield's The Shrimps, and eventually went on to serve as the group's artistic director, leading workshops and hosting shows. Jack has since moved into long form improv with Stürike and Work in Progress.

Stuart Moses

Stuart Moses has taught improv for Liverpool Comedy Improv, Dogface Improv, The Sunday Alternative and the University of Reading. He is currently running improv classes in Reading, Berkshire.

Stuart is the host of the Improv London podcast, which after 160+ episodes is always about improv but only sometimes about London.

Stuart is one half of Moses and Bird, with Liverpool Comedy Improv's Emma Bird, creating emotionally authentic scenes online and in-person. He was one half of Doctor Whoprov, a duo which improvised in the universe of Doctor Who. He directed a group called Night Version, which improvised with slides and soundtracks.

He has studied with David Razowky, Joe Bill, Hoopla, The Maydays, Music Box, Dummy, Franck Buzz, The Showstoppers, and AndAlso Improv.

John Tapp

John has been improvising for almost 10 years, in and around Cheltenham. He regularly appears in short form shows with Comic Sans Script, where he also teaches a weekly class. He has also developed long-form shows and leads classes as part of Shatterprov.

Jon Trevor

Jon has been teaching and coaching improv for 15 years. He runs a weekly drop-in, workshops at all levels, and a 12-week evening class at a local arts centre. He trained at iO in Chicago, with the Maydays in the UK, with Showstopper, and with many other internationally acclaimed teachers. He founded, directs and performs with Box of Frogs, Birmingham’s longest running shortform improv troupe. He co-founded, directs, and performs with Breakfast of Champions longform group. He runs Birmingham Improv, and is the Director of the Birmingham Improv Festival.

Stags Woodward

Stags has performed stand-up for more than 16 years and been attending workshops/courses and running yearly courses containing elements of basic shortform as a tool for stand-up for well over a decade, helping multiple people take shows and perform on the Fringe.

Finally making improv his main focus in 2018 and taking several improv shows to Edinburgh for full runs, including the popular Spontadeity (mythology-based shortform), he also performs with longform troupes Breakfast of Champions, Vox Pops and previously Squares in the Round.

He's set up and run several successful improv nights, all with a very accessible and inclusive approach to elicit the best from all attendees: Derby’s weekly improv walk-in “Chewy”, Nottingham’s monthly longform workshop, “Petri Dish” and more than 100 online long-form sessions.

He brings a wealth of learning from countless courses from experts on improv, clowning, acting and stand-up which he’ll happily share and discuss while teaching.

Josie Ettrick-Hogg

Josie has performed character stand-up for over twelve years, running and performing on numerous Edinburgh Fringe runs and Leicester Comedy Festival shows, and assisted in teaching a good number of stand-up courses (utilising improv exercises).

Discovering improv in 2019, since then she has co-run weekly online and in-person drop-ins in Derby, organised and hosted a set of all-female and non-binary workshops under MissImp, supported on a monthly long-form workshop, and performed improv on four full Edinburgh Fringe runs. Previously performing as part of the now disbanded Squares in the Round, Josie is currently part of Nottingham’s Vox Pops and one half of The Sisters Karazmatik.

David Harvey

In his professional life, David is a technical trainer, heading up an academy that prepares adults for a career in software/technology. He began improvising over a decade ago as a way of making living in Birmingham more bearable (he loves it there now). Today David performs short form with Box of Frogs and long form with Breakfast of Champions. He’s weirdly proud about making people cry whilst performing in a Birmingham Improv Maestro. This BIP will be his workshop-leading debut.

June O'Driscoll

I have being playing with improv for over 2 years and have been using it in my work from the start. (I am an NLP and Coach Trainer and have been for the last 18 years, working in both the UK and USA). I have been teaching improv for the last 18 months to International NLP Trainers, Practitioners and Coaches both online and face to face. I have been taught predominantly at Dingbats by Ed Pithie and do regular jams with them. I have also been taught by Dave Heron, Jon Misler, George Butcher, Chris Mead, Maria Peters and Vinny Francois. I regularly perform with 3 Placebos at Dingbats and have performed with them at Hoopla, Scoops, Shoreditch Balls. I also perform with Miss Behaviour.

Yiovi Derpsch

Yiovi loves improv and teaching, always aiming at fostering a supportive, playful, and creative learning environment for everyone. She has taught at BIP before (May 2023) and currently teaches improvisational skills to drama students at the University of East Anglia (where she’s also a lecturer in psychology). Her improv journey has been shaped by brilliantly supportive mentors at LCI, The Maydays, Second City, and the summer intensives at Chicago’s iO and Annoyance Theatres.

Eji Osigwe

Eji is the founder of ImproQuo, a comedy theatre company based in Manchester, and a long-time performing artist. He has years of experience in comedy improvisation, including performing in shows, coaching teams, and directing and running live improv productions.

Eji has also appeared as a regular on BBC Radio Manchester, hosted the main stage at the Festival of Manchester and performed stand-up all around England.

Wei Joo Ooi

Wei Joo can’t remember when he first started improvising, but he can remember leading his first workshop in 2012. Amidst the chaos, people seemed to have fun! He then started improvising regularly in Reading in 2015 when he started attending What's the Game Improv classes, performing as part of the house troupe, and became a founding member of the Free Radicals science based improv troupe. More recently he has co-founded the longform group Imagination Superhighway, debuting at the Hoopla Improv Marathon with our Choose Your Own Adventure format, and horror based group The Choir.

Wei Joo is probably best known for his grounded, emotionally led improv. Rather than aiming at the funny bone, Wei Joo likes to try to tug at heartstrings. Paradoxically though, he also loves to play camp, over the top characters that are larger than life.

Tom Hodge

In an improv career spanning well over a decade, Tom is proud to have worked with many of the top acts and performers in the country. As well as being a regular performer with The Dragprov Revue and Music Box, he's enjoyed the occasional jaunt with a few internationally renowned celebrity improvisers (Colin Mochrie, Mike McShane, Josie Lawrence, Marcus Brigstocke, and most recently a brief European tour with Paul Merton and his Impro Chums). He looks forward to what the following decades may bring.

Tom Hodge

In an improv career spanning well over a decade, Tom is proud to have worked with many of the top acts and performers in the country. As well as being a regular performer with The Dragprov Revue and Music Box, he's enjoyed the occasional jaunt with a few internationally renowned celebrity improvisers (Colin Mochrie, Mike McShane, Josie Lawrence, Marcus Brigstocke, and most recently a brief European tour with Paul Merton and his Impro Chums). He looks forward to what the following decades may bring.

James Cannon

James has been improvising for the past 11 years in Sheffield, York and Leamington. James took up improv as a student in Sheffield, falling in love with the short form format. James set up his own short form comedy community, Leamprov, in Leamington Spa, where he teaches weekly workshops and runs monthly Jams. James loves exploring different improv styles and bringing them to the workshops. Leamprov have recently celebrated their fifth birthday and put on regular shows in the town and performed as part of the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

Matt Watson Jones

Matt Watson Jones has been improvising since 2004 and teaching improv since 2011, but you might not have heard of him since he's been mostly doing it in Barcelona, Spain. Co-Founder of the Barcelona Improv Group and Watch This Space Improv, he also co-ran the BIG International Festival (BIG IF) for the first four years. He now runs jams and classes with Giant Leap Improv in neighbouring Shropshire.

Ben Wong

Ben entered the improv circle 8 years ago in Hong Kong. He moved to Manchester 2.5 years ago and has been continuing the improv journey, joining local troupe Improv On Demand and performing with them in Manchester and in the Edinburgh Fringe. He is also very keen to contribute to the improv community and passionate to help promote the growth within it.

Tom Keegan

Tom has been in the improv community for almost a decade, and is currently based in Somerset. After being cast in a musical improv team at the Bristol Improv Theatre, they discovered a love for combining improv and song. Although the group later disbanded, Tom continues to seek out any opportunities and fellow improv-singers to perform with. More recently they have been studying Collaborative Vocal Improvisation, as popularised by artists like Bobby McFerrin.

Edd Crawley

Improvising for around 8 years, and on his [REDACTED] BIP, Edd’s been around for a little while and has only really learned how much there is to learn.

Coming from Sheffield, Edd learned at The Shrimps, then moved into Stürike, where he loved to have really grounded scenes with kind partners that swerve towards crazy town!

Edd’s looking forward to seeing the most beautiful improv at this BIP, and facilitating a jam!

Terje Brevik

Terje Brevik is a professional teacher and performer of improvisational theater from Oslo, Norway.

He is the founder of Tøyen Impro, an improv school for everyone, and the Short Notice Improv Festival, a week long international festival complete with workshops, shows and a Big Day Out!

He comes with over 10 years of experience teaching and performing internationally in the USA, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark.

Terje holds two Bachelor's degrees, one in Drama and Theater Communication, the other in Computer Engineering.

He already regrets ending this sentence with casket window ninja turtle.