the playersIntroducing the ComedySportz Berlin players! |
Brian Kapell
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Brian has been performing improvisational comedy since 1985, as one of the founding members of ComedySportz in Madison Wisconsin, led by Dick Chudnow. He helped establish and manage other theatre and improv companies around the US, including CSz-WDC. Getting people to laugh out loud is his favorite hobby, after he failed to get people to cry on-cue, which is his second favorite past-time. He is a great lover of cheese and the Clash, although he can´t figure out a way to convice the Sandanistas to eat cheddar. He has an old Harley named Roberta, a wife named Patricia, 2 sons named Benjamin and Philip and an invoice for services-rendered with your name on it, so pay up! He is the General Manager of Spirit Yoga, so that he can erase all karmic debts before his lease runs out. Buy him lunch sometime and he will tell you all about the different ways you can make your hair go gray.Andrew ReidAndrew Reid comes from The Canada. By day he |
’s a mild-mannered environmental policy researcher, but by night he’s…a mild-mannered environmental policy researcher...who does ComedySportz. Andrew’s past experiences with humour include years spent performing with the Scottish improv troupe ‘Blind Mirth’, competing in (and subsequently judging) the Canadian Improv Games, and representing a very tiny island country as an honest-to-goodness diplomat at the United Nations. He is small and easily frightened.Noah Telson
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Noah Telson was born in Cologne, Germany but raised in Woodstock, NY. As the youngest of three boys, Noah learned quickly the virtues of following in the footsteps of intelligent and talented people, only to later usurp those characteristics as his own. Noah graduated cum laude from SUNY Purchase after switching majors half way through, from Drama Studies to Political Science. He promptly staved off the inevitability of an impoverished post-undergraSummer Banks
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Summer Banks wraps her riddles in conundrums. Originally hailing from the vast wastelands of the California desert, she moved to Berlin to escape interning in New York, and study opera and street art, but then found herself working as a tour guide. She also does "performance art" and has been known to participate in events involving coordinated sneezing and killing grapefruits. She stumbled upon improv through one fateful night in a garden in Florence and now enjoys the excuse to sing out of key, loudly.Stephanie Geiges
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Stephanie is a professional word-wrestler. She hails from the Land of Gateaux, which is a predicament even for the slimmest of natures, and has taken up sportz to combat the mental flab which invariably sets in when you word-wrestle on your own. She also trained in the Alexander Technique and therefore knows how to sit up straight. She lives out in the middle of nowhere, where she occasionally also wrestles with stubborn chickens, snow and admin. Send her an email. stephanie@comedysportz.deThomas Zug
Back from those old days when there was less Comedy in town. But more Sportz was needed to get from one side of the city to the other due to a little fence in the middle. Basically he is ….lazy. So instead of travelling the world he let all the people come to Berlin and enjoys besides his work as a trained actor the superb English comedy chaos CSZ shows provide.
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Thomas is old school West Side Paul Schmidt
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Paul was born.Sean Hunter Williams
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Sean may or may not be German and his real name may or may not be Stefan. We're not sure yet.Reinaldo Pinto-Almeida
A confused soul, perhaps even a mystery to himself, Reinaldo hasn't really figured out why he is an Indian guy whose mother tongues are European (a species noted by the first Stoics as Andros Indoportudeunglishstani. duly described during expeditions under Alexander the Great, beyond the great plains of Asia ca. 290 BCE.) But he's pretty sure that he does live in Berlin and will continue making his films and also edit other peoples work. Proudest moment: To find a character in Shakespeare's “Hamlet” named Reinaldo. Major bummer: To find out that Shakespeare had made him feel like an uncreative obedient servant to Polonius, with very few lines.
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Reinaldo Pinto Almeida – Editor and Filmmaker – loves improv because it's like religion. You don't have to understand it to be a part of it.Chris Davis
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Chris Davis hails from the city of Glasgow located in the land of Scots. They, as a nation, are instinctively funny due to depressing weather and the delicious delicacy of deep-fried food. He lives as a writer and editor for SAND, Berlin’s literary journal and performs with the ComedySportz improv group. He tries his hand at Stand-up whenever he can and has performed at S.I.N sporadically. Mostly though, in a last minute attempt to rid his crippling self-doubt, he takes over open-mics with sketchy interpretations of his life experiences via guitar or his mouth. He won the first Comedy Slam run by Paul Salamone – Chris’ biggest achievement yet without having a trophy to show for it. He also hosts Berlin’s best film quiz every 3rd Wednesday of the month at Kvartira 62.Josh Telson
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Josh was born on January 26th, 1925. He served three years in the Navy during WWII. After moving to New York, he began a long and distinguished career in the theater and films as an actor. A passionate race car driver, Josh also started his own organic food company in 1982. Wait, no, I'm thinking of Paul Newman.Bill Glucroft
Bill Glucroft hails from the fascinating Connecticut suburbs, where he enjoyed a childhood selling lemonade and using his walkie-talkies to eavesdrop on neighbors' phone conversations. A lot of other stuff then happened. Thanks to the collapse of American capitalism and Germany's remarkably low barriers to legal work, he's in Berlin. Also a Berlinerin who loves him very much. Bill and improv have flirted for awhile, both on-stage and off. The craft is useful for teaching English to adults, which a piece of paper says he's qualified to do. Bill writes at allbillnobull.net. |
Maarit Hara
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Maarit discovered comedy as a way to survive as the middle child out of three sisters growing up in Finland. She and her sisters were eager to find out if the rumours about the rest of the world were true, so she left traveling. She wrote letters home telling her sisters about all the new discoveries, like friends. She wrote: “Friends are people who are not related but they still voluntarily hang out with each other.” Her sisters were amazed! In her next letter she will be writing about an improv-show, which is played as a form of sportz. The world never stops to impress them!Mathieu Pelletier
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Mathieu Pelletier is the name Mathieu Pelletier was given when he was born in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. In 26 years of life, he managed to equip himself with 1,85 meters of height, 70kg of weight and even two eyes of the same color. Looking for a place to develop all this physical potential through drama, he tried living in Paris, Barcelona and then arrived in Berlin, where all lost artists mysteriously end up. There, he re-discovered improv and the tragedy of being a francophone in an English-speaking show and being funny only when he didn’t really want to. He is currently writing his biography in the third person, a very unnatural way to explain why he is now part of ComedySportz Berlin.Johann Zuerner
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Johann is native to Bavaria, which is home to an ancient Germanic tribe called the “Bavarians”. They still live in remote dense forests or in dark mountain caves, speak incomprehensibly and cook intruders in boiling beer. Toughened by growing up in the wilderness and daily struggle for survival, even fighting the most terrible of beasts, the “Wolpertinger” (famous Bavarian legendary creature), he finally set out to see the world and became an actor. Acting his way through various German municipal theatres he has now arrived at ComedySportz. Why Improv? Paying tribute to his inherent laziness (also called bayerische Gemütlichkeit), Improv gives him a great opportunity to perfect the art of always being totally unpreparedGeorge Moakley
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George was born and raised in the desert of Phoenix, Arizona and studied at ASU. After 22 years of living in the heat, he moved to Heidelberg, where he studied Deutsch als Fremdsprache at the Universität Heidelberg. Today, still wanted by the government, he survives as a freelance artist. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire the A-Team.Pip Swallow
They started a romantic relationship that continued until a break-up lasting for several months in 2007. However, they continued to be friends and rekindled their relationship later that year. Prior to the wedding, Swallow attended many high-profile royal events. Once their relationship became public, she received widespread media attention and there was much speculation that she and Prince William would eventually marry. Their engagement was announced on 16 November 2010, and they married on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Even if this is not true Pip Swallow remains firmly certain that one day her prince will come and that he will have slightly more hair and slightly less ears. Who are you to crush her dream? N.B It's ma'am like ham if you want to address her in person.
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Pip Swallow, Duchess of Cambridge is the wife of Jessica Gadani
Jessica is a classical singer from a small town in upstate New York called Feura Bush (pronounced 'fear-a-bush'). In September of 2009 she sold her car, her mattress, and her high-fructose-corn-syrup-loving soul, to make the pilgrimage to Berlin, land of dreams and discos, derelicts and döners. Shortly after arriving, a divine angel of improv came to her one evening while she was reading and said "Rejoice, you highly favored one! The LORD is with you. Behold, you and your friends will conceive and bring forth a child, and will call it Comedy Sportz with a 'z'." Jessica said to the angel "But how can this be, seeing I am a virgin?" The angel responded "For everything spoken by Tina Fey is possible", and then departed from her. The rest, as they say, is ComedySportz history. |
Matt Flint
From Manteca, Ca, resembling Baby Huey, and standing in at almost 2 meters, Our Man Flint has had to live with sleeping diagonally and wearing clothes that don’t fit. Growing tired of cow tipping and drinking Zima, he left town and joined the Navy, working on an aircraft carrier as an Aviation Ordnance man, learning valuable skills in life, like repairing bomb racks and missile launchers. Matt went back to college, earning a degree in BS. Eventually, Matt and family found their way to Berlin, simply, because it was a great band. Matt got into improv as a way to serve out his court ordered Community Service for using “Du” with everyone he talks too. Matt is an arched doorway activist and leads protests in his home. His hero’s include Beaky Buzzard and sandwiches. |
Bryan Benson
Bryan Benson was born and raised in and around the small village of New York City, New York. There, from a young age, he learned how to be funny. He grew up making people laugh and being silly, even when he didn't intend to be. After four hard long years of not going to class, he graduated from SUNY Purchase. He then entered the cannibalistic society known as the New York City stand up comedy scene. For three years Bryan experienced many great...and not so great performances, performing at The Comic Strip Live, Comedy Cellar, and Comedy Village(just to name a few). He also performed in more uncomfortable and unsuccessful environments, such as opening for a ska punk band out on Eastern Long Island... |
Pepe Higes
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Pepe comes from the warm land of Spain, Madrid. He loves theater, magic and comedy. His first show was at the age of 10 when he performed magic for the Spanish TV. “He was very cute” said the specialized critics (aka his grandmother). Later he studied psychology, mathematicsAmy Benson
Amy Benson is an actress from New York. She studied at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. She has been acting since the age of 3 when she would refuse to speak to children on the playground unless they called her "Cheer Bear" (yes, from the Care Bears) or Pascal (from The Red Balloon)- despite the fact that Pascal is a boy. Amy's first brush with improv was at the age of fourteen, when she won the award for being the "Happiest Bus Driver." Currently, she is performing and teaching a weekly acting class in Berlin. And she likes cake. A lot.
Visit www.amy-benson.com to learn more! |
Nicole Ratjen
Nicole grew and grew until she was so tall she soon realized that dimensions and size of the island that she knew as home in Canada were too small. So, she swam, surfed, sailed and flew to a bigger land mass with more people. Fascinated by the world around her she studied people and there odd behavorial traits in Toronto and Paris by devising, acting, clowning, playing and recreating all this inspiration on stage. Nicole's love for Improv started back when a visitor came to her island, telling stories of how theatre could be a sport. In seek of this so called sport, Nicole decked out in her best sport gear and headed off. Where she ended up in the world of Canadian Improv Games. Eventually these adventures landed Nicole in Berlin where she is at work using her tools and ways of play by making people laugh, giggle, holler, slopper, sweat, squirm and maybe even cry. |
Mat Mailandt
Mat Mailandt is an improviser and director from Calgary, Alberta. He is completely addicted to improv. He has been performing for the last seven years with The Improv Guild. He founded, directed and performed in the Improv Soap Opera Drunk on Monday from 2004-06 and did various guest spots for Dirty Laundry in its 2006-07 season. The highlight of his career so far was the 2010 Calgary International Improv Festival when he performed with Colin Mochrie of Whose Line is it Anyway? He has worked with and learned from such amazing improv teachers as Rick Hilton, Keith Johnstone, Patti Styles, Micheal Robinson, Dan O’Connor and Alan Marriott. His other love is Theatre for Young Audiences. From 2005-10 he served as the Artistic Director of Calgary Young People’s Theatre directing and producing more than 16 plays. He has worked as a professional clown since 2003, which his parents say makes a lot of sense in retrospect. He is a fan of hockey, football (both European and American) and the Berlin transit |
Ana Hagedorn
Ana comes from Wisconsin...the good ol' Midwest of the United States. Growing up among cheese, mosquitoes, and the Green Bay Packers, she found her calling as an actress. Luckily for her, she was able to spend time touring with a theatre company to spread the love, cheer and goodness of the craft after graduating from college. Truth be told, she still wonders how she got to Germany, but the gypsy in her is happy to have found Berlin and Comedy Sportz. |
Leo Auri
Leo Auri (born 1983 in Australia) is a musician, composer, and sound/technologyexperimenter. He studied Jazz-Performance at the Elder Conservatory in Adelaide, Australia. He has lived in Berlin since 2006, where he is active as a Theatre Musician and composer as well as realising own art, film and performance art projects. Current examples of his work are "Body/Voice/Bicycle" - improvisatory performance in "basement" (Vienna) for the exhibition "(self)curated - Miami Crush"; composition of the music/ artistic co-direction of music/communication project "Das Haus als Maske" (The House as a Mask) in Kulturhaus-Schöneberg, Berlin; composition and performance of music for theatre pieces "Alice" and "Tortilla Curtain" with Platypus Theater. |
Jeffrey Lee MillsJeffrey Lee Mills is a baby boomer, born and raised |
on expired "Wonder Bread" and in" The American Way of Life" on Long Island, New York. Jeffrey's childhood started out mainstream, church going, sports athlete, boy scouts (achieving eagle scout) etc, however his life and boring piano lessons took a drastic upbeat turn as the music and grooving times of the Beatles, Stones, Zappa and various jazz pianist, (induced with a flirtation of reefer and psychedelic drugs) lured him away from law school into a passion in the Fine Arts. This resulted in degrees in Graphic Arts A.S. and Afro American Music B.S. After the university Jeffrey ventured to Alaska where he performed for 5 years in one of the first last frontier comedy improv theaters. Playing in sub freezing temperatures and getting to gigs via dogsleds was the norm. After serving out his 5 years Alaskan sentence, he defrosted and came to Europe in 1987 touring with the comedy group "Three Wheel Circus" and comedy legend "Gary Edwards". Since 1990 Jeffrey has made Berlin his home in Prenzlauer Berg and balances a schedule of composing to performing in his own musical and comedy venues. He can truly say "ick bin ein Berliner" when he's at the bakery.
