Comedy Pros

Despite having a hard to pronounce name with way too many consonants, Jessie Shternshus is a thoroughly charming go-getter who has created an improv dynamo in Jacksonville, Florida. As the founder and owner of The IMPROV EFFECT, Jessie weds her lifelong passion for and expertise in applied improvisation with the fast paced demands of the corporate world. In her classes and workshops she helps people become better listeners, team players, leaders, and communicators. Her physically engaging and playful workshops are relevant to all fields of life; participants of her workshops vary from college professors to engineers and from web developers to lawyers. Jessie gained her formal education at USF and NYU. Throughout her career she has worked with Fortune 500 companies and companies such as CBS, Paramount Pictures, MTV and Sesame Workshop. She also facilitates communication skills workshops and speaks at conferences worldwide.

Gene Perret is a guru of comedy writing. He has written jokes for comedians such as Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, Tim Conway, and many others. He earned three Emmy Awards for his work on The Carol Burnett Show. He wrote for Bob Hope from 1969 until the performer’s retirement, serving the last 15 years as his head writer. Gene's television career includes producing Welcome Back, Kotter, Three’s Company, and The Tim Conway Show. Other credits include Mama’s Family, All in the Family, Laugh-In, and many others. Gene has authored 40 books on comedy. His book Comedy Writing Step by Step is considered by many to be the textbook on comedy writing. A revised and updated version of this book -- The New Comedy Writing Step by Step was released by Quill Driver Books in 2008. Other books include Talk About Hope; Become A Richer Writer; and Damn! That’s Funny! Writing Humor You Can Sell. Gene's first novel, Breakfasts with Archangel Shecky, has just been released. For additional books visit our store. Gene has written for many national magazines including Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Toastmaster and wrote a regular humor column for Arizona Highways for many years.

Frank Caeti is an alumnus of The Second City Chicago. One half of the acclaimed duo FrankenMatt. Performs consistently at Second City Hollywood, iO West, and Upright Citizens Brigade LA. Series Regular on MADtv. Face and/or voice have appeared in over 40 commercials. Guest star roles on NCIS, Key and Peele, and Reno 911

This is as close as I've gotten to interviewing someone who "needs no introduction..." but if you aren't THAT into improv... the list of people's she's trained and worked with is a who's who of the funniest actors on TV and in movies right now. But if you're not part of the improv world, you need to know that Charna worked with Del Close, who trained many of the Saturday Night Live folks everyone knows, and together they created long form improv... before which improv was mainly exercises for actors (a la Viola Spolin) and short form games like you see on Who's Line Is It Anyway. Charna also founded iO in Chicago, which is one of the major improv theatres in the world, and which has expanded with another branch in Los Angeles, CA. When Lorne Michaels is looking for new SNL cast members, one place he turns is to Charna... and there's a great story in this podcast about her and Chris Farley.

As the talent booker for A&E's Evening At The Improv, working with folks like Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno, and as Bud Friedman's talent booker at the L.A. Improv, Dave Schwensen has some insights for stand up comedy careers. I read two of Dave's books when I was starting with stand up comedy in 2006. Then I took a stand up career class put on by Bill Word in Orange County, CA and taught by Dave.