Improv artist hosts public workshop on campus

Cornell is preparing to welcome a Los Angeles improv artist to campus to work with students and the community.

Ben Tibbels will visit in early December to work with students in a handful of Cornell’s classes and to offer an evening workshop open to all students and the community. The free workshop, called “Funny from Nothing: An Introduction to Improvisational Comedy,” will unfold from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8, in Kimmel Theatre.

“Tibbels has always been funny, but after graduating from The Second City, Hollywood’s two-year conservatory program, he truly had the skills and the experience to be funny with a purpose,” said Professor of Theatre Caroline Price. “

He will work with Cornell’s two improv groups, The Freelance Cosmonauts and Phase Five, as well as with Professor Janeve West’s Play Analysis class and Artist in Residence Alvon Reed’s Improvisational Dance course.

The improv artist is also an accomplished actor and writer. He started participating in theatre during middle school and hasn’t stopped since. Over the years, he created a semi-professional improv troupe in college, participated in an experimental theater company, and taught improv to children at a theater in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Los Angeles actor said he hopes to see many people shed their fears and discover a love for improv while he’s here. He calls improv an essential tool in any modern actor’s toolbox.

“I’ve heard some casting directors say that they won’t even look at an actor who doesn’t have improv experience on their resume,” Tibbels said. “It’s especially important for actors interested in commercial work. The ability to commit to the moment and be spontaneously interesting or funny is what sets one commercial talent apart from another. Beyond those benefits, improv is a great way to explore character development, get in tune with your body, voice, and mind, and train your brain for faster responses in almost any situation.”

Tibbels and Price say this is all about seeing joy play out on stage.

“The moment where a student just allows themselves to go for it is the moment they get out of their heads and just be,” Price said. “That can be such a joy and such a sense of accomplishment when it is achieved.”