Training Center Instructors
Our training center is proud to have some of the best-trained teachers in Nashville that have received their training all over the country (literally) including: The Second City (Chicago and LA), iO (Chicago), UCB (LA), The Groundlings (LA), The Annoyance Theatre (Chicago), Four Day Weekend (Dallas), and ComedySportz.
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MARK ANUNDSON
Mark Anundson is that one comedian that you went to see a long time ago but now you can’t remember his name but you do remember he had a joke about a walrus or something. Audiences have been laughing and immediately forgetting about Mark’s comedy sets for years! If you like your comedy chock full of one liners, insults and absurdities then be sure to check Mark Anundson out at your local comedy club or pub. |
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RYAN CITRINO
From the mean streets of (suburban) New Jersey, Ryan has been performing in Nashville for over 4 years. At Third Coast, he has performed and/or accompanied for Infinity Etc., Cherry Bomb: An Improvised Musical, Raccoon Log Ride, LOL Nashville and The Third Coast Comedy Show. He’s excited to pass along his experience with both music and improv to you. |
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GRANT COLLINS
Grant is a Portland, TN native who has studied all things comedy in Chicago for the past eight years. He is a graduate of iO, The Annoyance, The Second City Conservatory, Second City Writing Program, and The Second City Musical Conservatory. While in Chicago, he played on several iO Harold teams, a ComedySportz Chicago House Team, and teams at The Playground, MCL, and Under the Gun. Grant is excited to be back in Tennessee, sharing and teaching the art form he loves so much. |
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SCOTT ELAM
Scott Elam is a Franklin, TN native and Chicago-trained improviser. He is a graduate of The Second City Conservatory and iO. With The Second City, he toured all over the world aboard Norwegian Cruise Line performing to sold out audiences every night of the week. At iO, he performed with long-running Harold team Sears Tower and many other shows. As a teacher, he's taught every level in The Second City's Improv Program, at improv festivals around the country, and a two week immersion in London, England at the Angel Comedy Club. Scott is thrilled to be back home and to be teaching the art form he loves at Third Coast. |
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DAN FAIRALL
Dan trained as an actor and was drawn into improv in 1993. He studied Spolin in Seattle with Gary Schwartz of Improv Odessey, and is a graduate of Upright Citizens Brigade, and The Magnet Theater. He comes to Third Coast after performing weekly in New York for fifteen years. His biggest influences have been Gregg Henry, Christopher Bayes, Owen Burke, Pat Shay, Kevin Mullaney, Meagan Neuringer, and of course Armando Diaz. He is thrilled to be here and pass along all that he has learned, and looks forward to meeting you. |
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SCOTT FIELD
Scott Field studied at Improv Boston (Boston) where he was a player with the mainstage, performing hundreds of shows in a five year period. After moving to Nashville (Nashville) in 2004, he co-founded Improv Nashville (Nashville), which opened a venue on 12th South in 2008. Most recently, Scott has taught for and performed with Music City Improv (Nashville), Street Theater (Nashville), and is directing The Third Coast Comedy Show (Nashville). |
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EDD GARCIA
Edd Garcia has been improvising professionally in Nashville since 2013. He is currently a member of Infinity Etc., Cherry Bomb, and LOL Nashville. You may also remember him from Gnu Tales, Secret Handshake, Music City Improv, Third Coast Main Stage, or as that obnoxious extra in a high school play in 2007. Technically, Edd is a trained stage actor and dancer but he is honestly better known for his knowledge of dungeons and dragons, professional wrestling, and the fast and the furious films. Edd also trained at the now defunct (but then legendary!) iO theatre in Chicago in 2016. He did this mostly for clout and Portillo's hot dogs. Feel free to say hello if you see Edd hidden in the corner of the bar after a show, he's only fading into the background due to social anxiety. |
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MIKE GARVIN
Hailing from myriad corners of the Great American South, Mike is equal parts improv fan and trained practitioner. Exploding onto the stage as the runaway sheep in a Murray, Kentucky Christmas pageant, his training spans graduate studies in comedy and performance at Southern Illinois University to improv courses at iO in Chicago and Nashville’s own Third Coast. He has coached and performed with the troupes Community Floss and Cult of the Stage Monkey, and his celebrated duo Date Night with Mike & Eric has appeared at the Twin Cities and Dirty South Improv Festivals and in venues across the Midwest. In Nashville he performs stand up and storytelling, and leads unwitting patrons through historical tours of the area. |
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BECCA GRONER
A native New Yorker, Becca trained at Upright Citizens Brigade and performed improv in Boston for four years in college while training under Improv Asylum’s Director. Since moving to Nashville, Becca began hosting monthly Lady Bits improv jams and performing with Nashville’s only LGBTQ+ comedy troupe, Carol, as well as various indie and Third Coast house troupes. You can also catch her doing live sports-like commentary on improv in Play by Play. She is good at collecting jars and bad at opening them. |
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BILL HILLSMAN
Bill has been an improviser in Nashville for over 9 years. In his time, he has directed, coached, and performed with a variety of groups, including The Third Coast Comedy Show, LOL Nashville, and Infinity Etc. Improv. Bill has performed in festivals and competitions around the country, and alongside Allison Summers and Patrick Shaffner, was a national finalist in the Contest4Improv4Humans. Around Third Coast, Bill is a writer and producer for Late Night with Johnny Carsick, the producer for the Third Coast Short Film Showcase, and is a co-producer with Ryan Citrino for Triple Threat, a community improv showcase. He is currently accepting all offers for an energy drink sponsorship. |
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MATT JACKSON
Matt is a transplant from Orange County, CA. He has studied improv at The Groundlings, UCB, and iO Chicago. Over the years, Matt has been an active part of Nashville’s growing comedy scene performing and teaching with Improv Nashville, Fusebox Theater Company, and S2 in Louisville KY. He is currently a house performer at Third Coast Comedy Cub; playing in The Love Circle Variety Show, Court, Crash, and Celebrity Crush. He is excited to bring his passion and experience to Third Coast’s Training Center. |
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MAX KEMP
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman Max is a Nashville transplant from a small town in northern Connecticut. She fell in love with improv over a decade ago and has been learning, performing, and teaching every since. She passionately believes in improv as a unique, raucous, life-changing celebration of the human experience. Ain’t got no fancy schoolin’, just a plethora of workshops, scores of shows, a smattering of festivals, and a whole lot of life to share. |
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ISAAC KIRK
Isaac is an Actor, improviser, and community advocate, returning home to Nashville, from Santa Barbara, CA. While training under Peter Frisch, Head of Drama at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama & The Juilliard School, he became aware of the freedom the imaginative, risk-taking actor enjoys and the power that stories possess. This ethereal feeling of spontaneity led him to Tom Mueller, of The Ventura Improv Company and the study of Spolin. Along the way, Isaac has found success in numerous indie films, ad campaigns for Nike, and most recently on Chrisley Knows Best. He is thrilled to be integrating his culturally diverse approach (Blackness) into the Caucasian ubiquitousness (Hyper white space) of Improvisational theatre. |
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MARK NEGLIA
Mark recently concluded a 10 year stint working for Second City Theatricals, performing in over 2,500 sketch and improv shows in that time period. Mark has also worked for The Second City National Touring Company, where he has co-written songs with Adam McKay (Anchorman, The Big Short), Neil Flynn (Scrubs, The Middle), Nancy Walls-Carell (The Daily Show), Todd Stashwick (12 Monkeys) and Horatio Sanz (Saturday Night Live). Additionally, Mark has produced records for the New York artists “Marwood” and “Pawnshop” and has been a music producer for corporate clients IBM, Boeing, and Nissan/Infiniti. Mark lives in East Nashville with whatever dog he happens to be fostering at the moment. |
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SEAN PARROTT
“I’m a weird guy but I come by it honestly, because my Mom is a weird guy too.” For quite some time now, Sean Parrott has been bringing his charismatic stage presence and a unique point of view to comedy clubs and bars all over the Southeast. Brought up on Bugs Bunny and Monty Python, Sean is an observational absurdist with a keen eye for finding the humor in everyday life; our language, our friends and our jobs (What is the DEAL with those?) He has acted in award winning animated films (one was on the Independent Film Channel), appeared at the Wild West, Asheville and Memphis Comedy Festivals, and was picked as one of Nashville’s Funniest Comics by Reader’s Digest and East Nashvillian magazine. Energy, intelligence, and wry wit make Sean Parrott one of the best young comics working today. |
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MARY CLAIRE REYNOLDS
Mary Claire Reynolds grew up in Nashville and has been a professional commercial talent since her teenage years when she landed representation contracts in New York and London. In 2009, she took an intensive course at Second City Chicago and fell in love with the practice and performance of live improv. She went on to study at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles and perform with an independent long-form team around the city. When she returned to Nashville full-time in 2013, Mary Claire jumped into all the improv she could find, and most of it was short-form, so she quickly learned short-form improv performance skills! She joined Third Coast house team Freak Pony in 2018, and can also be seen performing with Gnu Tales and Improv Science Theatre 4000. In addition to all this acting-without-scripts experience, Mary Claire has been a SAG-AFTRA member since 2012, and she is a trained and experienced local theatre performer. She is excited to share the magic of improv theatre with you! |
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PATRICK SHAFFNER
Coming soon... we hope.* *We've been hoping for a very long time now... |
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ALLISON SUMMERS
Allison was born and raised in Nashville, TN. She studied improv in Los Angeles at The Second City, IO West, and UCB. She has over ten years of sketch writing and improv experience. She has written a one woman show, “Collections” that has been performed in Austin, Boston and LA. You can see her in the critically acclaimed film, “Hollywood Sex Wars”, where she plays everyone’s favorite neighborhood crackhead, Ash. Allison loves watching videos of people falling down but not like hurting themselves falling down, just like tripping and falling and getting back up. |
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LUKE WATSON
Luke is the Founder of LOL Nashville and Co-Founder of the Third Coast Comedy Club. He got his start with improv in Atlanta, GA with an independent troupe made up of improvisers from troupes across the city. Luke is also the Founder and Executive Producer of Nashville’s Improv Festival, Third Coast Improv Fest. |
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TIM YAGER
Tim is an alumni of iO (Chicago), The Annoyance Theatre (Chicago), the Four Day Weekend training center (Fort Worth), and a son of Texas. In Chicago, Tim performed with two harold teams at the iO, The Rabble and RGB. In Dallas, Tim performed with ComedySportz DFW, Four Day Weekend, FIAD, Victory Point, Samurai Drunk and Kool Aid. In addition, Tim has taught at Four Day Weekend (Fort Worth), the Dallas Comedy House (Dallas), and Third Coast Comedy Club (Nashville). |