Author Archives: mstillman

Matthew Stillman has been studying and performing longform improvisational comedy in New York since 1996 – only weeks after the UCB arrived in New York as a troupe. For years his only improv teachers were the UCB 4, as the community grew he has studied under many of improv’s luminaries. He has taken their lessons and inspiration to all of the major improv stages in New York.

His first and only film “The End of Poverty?”, a feature length documentary investigating the origins of poverty, recently won the award “Official Selection of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival – Critics Week” as well as anchoring the first Cannes “Cinema and Politics” day. It comes out in theaters in September 2009.

Commandment 2 – You shall have no other gods before me

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 – 12:03 pm

Crossposted at stillman says, continuing my ongoing series on the 10 Commandments of Improv. The text of the commandment from Exodus reads: Do not have any other gods before me.You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, [...]

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Commandment 1 – I am the Lord your God

Thursday, February 5, 2009 – 11:55 am

Okay, fine. I’ll do it. The 10 Commandments have a lot to teach us about improv. Traditionally in Jewish theology the commandments are divided into the first four – the relationship between God and humans and the last six – the relationship between humans. That distinction may become relevant shortly. The first commandment reads I [...]

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The Note That Sent Me Further On A Voyage of Discovery

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 – 6:55 pm

When I first started taking improv classes in April/May of 1996 with the UCB Walsh, Besser, Ian and Amy were the only people teaching long form in New York. Indeed they were the only people teaching long form formally in New York for the next three years or so until Armando and Kevin Mullaney and [...]

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