Finding the Funny Fast:
Performance Focused Improvisation

Face Off Unlimited brings its signature performance focused style of improvisation to Planet Ant for a special 3 hour intensive led by Chicago instructors Tyler Garamella and Brandon Drap.

Developed through Face Off Unlimited’s long running training program, and currently taught as an ongoing workshop at The Annoyance Theatre in Chicago, this intensive focuses on the skills performers need when the goal isn’t simply to improvise, but to entertain. Through fast paced exercises, scene work, and performance games, participants will explore how to make bold choices, heighten quickly, play physically, commit fully, connect with audiences, and find the funny fast.

Whether you perform short form, long form, sketch, or simply want to sharpen your stage instincts, this workshop emphasizes confidence, commitment, pace, and theatricality, giving performers practical tools they can immediately bring into rehearsals and live performance. This is the same workshop that has become a favorite among performers at The Annoyance Theatre, now presented as an expanded intensive exclusively for Planet Ant.

Artist Bios:

Tyler Garamella: professional goof ball, long time Annoyance Theater BarFly, soon to be Dad. As a Chicago based comedian, actor, and writer, Tyler has had the privilege of performing and travelling with BATSU! Chicago for the past ten years. In addition to teaching and performing improv, Tyler is a professional clown, having trained in France, who performs with the clown group known as GOON. He's understudied at The Second City for their 2019 ETC revue, "Grinning From Fear To Fear," writes/performs/produces The PENNE RIGATE Show, and is represented by Lily's Talent for on-camera work. He share funny with you, maybe make life better.

Brandon Drap is a Chicago-based actor, improviser, and improv teacher who can be seen in the latest season of Chicago PD and performs regularly with BATSU! Chicago, The Annoyance Theater House Teams, and a variety of professional and independent improv productions throughout the city. As a core member of BATSU!, he’s performed in Chicago, NYC, at the Edinburgh Fringe, and on US national tours. A graduate of Michigan State University's BFA Acting program, Brandon has taught and performed at institutions including The Annoyance Theater, iO, and The Second City. He is passionate about creating playful, supportive spaces where performers can take risks, embrace failure, and discover joy through improvisation.

About FACE OFF UNLIMITED

Face Off Unlimited is an award winning New York based comedy company and the creators of BATSU!, the internationally acclaimed live comedy phenomenon. Since 2009, Face Off Unlimited has built a reputation for producing bold, high energy, audience driven entertainment that blends lightning fast improvisation, theatrical spectacle, and unforgettable audience participation.

BATSU! currently enjoys open runs in New York City and Chicago, following a celebrated West End engagement in London, a successful U.S. national tour, and three consecutive sold out appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The production has earned critical acclaim around the world, with Playbill calling it “the best thing we’ve ever seen… anywhere,” while The New York Times praised Face Off Unlimited’s work as “really funny.”

Beyond the stage, Face Off Unlimited is recognized as an industry leader in applying improvisation to emerging technologies and professional development. The company served as the exclusive English language content provider for Aldebaran Robotics’s autonomous humanoid robots, pioneered live immersive virtual reality performances in partnership with Oculus and NextVR, and develops customized applied improvisation programs through FOLD (Face Off Learning & Development), helping organizations strengthen communication, leadership, collaboration, and creative problem solving.

Face Off Unlimited have entertained audiences across North America, Europe and Asia through thousands of live performances. Whether entertaining theater audiences around the world or helping organizations perform at their best, Face Off Unlimited continues to push the boundaries of what improvisation can achieve, proving that its possibilities are, in every sense of the word, unlimited.

WORKSHOP | IMPROV | Finding The Funny Fast w Brandon Drap & Tyler Garamella of BATSU! Chicago and The Annoyance Theater