Name: RISE Comedy | Comedy • Bar • Classes
Price range: $

The RISE Comedy Festival is a celebration of Improv, Stand Up and Sketch Comedy, coming in the summer of 2023 with an all new intensive!

Festival Dates: July 20-29, 2023

Stand Up: July 20-22
Improv & Sketch: July 27-29

Submissions Open Now Until April 30!

Early Bird Rate Until 2/28: $30
Regular Rate 3/1-3/31: $35
Late Registration Rate 3/31-4/30: $40

RISE Comedy Festival Instructors (more TBA!)

Drew Droege is an alum of The Groundlings Sunday Company and has been teaching at the school since 2006. He’s also taught improv workshops at University of Southern California, Indiana University, and Wake Forest University, where he obtained a BA in theatre. Drew occasionally performs in The Crazy Uncle Joe Show, The Gale, and Cookin With Gas. He has created 5 solo shows, including Bright Colors And Bold Patterns (Best Performance- Outfest 2018, directed by Michael Urie and streaming on BroadwayHD) and Happy Birthday Doug, both Off-Broadway. His film/TV credits include Me Time, Your Honor, Poolman, Cora Bora, The Comedians, The Goldbergs, Search Party, Q-Force, Bob’s Burgers, The Extinction of Fireflies, The Great North, Drunk History, Heathers, Teachers, IdiotSitter, Transparent, Life In Pieces, Key & Peele, Bajillion Dollar Properties, Ideal Home, Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse, 2 Broke Girls, Kroll Show, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Happy Endings, House Of Lies, Hot In Cleveland, How I Met Your Mother, and New Girl. He’s best known on the internet for playing Chloe Sevigny, hosting his podcasts Minor Revelations and Glitter In The Garbage, and lots of web series. Drew has written for Netflix’s AJ And The Queen and Big Mouth.

Nick Armstrong is an Actor, Improvisor, Director and Writer. On TV, Nick has been on the Emmy-Award winning shows The Office and Grey’s Anatomy. He has also made appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, New Girl, Stan Against Evil, Young Sheldon, Brooklyn Nine Nine and Parks and Recreation.

While in Los Angeles, Nick trained at the World-famous Groundlings Theater where he was a member of the prestigious Sunday Company who’s alumni include Will Ferrell, Heidi Gardner, Phil Hartman and many more. There he would study and teach improv and sketch comedy. He also studied at iO where he learned and taught Long Form Improvisation and performed on the critically acclaimed teams King Ten, COG and Kind Strangers. He was also former Artistic Director of M.I’s Westside Comedy Theater. where he taught and performed as well. Nick has taught workshops all over the world and has performed and headlined in over 60 festivals throughout the world.

Currently, Nick is the Co-Owner and Artistic Director of RISE Comedy in Denver, Colorado and Founder and Executive Director of Improv Utopia a Non-profit improv camp for adults held annually that gives back to the improv community and other arts related charities.

Jet Eveleth has been performing with the improvisational group The Reckoning at the iO Theater since 2001. She travels with the show “Adsit & Eveleth” with Scott Adsit of 30 Rock and the show “I Live Next Door To Horses” (Winner of Del Close Award for Best Scripted Show). She has performed at the Andy Kaufman Awards and was listed as New City magazine’s “Top 50 Players” in Chicago for 2010 and 2012. She recently created and played an original character in the show Absinthe at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, called the greatest show in Vegas history by Las Vegas Weekly. The Huffington Post described the show as “Risqué, dangerous and mind-altering… It is poetic, beautiful, inspiring and insulting. The greatest show on earth.” She developed the television pilots Ditch Mitchem, You Should Be Famous, Jet Across America (MTV) and most recently an original sketch pilot for NBC. You can hear her voice characters on the TV show Animals now in it’s third season on HBO. Her film works includes American Legacy, One-Small Hitch and Close Quarters. In 2012 she toured Europe performing and teaching physical theater with The Second City and the US Embassy. She is faculty at The Second City Conservatory Program, iO Theater and was the former artistic director of the Chicago Improv Festival. She also created the curriculum and taught at Columbia College’s Comedy Studies Program, where she also received her Masters in Interdisciplinary Arts.

Will Luera is the Director of Improvisation at Florida Studio Theatre, Director of Big Bang Improv, and serves as the Artistic Director Emeritus of ImprovBoston. He is the co-creator of Healing Moments for Alzheimer’s, a non-profit organization that provides education, advocacy, and ministry for persons with dementia and their caregivers. He is a conflict mediator with a focus on EDIA issues in the workplace. He sits on the board of CreArte Latino, a Latino-centric cultural community center in the Sarasota area. Will tours globally as an improv comedy actor, instructor, director and performs and teaches regularly all across North America, South America, Europe and Asia.