StageCraft Live with No Net - Shawn Westfall Wants a Book Deal
This episode is unedited and totally off-the-cuff.
Shawn Westfall has forged a storied career as an improvisational comedian, having performed improv for over 25 years and having taught it for seventeen. He was the exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv for 12 years, inaugurating the first improv comedy class there in 2003 and helping to grow the curriculum into what’s since become the DC Improv Comedy School, which now boasts a roster of teachers and thousands of students. In 2015, Shawn left the Improv to start his own brick-and-mortar improv theater in DC, The Unified Scene Theater. His classes (and the numerous performances they generated) have been featured in The Washington Post, The Washington Post Express, Washingtonian magazine, on NPR and Washington Post Radio, and his former students include a talented roster of performing and writing talent who have graced the main stages as performers at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Second City Comedy Theater, The iO Comedy Theater in Chicago, and as writers on shows such as “Broad City” and “Saturday Night Live.”
But it was with local DC improv legend Mikael Johnson that both found continued and lasting success as ShawnMikael[s], an improv duo that’s played to audiences all over the country, racking up accolades, awards, and recognition during its existence, to include a monthly performance that sold out a 70-seat venue in Washington, DC for 33 months straight. Since connecting in 2010, ShawnMikael[s] has won the Harrisburg Improv Comedy Throwdown (twice), been invited to participate in multiple Washington Improv Theater runs, headlined at the DC Improv Comedy Lounge and in improv shows, festivals, and theaters all over the DC-MD-VA area. In 2011 they performed as part of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, playing to sold-out audiences and garnering 5-star reviews; the two were named as a “Pick of the Fringe” that year from DC Theater Scene.
Shawn is an honorably discharged veteran of The United States Air Force and holds a BA in English literature from The University of Maryland at College Park and an MA in English literature from The University of Texas at San Antonio.
