Using Improv to Unleash Creativity

Presented by: Julian Faid & Kory Matthewson

TEDxRFT

Speaker Bio

Julian Faid is a senior company member with Rapid Fire and has performed in weekly improv shows for over thirteen years. He has taught all levels of improvisational training through Rapid Fire Theaters workshop programs and has taught one-off workshops in Calgary, Vancouver, and Wellington, New Zealand.

Julian has traveled to improv festivals across North America in cities such as Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Vancouver, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Further, he has represented the Province of Alberta in Washington DC on two occasions – Once as part of the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival on National Mall, and also as part of the symposium Borderlines/Borderlands: Culture and the Canada–U.S. International Boundary at the Library of Congress. He was also nominated for “Best in Show” at the New Zealand Comedy Festival in Auckland New Zealand.

When not on stage, Julian works as the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Students’ Association of MacEwan University and has been working in the marketing and communications profession for over seven years.

Kory Mathewson is a polymath and an improvisor. Sharing the stage with top improvisors from across Canada, the United States, and Europe, Kory is a tour de force of improvisational prowess.

He has been invited to perform at the Montreal Improv Festival, the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas, the Bellingham Improv Festival, Rapid Fire Theatre’s Improvaganza in Edmonton, as part of Outside Joke’s main season in Winnipeg, and served as Artist in Residence at the Curious Comedy Theatre in Portland, Oregon.

He performs as part of Rapid Fire Theatre’s TEDxRFT, 6 Degrees of Science and Off Book: The Improvised Musical, and Theatresports and Maestro shows. Kory is also a die-hard fan and performer in ultra-long form improvisation, performing with Edmonton’s Die Nasty: The Live Improvised Soap Opera he has performed improv ultra-marathons (Soapathons/Improvathons/Improv Marathons) in Edmonton, London and Liverpool England.

Kory is an innovator in the improvisational art form. He continuously inspires the improvisors he performs with and teaches with techniques, formats, and styles inspired by the world around him and his studies in cybernetics, robotics, and artificial intelligence. He is also the mind behind HarshImprovNotes.com, a collection of the world’s worst improv notes ever given and received.