Central Coast Comedy Theater Presents SLO’s First Annual One-Day Improv Festival

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Schedule

	TIME	DETAILS
Workshop 1A & 1B	9:00-11:00am	Instructors TBD
Improv Jam and lunch	11-12:30pm	Jam hosted by Zombie Skillet
Workshop 2A & 2B	12:30-2:30pm	Instructors TBD
Workshop 3A & 3B	2:30-4:30pm	Instructors TBD
Festival Show	Doors at 6, show at 7

Workshop Details

Special Guest Instructor Craig Cackowski

LA-based actor and improvisor Craig Cackowski is a three-time winner of the Del Close Teacher of the Year Award at iO West. He’s had recurring roles on Veep, Drunk History, and Sex Lives Of College Girls and is featured in Hysteria! (Peacock), The Pitt (MAX), and the upcoming film, Magazine Dreams. Craig currently teaches at World’s Greatest Improv School (WGIS) in Los Angeles, online and at improv festivals around the world.

Workshops

SELL IT!

Energy, confidence and decisiveness are 90% of successful improv. It’s no so much what you say as when and how you say it. Being comfortable on stage has a huge impact on how the audience sees you. Whether you’re a veteran improviser or a newbie, you’ll get good practice owning your impulses and delivering them with confidence right off the bat.

EXPAND YOUR RANGE

Explore new ways to develop and heighten characters over the course of a scene while still having your partner’s back. Craig shares several character developing exercises—from subtle to over the top—that will broaden your range so you’ll never feel stuck “always playing yourself” again!

Special Guest Instructor Carla Cackowski

Carla Cackowski is a comedy writer and improviser, based in LA, whose credits include teaching improv and sketch comedy at The Second City Hollywood for over a decade, and former Co-Artistic Director at Curious Comedy Theater in Portland and Artistic Director of Mi’s Westside Comedy Theater. Carla has toured the world performing comedy on cruise ships with The Second City and lit up mainstage improv teams at both UCB and iO West. Currently, Carla teaches and performs at WGIS in Hollywood and at the Outside In Theater in Highland Park.   http://www.carlacackowski.com

Workshops

YOUR PROMISE TO THE AUDIENCE

 The character’s point of view is the funnel through which they view the world. Explore new ways of initiating and heightening POV so you can relax and let your character’s voice do all the heavy lifting.

THE “I” IN IMPROV

The thing that sets improv apart from most other performing arts is how much of ourselves we bring to our shows. This workshop focuses on finding balance between performer-writer-director and exploring ways you can tap into your authentic self while living under imaginary circumstances.

Special Guest Instructor Victoria Koenitzer

Victoria Koenitzer is the founder of Divergent Improv in San Diego.  She is a graduate of the Upright Citizens Brigade and Finest City Improv who has also trained at World’s Greatest Improv School, the Pack Theater, Second City, WE Improv, Camp Improv Utopia, Cornerstone Improv, Mockingbird Improv, and more.  Victoria has performed at over a dozen improv festivals and taught workshops at the Baltimore Improv Festival, Countdown Improv Festival, and Northwest Improv Festival.  She teaches and/or has taught elective workshops, workshops of her own curriculum, and core curriculum workshops at San Diego theaters (Finest City Improv, Mockingbird Improv, and Cornerstone Improv) for years.

Workshops

ARMANDO PREMISE-BASED INITIATIONS

Have you ever started scenes wondering who you are and what is going on? Let’s start scenes with a clear line that contains a reality and a funny idea. Premise-based initiations are at the core of the Armando improv form. In this workshop you will learn to pull ideas effectively from monologues, living room openings, and more in order to get on the same page at the beginning of the scene so that you can have fun playing with and exploring the funny thing for the rest of the scene.

FIND AND FRAME GAME

Do you ever find yourself in a scene wondering what’s fun or what to play with? Or do you have too many ideas and feel overwhelmed? Slow down and start noticing the gifts you are already creating. In this workshop, you will identify what is unusual/fun about your scenes and work on communicating that to your scene partner in order to set up your scenes for success and to play the game.

Performers

Orange Tuxedo features the dynamic husband and wife improv team Craig and Carla Cackowski showcasing the “Close Quarter” form, which creates grounded relationships between eccentric characters, all happening in the one location at the very same time!  
https://orangetuxedoimprov.com/

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