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IO West
The iO West (formerly known as the "ImprovOlympic West") was the Los Angeles branch of the iO in Chicago. The theater was located at 6366 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, California. In addition to presenting improv and sketch comedy shows every night, the iO West had improv training classes and was the home for the Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival. On February 24, 2018, iO West permanently ceased operations. History The iO was founded in the 1980s by Del Close and Charna Halpern in Chicago. The iO approaches improvisation as an art form in and of itself; this differs from the Second City approach, where improv is used as a tool in creating sketch comedy. In 1997, Paul Vaillancourt opened a companion theater to the iO Chicago, then "ImprovOlympic West," now iO West, in Los Angeles, California. The theater originally took up residence at The Stella Adler Theater 6773 Hollywood Blvd., but soon moved to The Complex Theater, 6470 Santa Monica Boulevard before finally movin ...
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IO Theater
iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as "ImprovOlympic") is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater taught and hosted performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The theater has many notable alumni, including Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert. The theatre closed briefly in 2020, though the building was purchased in 2021 and reopened on November 3, 2022. Description iO concentrated on "long-form" improvisational structures, in contrast to the "short-form" or "improv game" format of Theatresports, ComedySportz or the television show ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' The iO's signature piece is the "Harold", and the theater featured other forms of improvisation, as well as sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. The building had four performance spaces: * The Del Close Theater - This was the second-largest of iO's the ...
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Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_type2 = Counties , subdivision_name1 = Illinois , subdivision_name2 = Cook and DuPage , established_title = Settled , established_date = , established_title2 = Incorporated (city) , established_date2 = , founder = Jean Baptiste Point du Sable , government_type = Mayor–council , governing_body = Chicago City Council , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Lori Lightfoot ( D) , leader_title1 = City Clerk , leader_name1 = Anna Valencia ( D) , unit_pref = Imperial , area_footnotes = , area_tot ...
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Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywood. After crossing Fairfax Avenue, Hollywood Boulevard ends at a stop sign, at Laurel Canyon Drive, and continues northbound, as a winding residential street, going up in the hills and canyons in the Hollywood Hills West district. Parts of the boulevard are popular tourist destinations, primarily the fifteen blocks between Gower Street west to La Brea Avenue where the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located. The heart of Hollywood Boulevard is the crossing of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland avenue. "Hollywood and Highland" is the exit to Hollywood via the 101 freeway, and the station when exiting the bus or metro red lines. History 1890s to 1910 Part of today's Hollywood Boulevard was called Prospect Avenue, a dusty road that ran through Holl ...
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Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a metonymy, shorthand reference for the Cinema of the United States, U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was Merger (politics), consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, having developed first on the East Coast. Eventually it became the most recognizable in the world. History Initial development H.J. Whitley, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the E.C. Hurd ranch. They agreed on a price and shook hands on the deal. Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis (publisher), Harrison Gray Otis, ...
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California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territories of the United States by population, most populous U.S. state and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated Administrative division, subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous Statistical area (United States), urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7million residents and the latter having over 9.6million. Sacramento, California, Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the List of largest California cities by population, most populous city in the state and the List of United States cities by population, ...
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Hollywood IO West Theatre
Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (other) * Hollywood, Alabama, a town in Jackson County * Hollywood, Homewood, Alabama and Hollywood Historic District, a former town and a historic district * Hollywood, Florida, a coastal city in Broward County * Hollywood, Georgia, an unincorporated community in Habersham County, Georgia * Hollywood, Maryland * Hollywood, Minnesota * Hollywood Township, Carver County, Minnesota * Hollywood, Mississippi * Hollywood (Benoit, Mississippi), * Hollywood, Missouri * Hollywood, New Mexico, a neighborhood of Ruidoso, Lincoln County, New Mexico * Hollywood, Portland, Oregon, a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon * Hollywood, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania * Hollywood, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania * Hollywood, South Carolina * Hollywood, Memphis, Tennessee * Hollywood, ...
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Del Close
Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was one of the influences on modern improvisational theater. Close is co-founder of the iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as "ImprovOlympic"). Life and career Early life Close was born on March 9, 1934, in Manhattan, Kansas. He ran away from home at the age of 17 to work in a traveling side show, but returned to attend Kansas State University. At age 19 he performed in summer stock with the Belfry Players at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. At age 23 he became a member of the Compass Players in St. Louis. When most of the cast—including Mike Nichols and Elaine May—moved to New York City, Close followed. He developed a stand-up comedy act, starred as the Yogi in the Broadway musical revue ''The Nervous Set'', and performed briefly with an impr ...
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Charna Halpern
Charna Halpern (born June 1, 1952) is an American comedian who is co-founder of the ImprovOlympic, now known as iO. Upon iO's founding, in 1983, with partner Del Close, she began teaching Harold to many students in the Chicago theater community. Many prominent comedians performed at iO, from Neil Flynn ('' The Middle'') to Jack McBrayer ('' 30 Rock''). Also appearing were up and coming comedic minds such as Craig Cackowski ('' Drunk History''). Halpern opened the iO West located in Hollywood, California, in the early 2000s. In February 2018, she made the decision to close the theater citing the reasons as the neighboring nightclub and lack of attendance. She and Close co-authored the book ''Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation'' with editor Kim "Howard" Johnson in 1994. She published ''Group Improvisation'' in 2003 and ''Art by Committee'' in 2006. The remaining theater in Chicago, originally located in the Wrigleyville neighborhood was forced to relocate due to neigh ...
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The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has since become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City. The Second City has produced television programs in both Canada and the United States, including '' SCTV'', ''Second City Presents'', and '' Next Comedy Legend''. Since its debut, The Second City has consistently been a starting point for many comedians, award-winning actors, directors, and others in show business, including Del Close, Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Candy, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Colin M ...
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IO Chicago
iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as "ImprovOlympic") is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater taught and hosted performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The theater has many notable alumni, including Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert. The theatre closed briefly in 2020, though the building was purchased in 2021 and reopened on November 3, 2022. Description iO concentrated on "long-form" improvisational structures, in contrast to the "short-form" or "improv game" format of Theatresports, ComedySportz or the television show ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' The iO's signature piece is the "Harold", and the theater featured other forms of improvisation, as well as sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. The building had four performance spaces: * The Del Close Theater - This was the second-largest of iO's the ...
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Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ...
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