If This Is True with Chris Hall

Dave Mowry is a stand up Comedian who teaches the art to people with mental illness. His comedy has been described as smart, inspirational and laugh out loud funny. He lives with bipolar disorder and severe anxiety. Dave was a successful businessman until he lost it all due to his mental illness and becoming homeless with his family for 18 months.After 14 lost years, he took a stand up comedy class for people with mental illness that changed everything. Dave went from mental illness having control over him to finding the humor in his experiences and regaining control of his life.His new book, Healing With Humor: Mental Illness To Mental Health One Laugh, One Joke, One Inspiring Story At A Time, tells the stories of people who have taken his classes. His book, OMG That's Me! Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Panic Attacks And More is one of the best selling bipolar disorder books according to BookDNA.com.Get inspired by this one!!

Terje Brevik is an improv teacher and performer from Oslo, Norway.Terje took his first improv class in 2012, quit his IT Engineering job and never looked back. He then backpacked across Asia and got a degree as a drama teacher. He is the founder the Impro Neuf community in Oslo in 2015. He also founded Tøyen Impro, an improv school for everyone, and the Short Notice Improv Festival, a week long international comedy festival complete with workshops, shows and a Big Day Out!His ideas, style and preferences come from a broad and diverse range of sources. He considers himself very lucky and privileged to have studied with Keith Johnstone, at the Annoyance, iO Theater, Loose Moose, the Pack theater and many more (yet he learns the most from his students). We discussed leaving and coming back to improv and the community he built, what it takes to be a good coach and so much more. Don't miss this!

Traveling, performing and teaching improv, Laurette is a french improviser now living in the Pacific Ocean (New Caledonia, a small archipelago near Australia). She is also a doctor, working in the war torn area of New Caledonia.She has been playing, learning and teaching in various countries for several years and is always happy to share.We talked about joy in improv and in her journey. She is a real inspiration! Don't miss this one!

David Gillespie is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, who found a new chapter in writing childrens' books with a heroine and her story based on his family members and adventures. Floo Flocky Doo to the Rescue is a great story of a girl who knows what to do in strange situations. We had a great conversation about writing what you know and telling stories.Don't miss this one!

Danny Johnson delivers clean stand-up with "Northeast sarcasm and Southern charm," making him a favorite for theaters, corporate events, churches, and community audiences nationwide. A Dry Bar Comedy featured comedian (Apple TV, Amazon & Peacock), he has appeared on Comedy Central, NateLand Live at Zanies, and shared stages with Howie Mandel, Bob Saget, and many others. A Carnival Cruise Line Comedy Challenge winner and 15-year headliner, Danny blends sharp observations, expressive physical comedy, and relatable stories into a show audiences trust and event planners rebook.We talked about joke and storytelling styles and why it's not ok to have an inflection like another comedian. We also discussed what it takes to be a good working comedian in this marketplace.You can check Danny out in August at SideSplitters Wesley Chapel in Tampa FL. Go to www.dannyjohnson.com for more info!

Simone is a theatre practitioner from Malta with experience in acting, directing and scriptwriting. She has an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter and a strong background in scripted theatre. She is a member of the improv troupes Playing Dead Theatre, Sabir, the online troupe Close Distance and is one half of the duos Invisible Women, Pairentheses and Bold Curls. She was a founding member of the Brussels-based troupe The Ghost Sheep. Simone has taught and performed all over Europe. She loves a good duo and we talked about the importance of relationships in duo scenes and other forms. We also talked about having characters that you want the audience to root for, even if they are terrible people.Don't miss this one!!

The debut of ‘Playa Dust in My Soul’ made Sarah Marshall a newly minted author late in the seventh decade of her life. The shortcomings of her first draft initiated a writer’s journey that took over twenty years to learn how to carve a story from a mountain of information.As a Burning Man village leader for over twenty years, Sarah has witnessed firsthand how temporary communities catalyze permanent transformation. As a trans woman she had the experience of the event's grace in welcoming her in from outsider to enthusiastic participant. As a business professional with many past lives (military, martial artist, firefighter, engineer, adventurist, spiritual seeker, community activist), she bring lived experience to stories about reinvention and what happens when broken people find belonging in one of the most intense environments on earth. The novel explores second chances, radical acceptance, and the crucible of transformation that is the playa.

Yuehan is a designer by day and an improv nerd by evening. Originally from Shanghai, China, and now based in Stockholm, Sweden. She is the founder of English improv community - Fika Improv Group in Stockholm, where she's committed to connecting improvisers and sharing our passion for improv in a welcoming space. Graduated from Second City, she has also been training with teachers from different schools around the world like Jay Sukow, Liz Allen, Susan Messing, Aretha Sills and Billy Merritt. Yuehan is half of the Scandinavian Asian duo "Herring & Chopsticks", is a performer at BIT Comedy Network, teaches and performs at several international improv festivals as well as locally. Through her performances and teaching, Yuehan strives to create a fun, connected atmosphere and is passionate about spreading the joy and freedom that improvisation brings. Yuehan brings joy to everything she does. Don't miss this one!

Ophira Eisenberg is a standup comedian, writer, and podcast host (NPR, CBS, CNN, The Moth, HBO, Comedy Central, iHeart) who headlines theaters and comedy venues across the world, tours regularly with the Moth Mainstage, and hosts the weekly parenting-comedy podcast Parenting is a Joke (Webby Finalist for Best Host). She also hosted NPR’s trivia comedy show Ask Me Another for 9 years. Her breakout memoir Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy (Seal Press) has been optioned for a television series, and her solo show Leaving A Mark: A Comedy About Scars won Women in the Arts & Media Award for Solo Show Scripts and just finished a successful European tour.We talked about parenting with night time jobs, handling hecklers and so much more. Give this a listen! For more information, go to ophiraeisenberg.com.