'Whose Line is it Anyway?' Alum Laura Hall to teach and perform in Carson City

The Brewery Arts Center in Carson City will present a performance with Comedy Improv masters Rick and Laura Hall on Sunday, July 1 in the Performance Hall at 6 p.m. This performance will also feature local players from a sold-out workshop the pair will host at the BAC earlier in the day.

Rick and Laura met in Chicago, driving in a crowded van with The Second City National Touring Company. Laura broke all her rule rules by dating an actor (worse yet, an improviser), but since then they've gotten married, had two kids, and moved to L.A., where they continue to perform, write and teach, both separately and together.

Rick and Laura lead music improv workshops at colleges, festivals and theaters around the country. They especially like working with beginners, helping them let go of their fears and discover what fun music improv can be. Laura leads workshops for Musical Directors, exploring the various ways music can enhance an improv show.

They also play together in The Sweet Potatoes, performing a unique blend of folk, country, and homespun Americana, loaded with acoustic instruments and sweet vocal harmonies. Rick plays bass and harmonica. Laura is on acoustic guitar, ukulele and accordion, and does much of the songwriting along with the third 'Tater, Kelly Macleod.

Laura Hall is best known as the improvisational pianist and Musical Director on the hit TV show, “Whose Line is it Anyway” that ran for eight years on ABC with Drew Carey hosting. After a long hiatus the show is currently in its fourth season on the CW Network, with Aisha Tyler as the host.

Laura toured extensively with “Drew Carey and the Improv All Stars.” She performed with “Whose Line Live” in the West End of London for two summers. She has played with many other improv groups at theaters around the country including: iO West and iO Chicago; “Girls, Girls, Girls” in Austin; ImprovBoston Mainstage; Arcade Comedy Theater in Pittsburgh; The Groundlings and The Improv Institute. She currently often sits in to create fully improvised musicals with “Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!”

While at The Second City, Laura was Musical Director and Composer for the Jeff Award winning E.T.C. revue, “Channel This!” She composed original musicals with The Annoyance Theater and Theater-A-Go-Go, including “Patty, Patty, Bang! Bang!” which won an L.A. Weekly award for Best New Musical.

Laura has written music for several indie films, including “Slice of Pie”, written by and starring her husband. She scored two award winning documentaries about the holocaust, “After Auschwitz” and “Swimming in Auschwitz”, as well as two romantic comedies, “Anatomy of a Breakup” and “Look at Me”. She wrote the music for “The Wheels on the Bus” video series, starring Roger Daltrey as an 8 foot dragon.

Laura has created “Improv Karaoke,” fully produced original tracks improvisers can use to make up their own improvised songs. She has co-written a book, “The Improv Comedy Musician: The Ultimate Guide to Playing Music with an Improv Group” to help teach musicians about the specialized world of being an improv Musical Director.
Rick Hall was a founding member of Chicago’s Improv Institute.

While at The Second City, after his stint in the touring company he opened two main stage shows, “John Paul Sartre & Ringo” and “Catch 27.” Rick continues to use his improv skills as a host/presenter at meetings and corporate events, to help him handle whatever gets thrown at him.

Rick was a series regular on the improv-based TV show “The Factory”. He played Agent Johnson on 28 episodes of the hit Disney show, “KC Undercover.” He’s been seen on many other television shows including “NCIS,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “24,” “Key & Peele” and “The Middle." In his role as the vet on “Seinfeld,” he was deemed by The Huffington Post as delivering “the funniest line of the entire series.”

Rick has been seen in commercials for AT&T, Centrum, Sabra Hummus, Volkswagen and many more. He's been in the films “My Fellow Americans,” “The Thing Called Love” and “Three Fugitives."

Rick loves writing and telling stories. In his one man show, “Pigboy,” he tells stories about growing up on a farm in Central Illinois. The show was chosen for the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and enjoyed successful runs in L.A., Chicago and across the midwest.

Rick has recorded a cd of several of his stories and turned one of them, “Slice of Pie”, into a short film, in which he co-stars with Kelly Macleod from The Sweet Potatoes. (See how it’s all connected?) The movie has had a successful run of the film festival circuit, winning numerous awards. Rick is currently working on adapting more of his stories for film.

Rick has returned to Chicago to perform on stage in Chicago Shakespeare productions of “The Second City's Romeo and Juliet Musical” and the lead role in “A Flea in Her Ear.”

To find out more about Laura, visit www.laurahall.com
To find out more about Rick, visit www.therickhall.com

Tickets for the performance are $10 and available online at breweryarts.org or at Expresso Yourself Cafe. For more information on the workshop call the Brewery Arts Center office at 775-883-1976.