Improv changed my acting career. It can change yours too.

When I say that improv changed the trajectory of my acting career, that is no understatement. Not only did it enhance my acting career, it changed my life. But we're dealing with improv and acting right now, so I'll spare you the Lifetime Movie screenplay.

Jess doing voice over for Best Buy.

Acting was something I naturally knew how to do from a young age. The "pretending" was easy, facing out toward the audience was natural, speaking loudly.... I blame on my Italian father. However, just being "inclined toward a thing does not mean one is good at said thing. I had to take classes, study acting styles, learn by making mistakes, hone the techniques, and ultimately throw everything away and trust what worked for me.

By the time I had begun to pursue the career professionally I. Was. Ready... or so I thought. It wasn't until my first Commercial Audition that I really realized how unprepared I actually was. The performance demands were different and my skills weren’t up to snuff. If I wanted to book a job, I had more to learn.

After many classes, improv training, and some hard earned mistakes, I can stand before you today to tell you that the commercial audition process is SOOOO much easier than we make it out to be. But it's not until you learn how to audition does that become clear.

So, wait Jessica. You’re saying I need to learn how to audition. Why do I need to learn improv? Improv allows you to be present in a way that simple acting training just cannot do. Learning to think on my feet, read the room, make the copy my own, and know I left it all on the camera is something Improv has given me the skills to do. AND BOOK. Does this mean that I don't experience the occasional misstep or surprise? Not at all! But I know those “mistakes” to actually be gifts and I use them to my advantage.

I can't wait to share with you the knowledge I have so that you too can know the joys of booking and not giving a damn.

Join Jessica for Improv Books Auditions and You Can Too on September 19th from 7-10pm. The casting directors will thank you. Jessica is a member of Ripley Improv, performs regularly on HyperRPG, is the voice of Best Buy , and has booked dozens of commercials (because of improv).