In this workshop we will take an inventory of the skills and values of the comic artist and compare those skills and values toward the one needed in the dramatic arts. We will compare the traditional actor with the actor who comes from the comic world, and understand what advantages and gifts the comedian has in the dramatic arts, and learn to access those gifts, as well as offer actors a comedic practice of their own. Through this process we will unearth the oft neglected lessons comedians often have to teach us about acting.
Ralf Jean-Pierre is a first generation Haitian-American rapper-songwriter, actor, and comedian from Brooklyn, NY. He earned a BFA in Performing Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has studied improv comedy at the People’s Improv Theater, and has studied clown with Christopher Bayes, Virginia Scott, and Eric Davis.
In 2012, Ralf and his collaborator Jolie Tong developed a one-man musical chronicling the true account of how Ralf spent all of 2012 riding his bicycle around the United States, performing a one-man Shakespeare on the streets called WHAT SHOULD BE THE FEAR, which debuted at Gamba Forest in 2017.
From 2018-2023 Ralf was a member of North Coast, NYC’s premier and hip-hop improv comedy team. Previously Ralf held a number prestigious teaching artist positions like theater to incarcerated youth for the non-profit NYC based arts program, Drama Club, as well as the NYU-Creative Arts Team.
Ralf currently hosts the weekly improv comedy podcast No Suggestion, where has deep, thoughtful, meandering conversations with the funniest comedians in NYC, and creates improv comedy with them, live, based on those conversations. Ralf currently teaches as an adjunct professor for the Brooklyn College BFA and BA, NYU Tisch BFA, and Columbia University MFA acting programs.
Rules at a Glance: Ages 18+
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*Rules and Regs - This class is for ages 18 and older.
