Hi! You stumbled upon my acknowledgements page.
I’d be remiss if I wrote all this on the website and didn’t mention the love of my life, the incredible Nina Miller. Her love, support, and all around awesomeness has made my life better than I ever thought it could be. Fun fact: Nina is a kickass graphic designer and tidied up my idea for the Monster Improv logo into its current version. I love the life that we share with our two cats, Zipper and Penny, and our two ghost-cats, Kirkos and Cricket, and it makes me the luckiest person in the world. I love you with my entire heart and soul, Nina!
You know what? I have no idea when I’ll ever have the opportunity to do this so I’m just gonna treat this like an award ceremony speech or old school album liner notes and also send love to my mom and dad, Leonor and Felix — thank you for actively teaching me kindness and compassion by example; my brother, JR, and my sister, Carla (plus her husband, Derek, and definitely their kiddos); Nina’s mom and dad, Peggy and Greg (RIP); Jonathon “DJ Legacy” Gonzales, all his family, and our brothers, Mike, Pepper, Shaun, Anuar, Seamus, Chris Park (RIP); the Gonzalezes, the Sandovals, the Anayas, the Granados, the Millers, the Mendezes, the Plaths, the Dangerways, the Gilpins, the Rodriguezes, the Jassos, the Loves, my Trunk Space family; AJJ; my therapist, Rush.
Bringing it back to improv and the arts: thank you to the wonderful gaggle of folks who’ve been big-time helpers with various Monster Improv projects (especially GHOSTFEST): Marisol Chavez, Caitlyn Rogers, Clifton Gray, and Meredith Howell. Thanks to everyone who’s ever been a coach for SceneBlast workshops!
I’ve been super lucky to have so many amazing teachers and folks I’ve worked with in improv, acting, comedy, music, writing, and the arts. Here’s a not-very-short and probably still incomplete shortlist of those who truly impacted my life and work in a significant way and with whom I would absolutely encourage people to study if you get the chance:
Liz Allen, Jacque Arend, Nick Armstrong, Jill Bernard (her book, Jill Bernard’s Small Book of Improv, is the best book for newbies just starting in improv or vets that need to simplify and have fun again), Joe Bill, Carla Cackowski, Craig Cackowski, Amy Carpenter, Shane Carey, Chuck Charbeneau, Marisol Chavez, Armando Diaz, Kevin Dorff, Michelle Edwards, Ithamar Enriquez, Chris Gethard, Guillermo Gómez-Peña/La Pocha Nostra, Clifton Highfield, Greg Iwinski, TJ Jagodowski, Jon Jahrmarkt, Michael Jastroch and ColdTowne Theater, Andrew Kimler, Kaisa Kokko-Palmer, Nick Mandernach, Kevin McDonald, Susan Messing, Eric Moneypenny, Kevin Mullaney and the Improv Resource Center, Zahra Noorbakhsh, Mick Napier, Angela Nissel, Brian James O’Connell, Asaf Ronen and YesAnd(dot)com, Shane Shannon, Robert Shields (Shields and Yarnell), Miles Stroth, bree valle (formerly of ASU, currently of Cuesta College), Mark Sutton, Keisha Zollar, and so many more.
Thank you to anyone I’ve had the honor of sharing the stage, the classroom, or a conversation with; you’ve also taught me every step of the way.