Hi All,

So i know she is a very popular comedy teacher and she is great. But, i heard that after you do the one of the Triage Classes and meet with her you get placed in either the Comedy Intensive with her or with another one of her teachers.Because, i heard that if you havent worked alot yet then you don't get placed with her. Anyhow, i was wondering if anyone has been in the Comedy Intensive with a teacher other than Lesly and how do you like it??

I only take one class per month, soo its between Lesly Kahn or taking a improv class at UCB OR Second City.

thanks

Don't worry about the placement. You can still put Lesly Kahn on your resume. I think it's come to a point where some of her disciples are just as good if not better than she is.

I was originally in Lesly's class for the first day. It's 30 friggin students-one half works with Lesly while the other half works with another teacher.

I booked something that conflicted with my Wednesdays for the rest of the month and was able to transfer to the Saturday class which is taught by Tyler Poelle, a working actor who actually applies this stuff in the real world. The class is a lot smaller (12-14) and I thought he was a better teacher. Lesly was too scatter brained for my tastes.

I compared notes with my friends who were in Lesly's Wednesday class and everything was pretty much the same.

What exactly do you mean with 'too scatter brained'?
Sorry, english is not my main language.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TRUTHTELLER59:

Lesly was too scatter brained for my tastes.

I love Lesly for all she's done from teaching a lot of working actors and producing great teachers, but she's a little spacey at times.

If you ever saw the Harry Potter movies and remember Professor Trelawney, you would swear that J.K. Rowling and Emma Thompson (the actress who played Trelawney) based the character on Lesly.

Ok that sounds clear:-)

what is her class format like? Do you get cold reads? work on camera? Is there lecture the 1st hr? Do you take work home? Do you get to mock audition? How much growth have you seen from students that seemed a little green at first vs after they've gone for consecutive weeks?? And of course, are there students booking work that are taking her class?

I only did the Comedy Intensive so I can't speak for the other classes.

In the comedy intensive:
-No camera
-No cold reading
-No audition style

The Comedy class is 3 days-either Wednesday or Saturday depending on where you get placed, 10AM-4:30PM.

You are expected to come having the scene prepared even on the first day which you'll get the sides a few days before.

The classes content-wise consist of lectures on finding your type, script analysis, and patterns/jokes/comedic devices. You put up the assigned scene a few times to get critiques.

In the comedy intensive, you are expected to hold rehearsals, trying to figure out the jokes, patterns, etc.

For the next class and last, you put up different prepared scenes and get critiqued. The teacher will also present a way of doing the scene-normally something the students never thought of.

If you google search, Lesly Kahn, you'll find a lot of people who have gone through her school and actually work.

I've gone through most of the "Comedy Guru Teachers" and Lesly Kahn's school is the best and most comprehensive. Also, from a superficial standpoint, her name resonates most with CDs and Agents as far as comedy training goes.

Fishgurl showed this link in another thread, but this girl got Lesly down to the hair, look, wardrobe, mannerisms, voice, and screaming. If I never saw the title of the video, I would have thought it was Lesly, herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...kZnIlXvXWWkH-Qfw1ulA

Hey Truth how does Lesly compare to Actors Comedy Studio? Im looking for a new studio to study with and have been thinking about taking her class.

quote:

Originally posted by henleho:
Hey Truth how does Lesly compare to Actors Comedy Studio? Im looking for a new studio to study with and have been thinking about taking her class.

ACS is good for ongoings, but Lesly and her school will give you the best comedy foundation bar none.

Hi there,

I've been at LK for about 6 months (including intensive), and in an on-going class there for 2 months. I've taken other scene study classes, but no other comedy specific classes (although I have taken Groundlings and UCB).

I personally have scene my comedic ability improve astronomically. That includes timing, pacing, script analysis (i.e. knowing what triplets/reversals/antitheticals/builds/etc. are, and how to hit them properly), stakes-raising, and general character building. I intern at a place that holds Casting Director workshops--before, it was hit-or-miss, but I almost always knock it out of the park when I take CD workshops there now. A few actor friends with whom I was rehearsing and hadn't seen in a few months told me I seemed "open" and "freer" in my acting after being there for a few months. I've also seen, first-hand, a few actors go from being good to great, and great to fucking AMAZING, since I've been there.

One of the things I personally love about LK is that, even if you ignored everything they teach, they teach you that HARD WORK WINS IN THE END. I often hear people balk at the "3 hour/day rehearsals" that they require (or, at least, very strongly encourage), but (and they use this analogy a lot) do you think a concert pianist only plays the piano once a week for a few hours? Do you think Michael Jordan/Carl Lewis/Roger Federer/insert-legendary-sports-figure-here only played basketball/track-and-field/tennis for a few hours a week? No! They did it every day for years until they got that good. And I guarantee you that almost all (I'm sure there are exceptions) of the actors you look up to worked their asses off to get where they are, too. If I recall correctly, DeNiro still attends an acting class regularly.

LK isn't just a place where you put a scene, get notes, and go home until next week. They help you to learn how to market yourself, how to get an agent/manager (not necessarily getting you one, though), learning your type, fixing any quirks/ticks you have (like having a weird voice, constantly squinting, rubbing your forehead a lot, etc.) that will prevent you from looking like a polished professional, etc. It's a place that really wants you to succeed and they set you up for success.

That being said, I agree with truthteller that Lesly herself is a nutball. She's amazing, and I love her to death, and she ABSOLUTELY knows her stuff about acting, but she's a nutball. And, yes, class does sometimes turn into storyteller time, but you always get back to class. You'll never not work, and you'll rarely work only once (in my experience). She is also very expensive--on-going is $325 a month. HOWEVER: I'll challenge you to find another acting teacher who is so well-known and so respected who you can actually get taught by without studying there for 3 years. She's the only one I know where the person's name on the building will actually teach your class (mine is co-taught, but I could be in a Lesly-only class if I really wanted).

Hope that helps.

Has anyone studied with audition teachers like Margie Haber, Annie Grindlay, or Saxon and also done "The Clinic" at Lesly Kahn's school(their intensive for auditioning and the final pre-requisite before you can do on goings)?

If so, did you find one better, or both offering different stuff? I'd hate to spend $350 for stuff I've already learned.

quote:

Originally posted by TRUTHTELLER59:
Has anyone studied with audition teachers like Margie Haber, Annie Grindlay, or Saxon and also done "The Clinic" at Lesly Kahn's school(their intensive for auditioning and the final pre-requisite before you can do on goings)?

If so, did you find one better, or both offering different stuff? I'd hate to spend $350 for stuff I've already learned.

I've studied with Saxon, and while I find her to be an awesome person and great teacher for the camera, she's not as good as Kahn & Co. when it comes to teaching acting. Even with drama. You'll learn how they break down and approach a drama script and how, even though drama isn't as technical as multicam, it's not as simple as rolling in and playing state-of-being.

There have been many Broadway actors and series regulars in classes there that never assumed that they learned everything there was to know about acting in Intensive and Clinic. It's one thing to learn about it seminar style and claim to know how to apply it, and another to actually do it.

But hey, to each his own.

@thrillseekers who were some of your favorite teacher's at Lesly Kahn and Co.?

Most of the teachers there want to keep a low profile as coaches because they are all working actors, but over PM I can maybe be a bit more specific.