PLANET O’CONNOR

“…a consummate storyteller, easy-going and ludicrously funny”

- LA Weekly review of “Saints-A-Go-Go”

I have been writing & performing solo shows that I like to call “Spoken Word Comedy” for quite a while. Two shows in particular: “A Punk’s Tale” and “Saints-A-Go-Go” are constantly being lengthened and revised for future performances. Lately I have also been branching out and doing shorter pieces at various ‘storytelling’ nights around LA including “Story Salon,”  “The MOTH” and “Sit-n-Spin” at the Comedy Central Stage (Hudson Theater.)

If you’ve got a few minutes, I have included some (short) clips of recent shows & readings on my page at the ‘Funny or Die’ website…. so please vote ‘Funny’ of course.

I also have an extensive background in Improv training & performance (and more recently teaching) that reaches back more than a decade:

> I started my improv training in 1994 at Improv Boston.
>After moving to LA, I took several rounds of classes at Groundlings (1996-7)
> I am a proud graduate (1988) and active board member of bang Improv Theater where I continue to produce & perform in improvised and scripted shows.
> I am also a founding graduate of the Hothouse Spontaneous Theater company.

PERFORMANCE

In addition to solo shows and stints of stand-up, in the past decade+ I have performed in quite nearly 1000 shows around the US. The latest group I’ve been involved in (though we’re now on “extended hiatus”) is called “UNDERBELLY.” We’ve been invited performers at the following festivals:

I have also performed at the following improv festivals with the following groups:

If musical comedy is your thing, I also wrote and recorded the shamelessly cheesy theme song to Jewell Rae Jeffers’ hilarious TV show: Tastes Like Home.

I am constantly taking more classes, re-reading the improv training classics and lurking in the audience at improv & comedy shows wherever I might be. The concepts of cooperation and “yes, and…” aren’t just bits of stage training, they constitute a way of looking at the world and your place in it. We create a new reality every time we agree with a new concept. We create new connections every time we cooperate with each other.

Did I mention that I’m teaching Improv now too ??