Grace Bennett

When I came across the “improvisational comedy” workshop description for Pleasantville’s Arc Stages, I felt my heart leap. In transition, I thought this could tap my lighter side and get the creative juices flowing. I also had no idea just how much fun I was about to have.

So now, as I write this, I’m well into a second eight-week class working with instructor Jonathan Evan Goldberg. His popular class at Arc Stages began in 2017 when Jonathan, a labor and employment lawyer (by day) moved to Pleasantville with his wife, Tara, an elementary school principal in Rye Neck, from the Upper West Side with their then preschooler.

Each Monday evening class Jonathan runs two back-to- back, 1.5 hour sessions four times a year) with students who engage in goofy exercises (“ice breakers,” as Jonathan calls them) to warm up. Scene work follows with each of the students employing their own unique wit and personality quirks. The results can be entirely unpredictable and downright hilarious.

At the workshop’s end, we ‘perform’ for family and friends on stage at Arc.

So how did Jonathan, an accomplished legal mind by day, come to develop a lifelong passion for improv and become such a popular Westchester-based improv instructor?

Inquiring about his journey, I was delighted to learn of an avant-garde volunteer improv troupe he had launched in the city with friends called Cherub Improv.

But some background, first.

Some 20 years ago, in the midst of an intense legal career, Jonathan shared, an actress friend encouraged him to try improv. A Craig’s list ad for a $10 improv workshop proved hard to resist! He worked with John Swist, “the ‘Ninja’ of improv instruction,” he said, and models his own class today in a similar fashion. “His class was called ‘Quick Thinking Improv’ and had a very nice mix of people; most were like me… not there to ‘make it in the industry’; rather, they were doing it for fun, to laugh and destress… Improv helped me survive a career in which I was slaving away.”

Jonathan also found Improv a way to make brand new “very likable and funny friends” who enjoyed making each other laugh. Swist’s classes often ended in a class show performed on stage at the city’s iconic Producer’s Club.

At the time too, Jonathan, still unclear about his life’s direction, had agreed to getting life coached by his father, Edward Goldberg, the former Chancellor of Higher Education in New Jersey. When I met with Jonathan, his dad had recently passed at Calvary Hospital. He proudly recalled that his dad encouraged him to combine his spirit of volunteerism and passion for improvisation and form a volunteer improvisation troupe.

“Cherub Improv” (cherubimprov.org) was thus born in NYC in 2007. Jonathan assembled a core group who travelled to hospitals, assisted living, and other venues (“wherever laughs were needed!”) to perform and teach free improv comedy. Before long, the troupe boasted scores of volunteers with 15-20 gigs a month. But then Covid hit.

Jonathan vows to bring the troupe back to Westchester, NYC, NJ, and wherever they can travel. “You have a captive audience aching to laugh; they might be lonely or miss their loved ones or have lost friends; it’s not easy.”

“In honor of my dad, I’m going to make it happen,” said Jonathan, all while continuing teaching at Arc Stages–Pleasantville’s beloved theater community that he discovered while playing basketball in an over 30 group at Pleasantville High School. During that time, one of the players, Matt Finkelstein, introduced Jonathan to Arc’s executive director, Marlene Canapi, and the rest of the team invited Jonathan to teach.

States Stephanie Kovacs Cohen, Arc’s Artistic Director of the Educational Stage, “Jonathan is truly a gifted teacher of improvisation. He is very warm, friendly, and clever. He has a great sense of humor… The class is filled with laughter from everyone much of the time.”

Jonathan, adds Stephanie, started this class with just a handful of people and it has grown to two classes of different levels. “The students return because they love what they are learning from Jonathan.”

Understanding Improv

So much to love.

Jonathan offered: “It’s a way for the students to communicate freely, creating something real and funny and spontaneous and insightful…

“The discipline of improv is to ‘say yes.’ If someone makes a statement, the improv actor accepts the role and information in a scene, so that they can work together to build something from scratch.

“Some people are naturally funny… But you can develop skills that make you funnier… Through the warm-up exercises, students feel supported and free to say things that might otherwise be outside their comfort zone.”

Ultimately too, improv is a huge confidence builder that can enhance different facets of your life.

Per Stephanie: “Jonathan imparts the idea that mistakes are gifts on stage–that it’s OK to take a risk, dare, and fall, so that next time when you try, you might fly.

“The students learn skills such as listening, staying flexible, and being in the moment, as well as working as an ensemble, making your partner look good and having a blast while you do all of it!

“The benefits they gain in this class like confidence, focus, and working with others can be useful in life anywhere, no matter what their occupation.”

Jonathan concurs: “No one is singling anyone out for being wrong, or not funny, or not smart… you start to feel, ‘hey I can do this. And if I can do this, I can do anything!”

For more information about Jonathan’s Improvisational Comedy class and about Arc Stages, visit arcstages.org

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From the Mouths of Improv Students

A few students explained their own motivation for taking improv and their experiences studying with Jonathan.

Paul Carousso, a Chappaqua resident and CFO at a chemical manufacturing company, who has been studying with Jonathan for five years:

“Jonathan is a fantastic teacher…
I began classes simply to let off some steam, not to take myself so seriously, and to get a little silly. But my favorite aspect of the class is seeing my classmates open up and be unfiltered and freely creative…

“I have seen people who appear shy or reserved outwardly come up with the most wild and crazy scenes or lines. Hilarious.

“My kids are (mostly) grown by now, but after so many years of eyerolls and head-shaking when I’d spout Dad Jokes and act generally silly, it’s so nice to have a safe space to act like a goofball!”

Whitney Harris, a Sleepy Hollow-based screen writer and freelance health and parenting reporter:

“A good friend and writing partner suggested we enroll in Jonathan’s class, so we did it together… I was looking to have fun, challenge myself in a new way, and spark some personal creativity… I’m currently working on a television pilot with my writing partner, and we were very interested in expanding our creative process and meeting like-minded people.

“Improvisational skills make every conversation infinitely more engaging and empathetic… It makes human interaction purely playful and energizing since you’re working together to create funny moments…

“It helped me sharpen my mind, think on my feet, and meet great people along the way. And the occasional boost of confidence from a well-delivered line is priceless.”

Joanna Schaffer, a self-proclaimed introvert who commutes to the class from Brewster:

“A friend in my Toastmasters Club gave a speech on how impactful Jonathan’s improv class had been. He encouraged me to come to a class. That was two years ago, and I haven’t missed a session since… Jonathan makes us all feel welcome and special and talented… I tell everyone… it’s recess for adults.

“Throughout life, I wanted to be a participant, I wanted to step into the circle – be the one cracking jokes or singing a song to entertain everyone, but… I was just too introverted… now I feel I can fully participate in life.

“In our last show, for over three minutes, I shared the stage with one other “player” as we created a scene on the spot – all while performing as if we were in an opera. The laughs were the most powerful feedback anyone could ever hope to receive…”