The Hawaii Comedy Festival Junior is a 5-day Comedy Camp and 2-day Comedy Showcase for Middle and High School Students in Honolulu that will run during the Hawaii public school spring break: March 16th to March 20th 2020 from 11am to 4pm. Our goal is to “Build confidence through comedy!” Participants will learn:
- IMPROV COMEDY
- Focuses on team building, public speaking, accepting failure, thinking on your feet
- SKETCH COMEDY WRITING
- Focuses on creative writing skills and how to get your ideas out of your head and onto a script
- ACTING
- Focuses on memorization, performance skills
At the end of the camp, students will have the opportunity to perform a showcase to show off their new skills! WOOHOO!
Cost: $500 (25 hours of instruction + two produced showcases)
Class Dates: March 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th from 11am – 4pm
Showcase Dates: March 20th & 21st at 6pm
Class size is limited to 12 students
Hawaii Comedy Festival is a program of the 501(c)3 non-profit The Bizgenics Foundation
Meet Our Instructors:
Michael “Donut” Donato has been a part of the local improv community for several years. He believes there is always something to learn and discover through improv and stage, no matter if you’ve been doing it for five minutes or fifty years! Donut is on the roster for Think Fast Improv as well as the coach of his own team, one that develops more genre-based improvised productions. When he’s not being a dog handler (his day job) or being involved in improv (his passion), he spends his Saturday nights with great food and murders in The Dinner Detective, a “whodunnit” dinner theatre show in Waikiki. Improv is an excellent tool to learn about yourself and a friendly way to open up to others, and Donut is excited to show students that flying without a script isn’t anything to be afraid of.
Jose Ver is a local actor, comedian and current cast member at Disney Aulani. He is also an original player and instructor with Improv Hawaii. Other creative credits include: “Hawaii Five-0,” The Hawaii Comedy Festival, The Original Jams Improv Show as well as various theatre productions in Honolulu. Jose has also worked with young students at Mid-Pacific Institute and Maryknoll.
Special Guests:
Originally from Kaneohe, local girl Kimee Balmilero is the founder and “Head Sillypino” of improvhi. Kimee has been performing professionally since 1994 thanks to her first paying gig as “Woody Woodpecker” at an Earth Day Fair in Hawaii. She got the role because she was the only person in her high school drama class that was short enough to fit in the costume. You can currently catch her as Medical Examiner, Dr. Noelani Cunha on CBS’s “Hawaii Five-0.” Other credits include: The 3X Emmy Nominated Kid’s TV Series “Hi-5,” the Original Broadway Cast of “Mamma Mia,” and the 2nd National Touring Company of “Miss Saigon.” While working in NYC and LA, she studied improv and sketch comedy at the famed Uprights Citizens Brigade Theatre. Kimee has performed in such venues as: UCB in LA, Second City-Hollywood, iO West, Radio City Music Hall and the Kodak Theater. In March 2015, Kimee produced the first ever Hawaii Sketch Comedy Festival at The Honolulu Museum’s Doris Duke Theatre.A lifetime student of the legendary Ronald E. Bright, Kimee made her directorial debut with the Hawai’i Premiere of “Mamma Mia” at the historical Diamond Head Theatre in Honolulu. The show was a hit with Hawaii audiences and was sold out for the entire run and extension. When not doing comedy stuff, Kimee loves watching shows about food, shopping at flea markets and garage sales, karaoke-ing, instagram-ing and looking at her husband John’s face. She is also an only child. Go figure. kimeeb.com