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Matt Holmes has been improvising since 1998 and is originally from Mountain Top, PA (the Poconos). At Cabrini College, he ran On the Spot, a weekly short-form show that appeared at Skidmore College's National College Comedy Festival.
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Nathan Edmondson is a co-founder of the Rare Bird Show. He has trained with improv teachers such as Mark Sutton, Joe Bill, Jeff Griggs, Todd Stashwick, Jill Bernard, Asaf Ronen, and others. Since moving to Philadelphia, he has worked on stage with EgoPo Productions, Flashpoint Theater Company, and the Arden Theatre.
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Alexis Simpson has been improvising since 2000 and studied under Keith Johnstone, Matt Walsh, Chris Gethard, Asaf Ronen, Zach Ward, Joe Bill, and Mark Sutton. She co-founded the sketch and longform improv group The Throng while attending Haverford College, longform trio Rare Bird Show in 2003, and longform troupe The Real Housewives of Philadelphia in 2009, and has been a member of ComedySportz Philadelphia since 2005. In 2008, she joined EXTRA-STRENGTH, an iO West Mainstage show that performs the legendary "3 Mad Rituals" longform format.
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The Rare Bird Show is a longform improv comedy group from Philadelphia. Using one audience suggestion, they create a completely improvised half-hour of comedy scenes. Since its start in the summer of 2003, Rare Bird Show has performed all over Philly, including the annual Philly Fringe Festival. Rare Bird Show has traveled to improv theaters in Delaware, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and in New York City at the Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), Brooklyn Lyceum, and Magnet Theater. They've also headlined top improv festivals around the country, including the Philadelphia Improv Festival, Baltimore Improv Festival, North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, Toronto International Improv Festival, Chicago Improv Festival at Second City, and the Del Close Marathon at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
Rare Bird Show has toured to perform at colleges including Haverford, Cabrini, Elizabethtown, Misericordia, Moore College of Art and Design, and the University of Delaware. If you want us to perform at your college, email us at contact@rarebirdshow.com.
The members of Rare Bird Show have studied improv with Matt Walsh from the Upright Citizens Brigade; Keith Johnstone, author of Impro and creator of Theatersports; the musical improv groups Baby Wants Candy and I Eat Pandas; Joe Bill and Mark Sutton from Bassprov; Kevin McDonald from the Kids in the Hall; and improvisors from Second City, UCBT, Annoyance Theater, Impatient Theatre, DSI, Improv Everywhere, Theatersports, ComedySportz, and iO.
Rare Bird Show members coach other improv groups and teach classes and workshops individually through Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) and together as Rare Bird Show.
