Matt Holmes has been improvising since 1998. At Cabrini College, he ran On the Spot, a weekly short-form show that appeared at Skidmore College's National College Comedy Festival. He co-founded Rare Bird Show in 2003, and has been involved with many other improv projects in Philly, including a two-man improv group called Holmes/Maughan, improvising in the dark, and performing with a complete stranger from the audience. He has also taught workshops and classes through the Philly Improv Theater and coached several improv groups. Matt is originally from Mountain Top, Pennsylvania (the Poconos).
Nathan Edmondson is a co-founder of the Rare Bird Show and an original co-founder of the Philadelphia Improv Festival. Nathan studied acting at Oberlin College and since moving to Philadelphia has worked with EgoPo Productions, performed in the Spark Festival with Flashpoint Theater Company, and appeared in the 2007 Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in the movie "Butch Jamie." He can be seen next in the Arden's production of "Our Town." If you find yourself in Olde City this summer, you may find Nathan portraying Thomas Jefferson for Once Upon a Nation's Independence After Hours tour. Nathan recently accepted the position as first Theatrical Director at "Terror Behind the Walls," a haunted house fundraiser supporting Eastern State Penitentiary. He is in charge of an acting staff of over a hundred zombies.
Alexis Simpson, Education Director of the Philly Improv Theater, has been improvising since 2000. She has studied the art-form 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 Illegal Refill in 2007. Alexis performs regularly with Rare Bird Show, Illegal Refill, and with ComedySportz Philadelphia, of which she has been a member since 2005. She has performed with her various projects all over North America, including appearances at the Del Close Marathon, the Dirty South Improv Festival, the ComedySportz World Championships, and the Toronto Improv Festival. Pony Coat, her three-woman improvisational clowning troupe, was crowned grand champion of the year-long improv competition Troika. She keeps a messy home in West Philadelphia and devotes most of her time to Arden Theatre Company's Professional Apprentice program. When she rides the bus, she looooooooves to eavesdrop.
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 and toured to improv festivals and improv theaters in Delaware, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, as well as performing in New York City at the Brooklyn Lyceum, the Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), and the Magnet Theater.
Rare Bird Show has performed 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 group 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, IO, Impatient Theatre, DSI, Improv Everywhere, Theatersports, and ComedySportz. Rare Bird Show members teach classes and workshops through Philly Improv Theater.
