Improvly Speaking

On this episode of Improvly Speaking, Dayna Gowan sits down with the incredible Jessica Halem, a powerhouse public speaker, communication strategist, LGBTQ+ health equity advocate, and a former stand-up comic trained at Second City.

Jessica has worn many hats (and delivered many punchlines). She’s currently the Senior Director of the LGBTQ+ Health Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania and formerly served as the first LGB...

Parenting can be just like improv (aka Improvly Parenting) – you never know what’s coming next, and you just have to roll with it. That’s exactly the kind of real talk you get on the Improvly Speaking today with my guest, Matthew Krekeler – a proud “girl dad,” podcast host, and media pro from Denver, Colorado.

Matthew is the founder of the Girl Dad Nation Podcast, where he shares stories, hacks, and heartfelt conversations...

What happens when you combine the compassion of a therapist with the quick-thinking creativity of an improviser? You get someone like Salma Soliman – a licensed therapist and the founder of Brave Youth Therapy in California, and today’s guest on Improvly Speaking. I got the privilege of chatting with Salma for a joyful and heartfelt conversation about blending improv and therapy, how therapy has helped so many people (myself includ...

Today on Improvly Speaking, we hear from Tony DeRosa, owner and co-founder of hear.say brewing + theater, a new improv theater and brewery in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tony blends his love of improv with beer, business, and community building, and is sharing it all on today’s episode. 

Tony's story is a great example of what can happen when you follow your instincts, lean into creativity, and allow yourself to take big, joyful risks...

What do you think of your voice? If your answer is anything uncertain or negative, you’re definitely not alone. But as this week’s guest on Improvly Speaking proves, your voice isn’t something to cringe about — it’s something you can strengthen, support, and maybe even start to love. 

Today, we hear from Emmy-winning journalist and broadcast voice coach Susan Murphy, who brings more than 40 years of broadcasting experience to the mi...

Have you ever felt completely lost in the rhythm of music, moving without thinking, and experiencing pure joy? That’s the essence of ecstatic dance – a practice that blends movement, community, and self-expression.

In this episode of Improvly Speaking, we hear from Dr. Bob Swoap, Professor of Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, to discuss the power of ecstatic dance and its c...

Jesse Greenfield first appeared on the show nearly a year ago, and so much has changed since then! In this episode of Improvly Speaking, we catch up on their incredible journey, including the launch of their own business, Kaleidoscope Training Center, and our experience facilitating a 2-day Intensive Training Session at the 2024 Art and Science of Health Promotion Conference (spoiler alert: we had so much fun!)..

And if you haven’t ...

Ferran Luengo is a Spanish actor, improviser and applied theatre facilitator based in London. He has his postgraduate on theatre in education and Applied theatre master degree. 

Ferran is passionate about playback theatre, a community oriented improv art form that he has been practicing since 2013. He’s brought playback theatre workshops around several continents and he has served as the Secretary of the International Playback Theat...

Brian James O'Connell (or BOC as most people call him), is a working actor, writer, director, filmmaker and teacher based in Los Angeles. As a regular performer, coach and teacher, Brian derives most of his approach to improv from The Deconstruction, which we certainly discuss in this episode. He also offers "All Improv" deep-dive workshops across the country for improvisers looking to improve their skills and craft....

Amanda Bonar is an improv and sketch comedian based in Los Angeles. You can find her performing in the Sober Show and Do the Dumb shows at UCB, as well as other shows at the Clubhouse in LA. 

Amanda shares her improv journey and how she fell in love with improv around age 10 when her parents took her to a family-friendly improv show.  She performed on her high school and college improv teams, and she has been doing some f...

Paula Dirkes is an improvisational theater fan, actor, and facilitator based in metro Detroit, Michigan. She has spent over 20 years in the improv theater community as a performer and improv games leader. She is the owner and Chief Play Officer of Vintage Improvisation Detroit, which brings her love of improv games and older adults together through her unique brand of in-person life enrichment programming in senior living facilitie...

I promise the episode title will make more sense once you listen to the episode. :)

It's amazing all that can happen in a year! My bestie Susan Bartley joins the podcast again for a part 2 episode to give some updates about all that happened in her business in 2023.

In the first episode, which was released in April 2023, Susan shared all about her pole journey and why and how she got into pole fitness in th...

Chris Bogue is based in Chicago, and he coaches people to get on camera and create mercifully short video content for business. He is also a long-time improviser, sketch comedy writer, improv trainer and host of the podcast Chris Sells His Soul.

In this episode, Chris shares about his improv and sketch comedy journey and how it led him to creating short (mercifully short) video content on all social media platforms, with a...

Jay Maddock, PhD, is based in College Station, Texas, where he is a Regents Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University. He is also the Director of the Center for Health & Nature and serves on the Brazos County Board of Health.

In this episode, Jay shares all about his public speaking experience — from teaching college students to prese...

What would you do if you received a notebook from your local Buy Nothing Group that you thought was empty, but then later you noticed that it had a list of goals written in it? Would you tear out the pages and start with a fresh, clean notebook? Or would you take the list of goals on as your own?

If you said you would tear out the pages and start fresh, you aren't alone. I would totally do the same thing, and I assume...

Ramona J. Smith is a dynamic international speaker who holds the prestigious title of the 2018 World Champion of Public Speaking. She is based out of Houston, Texas, and she is on a mission to inspire, connect and transform lives globally using the power of words (and she's really great at it too)!

In this episode, Ramona shares her journey to winning the World Champion title, and she also talks about what life was li...

Our first international guest, Neil Curran, joins the podcast all the way from Dublin, Ireland! Neil is a professional improviser and communications and teams expert who has performed in shows and festivals all over the world. His signature show - Neil+1 - brings an audience member up to the stage to perform the improv show with him! (Would you be up for that as an audience member??)

When he's not on stage as an impro...

The previous episode with Ashley Ward talks all about her journey into the musical improv world and why she loves teaching musical improv classes. This solo episode highlights my experience over the past year with musical improv, why I took musical improv in the first place, and how it's helped me with my public speaking skills and stage presence. 

In this episode, I share with you three takeaways (and maybe a bonus t...

Ashley Ward is an improviser, actor, writer, snack lover, and singer who has performed everywhere from the Kennedy Center to The Sydney Opera House. She can be seen on Dropout TV’s Play It By Ear and in Hello Jack! The Kindness Show on Apple+ as Delivery Delores. She is also a Jeopardy champion (and yes, we talk about that in the interview!).

In this episode, Ashley shares her improv journey of how she got started in impro...