Maddie Parker

Maddie (she/her) recently crunched the numbers, and it turns out she’s been improvising for more of her life than not. She considers herself very lucky to have been able to learn, perform and teach improvisation in Sydney, across Australia, and around the world.

Her favourite moments have been performing in New York as part of the Del Close Marathon, winning ITS Smackdown as one half of duo The Wine Mums, being awarded best character at the 2018 New Zealand Improv Festival for playing an aggressively feminist space captain, and any show she gets to do with The Joy Riders. Improvising makes her happier than almost anything, and she plans to keep doing it for a very long time.

Improv loves: The sense of freefall into infinite possibilities at the start of a scene. The opportunities for pure, unadulterated creativity and silliness. The kindness of the improv community. As a teacher, I live for the moments when a student’s eyes light up in that ‘ohhhhh, I get it’ moment.

Favourite improv advice: Don’t walk past the playground! You don’t need to keep a scene ‘on track’ — if something seems shiny or fun, STOP and do more of the shiny fun thing.

Hobbies: Sewing. Reading. Bird watching. Sitting still outdoors and thinking ‘this is nice.’