A Full-Service Funny Business Featuring Experienced Comics Who Have Written and Performed Hundreds of Customized Comedy Shows
When You Want Interactive, Intelligent and Memorable Entertainment for Banquets, Meetings and Company Events...
We Deliver A Customized Comic Look at Your Culture: LaughingStock is unique because we customize every performance. Prior to the show, we learn everything we can about you. We read your material, interview your people and ask all the right questions. Every business, product, service and organization has a lode of humor. We're experts at digging up the joys and frustrations, foibles and follies, buzzwords and common denominators the audience shares. At show time, we integrate this extensive research with our wit, characters and "improv" experience. Our team of comedy experts spontaneously creates customized comic scenes about your world. The result is a fun and funny show designed especially for your audience.
Fun and Funny, Live Improvisational Comedy: Improvisational comedy shows are made up of fresh, original scenes based on audience input. The audience fills in the details of our distinctive comedy by volunteering a variety of suggestions (emotions, objects, activities, occupations, locations) throughout the performance. Improv is immediate and exciting. The audience is in on the fun as they see their ideas mushroom into comedy mayhem.
Whatever Business You're In, We Think It's Funny... Your Audience Will, Too! Sales forces and customers, technology developers and end-users, teachers and students, management and administrative support, health care professionals and patients, food scientists and consumers, buyers and suppliers, lawyers and outlaws, funeral directors and...well, let's just say we leave 'em dead in the aisle. We are professionals in business ourselves. Let us discover what's so funny about your business world.
Communicate A Message Through Laughter: Our clients have asked us to host, encourage, reward, motivate, sell, enlighten, thank, congratulate, demonstrate, liven up and entertain. We bring laughter wherever our sponsors require it. We have performed for two people in a conference room, for 2000 in a theater, for two minutes at a sales meeting and every hour for five days at a trade show.
Award-Winning Comedy Writers: We write commercials, industrial videos, sketches and speeches. We call them comical additives. Need a headline? Need help coming up with material for a roast? Need to spiff up a speech? Need a fun angle for a training session? Need a unique concept, a lively script and some very funny actors for a trade show? When our clients
A Cast of Experienced Comics
Lesley Abrams (performing partner) has served as LaughingStock VP of Creativity and Taste since 1993. Lesley toured America as part of the improvisational comedy team of Abrams & Anderson for 13 years. Prior to that she trained at the Players Workshop of Second City in Chicago. She received her BA in Oral Interpretation from Northwestern University and her MA in Theatre Studies from the University of Arizona.
Dean Steeves (performing partner) has served as LaughingStock VP Shameless Marketing since 1993. Dean started in radio in high school and was on-the-air until 1981. He received his AD in Radio Broadcasting from Grahm Junior College and went on to copy writing, production and advertising consulting. He has been performing improvisational comedy since 1983.
LaughingStock always employs at least one additional improv comic to complete the cast for every engagement. LaughingStock’s comedians come from a variety of backgrounds and educations (actors, directors, teachers). We have been working with all these highly-talented performers for a minimum of eight years. They all have one important thing in common: they all think making people laugh is the best job in the whole world.
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A Versatile Comedy Company Providing A Gaggle of Comedy Services
What’s So Funny About (fill in your company name, association, industry or professional activity here)?
An Evening of Improvisational Comedy –
After banquet entertainment is our specialty. LaughingStock has performed after breakfast, lunch and dinner in dining rooms, ballrooms, auditoriums and outdoor stages. Our trio-of-comedians interact with the audience throughout the entire show asking for suggestions from the crowd. Combined with the background information we discover in advance, LaughingStock uses the suggestions to create comic scenes based on the work lives of the audience for whom we are performing. - Three Performers, 45 to 50 minutes.
Comedy Breaks for General Sessions –
LaughingStock has extensive experience in participating in single-day or multi-day general sessions. We have been engaged to kick off a meeting, introduce topics and/or speakers, get the audience focused after breaks or lunch and/or wrap up the day. Each scene is custom created to solve our client’s communications challenge. We offer a special multi-day fee (two days or more) for these engagements and a travel/rehearsal-day fee at 50% of our multi-day fee. – Three Performers. More Available.
Meeting Emcees –
LaughingStock has participated in over 1000 corporate and association events. We are experts in focusing and warming an audience; and keep the atmosphere charged with our comedy. We appreciate the power of a proper introduction and bring presenters to the stage with an appropriate amount of excitement. LaughingStock keeps the proceedings moving and makes the event memorable. - One, two or three performers.
Special Comedy Productions –
LaughingStock delivers high-production-value-themed material for live awards and incentive presentations, user and customer conferences, employee and sales meetings, public relations events or any situation where our clients want to present a comedy spectacular. Costumes, music, characters, large cast, sets, props and custom-comedy material are all created by LaughingStock. Special productions have special costs.
Trade Show Pitches –
LaughingStock has written, produced and performed for dozens of companies on the trade show floor. Gathering an audience and delivering a message at trade shows is a unique challenge. Each challenge requires a custom solution. We create concepts for continuous attendee engagement and/or regularly scheduled presentations. Day Rate.
Creative Media –
LaughingStock comedians are veteran producers, directors, writers and performers. If it needs to be recorded, funny and effective in delivering a message: We create a custom concept, write scripts, cast the characters, design sets, costumes and props, and produce a high-quality recording for broadcast, internet or privately distributed media.
Mastering the Moment Workshops -
- Improvisation
- Presentation Skills
- Tools & Models for Creativity, Problem Solving, Decision Making and Planning
- Building Effective Working Relationships/Team Building
- (Please call for our Workshops Whitepaper – Ranges from 45-minute breakout session to multi-day intensive study.)
Speech Coaching –
LaughingStock’s Lesley Abrams received her BS in Oral Interpretation from Northwestern University and a Masters Degree in Theater Studies from the University of Arizona. She has been a performer and presentation coach for over 30 years. She coaches her clients to be heard and understood effectively – Day or Hourly Rate.
Voice-Over Artists and VOG’s –
Lesley Abrams and Dean Steeves have quality, believable voices and — combined — have voiced thousands of commercials and audio/video productions. They are skilled at reading to understand and interpret. They are experts at reading to be heard. Recorded or live announcer.
