Susanna Spies is a seasoned educator and Founder and President of Comedy Playground, LLC, showcasing at The Hollywood Improv. With a performance background, Spies has worked within mediums of television and film, and has performed stand up comedy on stages throughout the nation. Known for her many “faces” In 2013, she debuted over 30 characters in her one-woman show “The Dryer” and was featured on Nuvo TV’s Stand & Deliver, E-One Entertainment’s Uncontrolled Comedy, and The Youtube sensation “Carol” of “Carol & Claire in The Angela Hoover web series, as well as dozens of national commercials, and Independent Feature Films.
Spies’ performance background enabled the ability to recognize and develop tools to help overcome obstacles; shyness, fear of public speaking, and a curriculum commonly understood by all. As an educator, Susanna was Drama lead instructor at the Pilgrim School, where she implemented this curriculum, which grew to reach over 24 schools regionally, nationwide within The Dalton School and Teak Fellowship of New York, and internationally into The American School in London, and Seeds of Peace International Camp. Throughout Susanna’s trainings, she focuses on the principal of life’s commonalities, encouraging point of view development. Rather than techniques on “how to be funny”, she implements tools on how to build trust, cohesion, connectivity, and achievement through humor. This has encouraged members of all ages, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds to build, bond, within this one universal platform.
Additionally, Spies has lead speaking engagements as a featured guest for UCLA’s Young Writers retreat, and as keynote speaker for the Southern California Association of Activity Professionals, and Featured Presenter for World Muse Conference in Bend, Oregon. She created and has implanted the Finding Your Voice through Stand Up series at The American Musical Dramatic Academy, and has implemented Corporate Humor Connectivity Programs as The Humor Activist (HA) into: Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, The Gap, Southern California Edison, FastPay, Bicycle Artists, Sony, Cisco Webex, Monaco Realty and Mt. Tam Community Education District.
As a community activist, Spies has raised thousands of dollars and awareness to help support: Cancer Awareness Club, Children Affected by AIDS, and was Executive Director of Laughlinks from 2004-2009 providing programs for at risk youth. She currently facilitates and is Program Director of The Eamon Cannon Comedy Project, where it has been implemented into Inner-City Arts on skid row in Los Angeles since 2008, which has grown to reach youth of Santa Monica YWCA, and Hearts of Los Angeles (HOLA). For two years consecutively, Comedy Playground has received the “Best of LA” for Innovative Comedy Programs, and Spies was profiled by Variety magazine as one of the nation’s top ten instructors in the Educational Impact Report. Her Senior Stand Up program (SSU) was profiled on “Have A Hart Day” with youtube sensations Hannah and Mamrie Hart, featuring some of Comedy Playground youth volunteers providing programs for retirement communities.
Spies graduated from The University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991 with a BA in English. She additionally attended: The Jean Shelton School in San Francisco, Bill Esper Conservatory of New York, and The Groundlings in Los Angeles. She is completing her book: “Give it Up” a collection of personal and student anecdotes on humor and how to’s which she hopes to complete this year.
For information on Comedy Playground’s youth, adult and elders programs please visit:
http://www.comedyplayground.com
For Corporate Trainings:
http://www.thehumoractivist.com
For The Eamon Cannon Comedy Project (ECCP)
non-profit 501c-3 project of Social Goods:
http://www.theeamoncannoncomedyproject.org
SUSANNA’S ARTICLES