Karisa Bruin

Bruin's career trajectory follows a pattern shared by many Chicago-trained improvisers: intensive training at major institutions, years of performance across multiple cities, and eventually channeling that experience into new creative formats. Her path from iO and UCB stages to independent filmmaking demonstrates how improvisational training develops skills that transfer directly to directing actors, crafting comedic timing, and embracing spontaneous creative decisions during production.

Her relocation to rural Colorado and founding of Lickety-Split Comedy represents a growing movement of experienced urban improvisers bringing professional-level training to communities outside traditional improv centers. By establishing regular performances and classes at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, Bruin and Morehead created an improv infrastructure in a town of approximately 2,000 people, proving that audience appetite for live improvisational comedy exists well beyond major metropolitan areas.

Bruin's teaching through Lickety-Split draws on the full spectrum of major improv training traditions, combining methodologies from UCB, iO, Second City, Magnet, and Annoyance Theatre into a curriculum accessible to rural adult students with no prior experience. Her eight-week course structure introduces foundational improv principles progressively, culminating in student showcase performances at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts. Her academic work as Adjunct Professor of Theater at Fort Lewis College further reflects a commitment to making improvisational training available as a formal educational discipline, connecting professional performance practice with academic theatre pedagogy.

Bruin's career demonstrates the versatility of deep improv training. Her progression from Chicago stages to Just for Laughs premieres and Dances With Films competition entries illustrates how improvisational skills translate into filmmaking craft, from directing performers to navigating the spontaneous problem-solving that independent film production demands. Her founding of Lickety-Split Comedy in rural Colorado extends the reach of professional improv training far from its urban roots, creating performance opportunities and educational pathways in communities that would otherwise have no access to training from iO, UCB, or Second City alumni. The group's sustained programming at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, including both classes and regular performances, establishes a model for experienced improvisers seeking to build comedy communities in underserved regions.