In-Person Free Intro to Improv

In-Person Free Intro to Improv with Armando Diaz and Dennis Pacheco

Class Description


It's true! Now's your chance to try out our classes without paying a thing! No experience required AND plus, we add new dates and times every week so there's always something to fit your schedule. Open to all. NOTE: This is an in-person class. All students must be vaccinated and have proof of it. Social distancing will be practiced, masks will be worn, and sanitizer will be available.

Instructor: Armando Diaz

Armando is widely regarded as one of the best improv teachers in New York City and beyond. His list of teaching credits is a long one: the ImprovOlympic Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, NYU and Michael Howard Studios. He has trained dozens of actors who have performed or written for Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Mad TV, and The Daily Show.

A Chicago native, Armando studied improv under Del Close at the ImprovOlympic, Mick Napier at the Annoyance, and graduated from the Second City Conservatory. He performed in and helped create one of the most popular improvised longforms in Chicago, "The Armando Diaz Experience...." For the last decade, "the Armando" has been performed weekly in Chicago, and is now taught and performed in many other cities including Los Angeles and New York.

In addition to writing and producing short films, Armando wrote sketches for the show Upright Citizens Brigade on Comedy Central, and has performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Instructor: Dennis Pacheco

Dennis has been a teacher at the Magnet since mid-2021. He has been performing on stage since 2012. He is an improviser, actor, sketch writer, sketch performer, director, and coach. He studied with Peter McNerney, Russ Armstrong, Louis Kornfeld, Rachel Hamilton, Michael Delaney, Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman, Kevin Mullaney, Joe Bill, John Timothy, Sean Casey, and other fine people.

His voice can be heard on podcasts like The Truth, Everything is Alive, Famous Dead People, and Girl Tales. He is the co-host and co-creator (with Ellen Matthews) of the podcast The Pursuit of Perfectness.

You can catch him performing Saturday nights on the cast of The Armando Diaz Experience. He is the director of Livewire sketch team Ghost Girl.

He lives in Brooklyn.

His website is dennispache.co

Full Session Schedule


Session Schedule*

  1. May 24, 2021, 6:30pm - 8:00pm
    at Magnet Theater
    (254 W. 29th Street)
This class does not have a show/performance