In-Person Improv Level One with Armando Diaz and Charlie Nicholson

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.

Charlie was born during a snowstorm in the small town of Pomfret, Connecticut. He loves synthwave, puzzles, tomatoes, and Earth’s animals, and can always be impressed by a casual reference to Ray Bradbury. A proud Story Pirate, Little Monster, and Vassar graduate, Charlie teaches Theater, English as a New York City DOE public school teacher. He works with multilingual learners, immigrant communities, emerging readers, and young artists to build confidence in communication, rekindle curiosity, and free the mind.

A classic Charlie Nicholson class builds habits for identifying effective patterns of behavior in scenes. Classes celebrate emotional, embodied, objective-driven character work. Students practice listening to self and others, asserting confidence in simplicity, and committing to true agreement, which is the heart of strong yes-anding. Regular class reflection and dialogue are central to Charlie's style, giving every member of the class a sense of ownership in their work and ensuring lasting learning of progressive improv skills and techniques.

In addition to teaching and performing at the Magnet Theater in the Friday Night Sh*w, Charlie designs and “knocks it out of the park” with improv, acting, and theatermaking classes for all experience levels. His approach values listening, generosity, and creative risk over chasing laughs (though he has, on occasion, lost his voice from laughing too much while teaching). Channeling his training as an alumnus of the City College Graduate School of Education, he creates language-rich, welcoming spaces that move with collaboration, connection, and empathy (because it really is about the friends and memories we make along the way, right?)

Charlie studied comedy and performed at the Magnet Theater and UCB since 2013... but he truly found his footing with THE LIMIT sketch comedy at Vassar. His work has grown alongside his teaching practice, blending ensemble-based performance with an inclusive, self-discovery-centered teaching style. He views improv as a tool for building community, telling stories about our similarities and differences, and loving a little thing we like to call “our humanity.” In his classrooms and workshops, improv becomes a collective practice rooted in kindness, teamwork, and community-magic.

New York acting highlights include The Ginsberg Project (Alchemical Theater), Height of Success (Secret Theater), Ambrosia (Manhattan Rep), The Disastrous Tale of Vera and Linus (Kipuka Theater / Salem Art Works), Drag/Stein (Target Margin / Bushwick Starr), Bodywork, The Executives, and Warm Blooded (Magnet Theater).

When not teaching or performing, Charlie can be found reading horror novels by flashlight, eating a piece of birthday cake, or delivering passionate speeches about Michel Gondry films. Strongly recommended: start listening to Robyn immediately, and dance wherever possible... classrooms, sidewalks, kitchens, life.