The Annoyance Training Center in Collaboration with Face Off Unlimited Present: A Deep Dive into the Art of Professional Game Play

About the Course:

Mastering the art of game-based improvisation isn’t just about being funny, it’s about precision, adaptability, and commanding the mechanics of play at a professional level. Face Off Unlimited has spent years refining this craft, proving that game play isn’t just an aspect of improv, it’s a discipline all its own.

This advanced course dismantles the outdated idea that structured game improvisation is only for beginners. Instead, students will develop the technical precision, spontaneity, and deep comedic instincts that make top-tier performers in this discipline unstoppable forces on stage.

Through hands-on exercises and guided scene work, students will:

• Master the precision, nuance, and depth of game-based performance
• Improvise with structure without sacrificing authenticity or creativity
• Develop an audience-aware mindset to maximize engagement and surprise
• Refine performance choices through a professional lens
• Understand the business of game-based improvisation—and how to make it a career
• Whether you want to elevate your performance skills or position yourself for professional opportunities in high-level game play, this course will challenge and expand how you think about, and execute, improvised games.

Prerequisite: 

Students must have completed AP2 to enroll in this class

Schedule:

This course will meet once a week, 6:30-9pm on the day selected

Important Dates:

Term 1 (Winter) 2026 1/5 - 3/8

Registration is Non-Refundable:

Please be sure about your schedule before you register for class. Here’s why….

Your enrollment HOLDS A SPACE in a class that we are no longer able to offer someone else.

Class payments are NON-REFUNDABLE, NON-TRANSFERABLE, and can be applied only to the current term’s class for which you have signed up. This applies if you get cast in a show, get a new job, or other situation, or have other changes to your schedule. So please be sure about your schedule before you register.

The Annoyance's very own musical ensembles. They sing funny songs. Off the top of their heads. Every Tuesday at 8.

A faculty and student collaboration to bring the people what they want, their teachers doing improv!

They're back...

A mainstage showcase consisting of 5 minute standup, character, or other bits from a handful of talented performers! 

A multi-media stand-up show where presenters will share slideshows based on their niche areas of interest -- no citations required.

Music. Horses. Birth. Death. Love. WITNESS COMEDY BABY: THE BFA1 COMEDY ARTS VARIETY SHOW.

Going to university for a BFA is an experience we all share. We also all share the experience of having a classmate or two who already knows everything. Why do they know everything? Because they went to a performing arts school. Performing Arts School is a Variety sketch/standup show about the absurdity of the performing arts high school experience. 

A fresh start preceded by an atrocious ending. NEW YEARS is an improvised house party where the audience chooses what year we’re saying good riddance too.

A night of standup comedy & fashion. Out with the old, in with the bold. 

A three act revue displaying the beauties and intricacies of musical improv, devised improv, and the whimsical stylings of dog eats god.

This year's 10 Minutes to Laugh will showcase three new plays, and alternating casts on different nights! Read further to see who will be featured, as we have two performances: 

The Narcissist, the Drunk, the Pushover (and Everybody Else) Written by Henry Hipp, Directed by Ollie Grishaber  

The Antichrist Play

Written by Natalia Montaño, Directed by Ollie Grishaber 

I Would Never Not Dance Again 

Written and Directed by Ally Hyman  

STOP SHAVING NOW!! BUSH is a sketch show made by lesbians for lesbians (and those that hold them dear). BUSH explores how the lesbian identity stretches beyond sexuality and into gender, politics, and haircut.

A sketch show directed by Faculty Member Eunji Kim.

Sabrina Show is a solo stand-up show about Sabrina, a curious, adventurous, and silly world. 

It's Aidan Bieger, y'all.

A series of monologues that blend the magic of fanfiction with comedic performance. The only thing worse than an ex boyfriend is an ex boyfriend who's more famous than you.

Jules Astaire’s Variety Hour (JAVH) began in 2023 in response to the need for more under-21 drag shows. JAVH is a space for more unique forms of drag aside from lipsyncing including stand up comedy, clowning, live music, and more! It is a safe space where new-to-drag audiences and performers alike can interact with drag in a welcoming environment. JAVH also aims to highlight and uplift drag that isn’t always “traditional.” We are a space designed for the future of drag. ‘Polish’ is not a key term at JAVH, instead we focus on talent, drive, and motivation. JAVH has been produced at the iO Theater and The Annoyance, with the latest iteration going up this January as part of the MessFest Comedy Festival.

The BFA Comedy Arts graduating class each perform five minutes of comedy.

"Duet Do-Off" is a musical improv competition in which a cast of wacky characters must improvise musical theatre duets and other numbers. Who will win? Come and see for yourself!

From the mind of Ryan Murphy comes the Mind of Orrie Rindal. Jocks meet Drama kids in Sports!:The Musical, but will they be able to successfully play for the same team? 

The Pussy Cats is an all-femme sketch show!

A troubled young man, Rocco Meo, becomes obsessed with raising a baby surfing legend to deal with his lack of purpose, roping in his friend, Li Angorola, on a mayonnaise quest of artistry. When Rocco begins to spiral, he has to confront his lies and what it means to grow older.

A play about a coven of witches and warlocks vs a wedding in Vegas. 

FOUR audience members will be selected to join this immersive dip into the world of the Hunger Games, complete with lively commentary, original characters, and a few pop culture faves. 

May the odds be ever in your favor.

The best show in MessFest is back and better than ever on the mainstage. Experience sketch comedy like never before and prepare for the laughs to keep going. You may think there's no need to reinvent the wheel that is sketch comedy, and we aren't. We're reinventing the whole damn car.

MEOSNOW delivers what the people want: old-fashioned improvisational comedy. This fantasmic duo will take your ideas, build them from the ground up, filter them through their noggin’, and spit them right back at you in comedy that can only be described as MEOSNOW!

Jules Astaire’s Variety Hour (JAVH) began in 2023 in response to the need for more under-21 drag shows. JAVH is a space for more unique forms of drag aside from lipsyncing including stand up comedy, clowning, live music, and more! It is a safe space where new-to-drag audiences and performers alike can interact with drag in a welcoming environment. JAVH also aims to highlight and uplift drag that isn’t always “traditional.” We are a space designed for the future of drag. ‘Polish’ is not a key term at JAVH, instead we focus on talent, drive, and motivation. JAVH has been produced at the iO Theater and The Annoyance, with the latest iteration going up this January as part of the MessFest Comedy Festival. 

Saturday Morning collaborates sketch comedians, animators, voice actors and sound designers to bring hilarious comedy sketches to life through BRILLIANT CARTOONS!

This year's 10 Minutes to Laugh will showcase three new plays, and alternating casts on different nights! Read further to see who will be featured, as we have two performances: 

The Narcissist, the Drunk, the Pushover (and Everybody Else) Written by Henry Hipp, Directed by Ollie Grishaber  

The Antichrist Play

Written by Natalia Montaño, Directed by Ollie Grishaber 

I Would Never Not Dance Again 

Written and Directed by Ally Hyman  

A three act revue displaying the beauties and intricacies of musical improv, devised improv, and the whimsical stylings of dog eats god.

A sketch show directed by Faculty Member Eunji Kim.

A personal analysis on gossip by Lily Valentine who hopes to create a perfect world of complete and radical honesty. 

This solo show explores the journey of a cowboy, who's ride on the open road has left him changed. In this autobiographical story, revered performer and certified badass Peyton Baisden reflects on what he lost on the road and how that changed his path. There are also deep reflections on why Bon Jovi is so frickin cool. 

A sketch show that begs the question, what if a sketch show was a party? It is full of heightened characters, absurd scenarios, and the magic of friendship.

It’s just me tombert.

Semicolon Parenthesis is a sketch show with comedians Ev Clark and Connor Snow, two former Southerners from Kentucky & Texas respectively. When they met they found out their friendship would have the strongest love there is, and wanted to share that with the world. The lil show they've crafted will make you laugh and love each other. In these trying times, what more can you ask for?

A multimedia comedy experience about Chicago's bean statute and Henry Hipp’s unlikely love for it. The show takes a deep dive into the history of the statute as well as explores why Henry is so fascinated by it.

Upbeat music experience featuring multiple acts as well as some headliner acts. Comedians should do music more often!

Guerrilla Press is a live, weekly podcast hosted by EJ Cameron and Nick Hausman. Every Sunday night, the two make jokes about the top political and pop culture stories of the week, before welcoming some of the most influential and interesting names from Chicago and around the world. 

• January 18: Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh
• January 25: WTTW's Geoffrey Baer
• February 1: 44th Ward Alderman Bennett Lawson
• February 8: Civic Super Bowl (Super Bowl Watch Party & Post-Show Podcast)

General admission tickets are $10, and VIP tickets are available for $20. VIPs receive priority seating and a photo with Cameron and Hausman on stage after the show.