Matt Besser was one of the four co-founders (along with Amy Poehler) of the Upright Citizen's Brigade, which not only had a Comedy Central show, but was the first improv comedy theater in NYC, and included folks like Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, etc.), Armando Diaz. Before that he trained at iO (Chicago) with Charna Halpern and Del Close, and was part of the improv group The Family. Matt also has done stand up comedy (longer than improv!) and has a podcast called Improv For Humans. You can download his comedy albums for just $1.99 each here. Also, he just finished co-writing The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy improvisation Manual.

Luke Ashlocke, who was Luke Francis when I interviewed him, is a super-prolific Scottish comedian. The Glasgow, Scotland native arrived in the United States on a mission. From the minute he stepped onto the comedy scene he has been making waves. From Appearances on The Comedy Network's; "The Great Canadian Laugh Off" and "The Montreal Comedy Festival" to The CWB's "The Daily Buzz" and NBC's "Night Shift" and"New Day", to reviews such as "Funny As Hell" -Good Times Magazine, Long Island, NY & "This is what live stand up is supposed to be" - Weird Magazine, Austin, TX. Luke is one of the hardest working comics in the industry today. In 2011 Luke was voted break out artist of the year at the Los Angeles Comedy Awards and won BEST Actor for his role in "Vicky and Sam" at the London Film Festival. You can hear Luke's unique brand of humor on one of his three Albums- "Ill be Nicer When You Are Smarter", "If My Jokes Dont Kill Them Im Sure This Gun Will Help", and "Head Full of Tales" or on Bob and Tom and XM radio station RAWDOG on heavy rotation. To add to this, Luke plays over 15 instruments, and has one of the best crowd interaction shows in the history of live stand up comedy. Apologies, we had to switch phones a couple times to complete this interview, but what Luke has to say about writing a comedy act is well worth sticking with it!

Sean Patton is a comedian based in New York and Los Angeles by way of New Orleans. He cut his teeth doing standup in the Crescent city and since have performed at Caroline’s, The Comedy Cellar, Gotham, The Improv, UCBNY, UCBLA, The Melbourne International comedy festival (2011), The Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival (2008, 2010), and many other clubs around the US and Canada. He made his Basic Cable debut on Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham” (2009) and my Network TV debut on “Late night with Jimmy Fallon” (2010). He  appeared on “Conan” (2011). In June 2012 he recorded his first album, Standard Operating Procedure.

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Bill Word is a fixture in Orange County, California comedy, probably the best known name in stand up comedy contests out in California and has had some success on YouTube as well. He has some great perspectives on how a stand up comedy develops, why comedy competitions are good for your development, and how different venues are for different comedians.

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