Music Director for Comedy
Joel is a 17+ year veteran of music direction and accompaniment for sketch comedy and musical improv, as well as long form and short form (non-singing) improv shows. He has played in this capacity with The Second City/Norwegian Cruise Lines, The Second City Training Center, Upright Citizens Brigade, The Magnet Theater, The Pit, Baby Wants Candy, The Story Pirates, where he serves as Music Supervisor and oversees hiring and training their roster of musical accompanists, and a number of “indie” teams across NYC with fun names like Dumpster Tequila, Choral Rage, Glamour Shots, and BEEES!. Some notable performers Joel has played with over the years (most of whom before the rest of the world, you know, caught on to their utter brilliance) include Stephanie Hsu, Jeff Hiller, Conan O’Brian, Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, Nick Offerman, Connor Ratcliff, Natasha Rothwell, Eliza Skinner, Oscar Montoya, Jessica Lowe, Barrett Doss, Lauren Adams and Zoe Jarman. He hopes they’ll all write him really nice and doubtlessly hilarious recommendation letters someday.
Joel has been a musical director for comedy for corporate events through teams including UCB/Just Add Water, Baby Wants Candy, and Spark Creative. He is available as both a facilitator and music director/pianist for corporate workshops that use improv, musical improv and sketch comedy to activate play-centered experiences that organically build team camaraderie as well as personal confidence in public speaking and presentations.