Matt Nelson is the editor of PhillyImprov.com and founding producer of the Philadelphia Improv Festival. He has trained with The Groundlings, ImproWorks and the Philly Improv Theater, as well as having studied under Joe Bill of the Annoyance Theatre, Chris Gethard of the UCBT, Jill Bernard of iO and Rebecca Sohn of Second City, amongst others. He can be seen performing in the longform group, Men About Town, serving as host of the weekly shortform group the N Crowd and is the creator and host of the acclaimed competition based improv serial, Troika.
Website
phillyimprov.com
Influences
"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh." - Nietzsche
Matt Nelson's Interests
General
Longform improv, comedy in about every form, production design for the theatre, interior design, community arts programs, wandering through galleries and museums and imagining what I would by if money was no factor, learing more and more everyday about what great filmmaking is to me, locking myself up and getting completely enraptured by a book, taking photographs that will never realize their potential until I have a nice camera, writing bizarre and fantastic sketches fiction & poetry, hunting down BYOBs, going to the park with my dog, Halloween, need to do more travelling, sarcastic and smart-assed people
Music
Blues, baroque/classical/romantic & opera top the list... Bach, Beethoven, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Schubert, Handel, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Bellini (Norma, La Sonnambula) Puccini (Tosca, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly) & Verdi (the late operas: Don Carlo, Aida, Falstaff). A special shout out to my boys of blues: B.B. King, Big Joe Williams, Big Walter Horton, Bill Stepney, Bombay Carter, Brownie McGhee, Buddy Guy, Clifton James, Harmonica Hines, Johnny Winter, Lafayette Leake, Lee Jackson, Lonnie Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Lou Rawls, Matt Murphy, Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Robert Cray, Rory Gallagher, Skip James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Terry, T-Bone Walker and Mr. Willie Dixon. And on a more uncategorized note, AKUS, Fiona Apple, Beatles, Beck, Bjork, David Bowie, Michael Buble, Tracy Chapman, The Clash, Cure, Dave Matthews Band, Dead Kennedys, The Decemberists, Dire Straits, Dropkick Murpheys, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Ben Folds, Gorillaz, Ben Harper, Billie Holiday, Norah Jones, Janis Joplin, The Killers, Kool & The Gang, Aimee Mann, Curtis Mayfield, Modest Mouse, Nouvelle Vague, Pink Floyd, The Pixies, Portishead, Radiohead, Ramones, The Scissor Sisters, The Smiths, Sublime, Temptations, Velvet Underground, Violent Femmes, The White Stripes, The Who, Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and countless others...
Movies
The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin, Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom, Chicago, The Red Violin, The Princess Bride, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Resevoir Dogs, The Boondock Saints, Natural Born Killers, Diary of a City Priest, Mullholland Drive, Memento, Thank You For Smoking, North By Northwest, Rear Window, Vertigo, Say Anything, Better Off Dead, Grosse Pointe Blank, Bridget Jones' Diary, Pride & Prejudice, When Harry Met Sally, Harold & Maude, Waking Life, Before Sunrise / Sunset and the list goes on...
Television
Flight of the Conchords, Mad Men, Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Upright Citizens Brigade, The State, Stella, Reno 911, World Series of Pop Culture, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Kids In the Hall, SNL, Entourage, Six Feet Under, Arrested Development, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, South Park, Family Guy, The League of Gentlemen, The Catherine Tate Show, Little Britain, Max & Paddy, The History Channel, BBC, HGTV, Discovery Times, Discovery Health, Science Channel, Animal Planet
Books
A Thousand Acres, The Lovely Bones, Don't Die On My Shift, Lucky, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Jane Eyre, Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Chronicles of Narnia, Farwell to Arms, Fountainhead, Fear & Loathing, Wide Sargasso Sea, Diary of a Mad Housewife, Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, Persuasion, Beast In the Jungle, Turn of the Screw, Waste Land, François Truffaut's Interviews with Alfred Hitchcock
Heroes
My best friends who have stuck by me through everything. There are no greater heroes to me than that.
About me:
I've been in Philadelphia nearly four years now and love it. Having grown up on the west coast, I'm enjoying the pace and diversity of distractions that this area serves up.
In the world where I pay the bills, I'm a sales exec for a healthcare publishing firm. In the one where I am happy to break even, I perform, produce and promote improv.
I enjoy going to the park with my dog, exploring the city or holing myself up with a movie, book or an art project. I love trivia and board games and my grey matter contains more miscellaneous and useless information than it should... especially about movies.
Hope your summer is going funktastically!! Just wanted to let you know about an upcoming and free show taking place next Saturday, August 23rd at World Café Live in Philadelphia:
That's my Matthew!!!! Sweet as ever! You are busy!!! I would love to see a show of yours ... so let me know when is good! I'll call you when I get home! Off to bed! Love you lots Matt!!!
Hello, Hello Mr. Matt! I miss you as well.... The box "o" wine just isn't the same without you :-) Down in NC visiting my friend Amy and am returning next week... Would love to catch up!! PS... Voted for you... :-)
matt, matt matt matt - matt - matt, matt matt (sung to the knock knock knock knock knock knok sound when you knock on a door.) Anyway Murphy said you are hanging out with her sometime soon. But i want to go to Philly for her B-Day. and you will get to see her then too so i am a bit jealous of that. - Have a good day.
