A course for people who want to step on stage — and for those who don't yet know they want to.
Not a business training. Play, fail, laugh, grow.
"Scheiter Heiter" roughly means "fail cheerfully" — the German invitation to fail with a smile.
Living in Berlin?
Every Friday, 6–8 pm. Stadtteilzentrum Weißensee. All levels welcome.
The first 60 minutes we work on a theme, then it's an open stage. A good way into the weekend — and a way to sharpen your improv chops.
Fridays, 6:00–8:00 pm · weekly
Stadtteilzentrum Weißensee
Pistoriusstraße 23, 13086 Berlin
€12 per evening
All levels — beginners explicitly welcome
What is Scheiter Heiter?
You play. I guide. We work on scenes, on characters, on that moment when something real happens on stage.
People who leave this course haven't just learned a few improv tricks. They have felt what it's like to really be present on stage.
My approach
What I'm looking for is a specific moment: when two players stop being witty and start being honest. When a character feels something the audience feels with them. When "pretending" becomes "being."
Funny will happen — it's improv. The question isn't whether people laugh. The question is whether the laugh comes from something real.
That's why I sometimes bring exercises from the Meisner Technique into my workshops: Sanford Meisner's idea of "living truthfully under imaginary circumstances." Full attention on the other person. Don't prepare. Don't perform. Just respond to what's actually there.
The opposite of that is the most common trap: "Be funny." Like the character who, twenty seconds into office small talk, suddenly wets themselves. Quick reaction — and the fastest way to kill a scene. Because it's forced. Because it comes from unease, not from the moment.
There's a difference between funny and witty. You can be funny among friends — people laugh because they know you. Being witty on stage is something else. The shared context isn't there yet. You have to earn it.
You don't become witty by trying to be witty. You become witty by stopping.
At the core it's attention — to yourself, to the other person, to what's actually arising in the room. Including the silence between things.
It's a bit like saying "I love you" too early: you don't walk into the scene with the gag in your hand. You let the scene fall in love with you. Then you can say whatever you want.
Improv isn't a comedy discipline. It's a practice in presence — and in trust, that the funny shows up when you stop forcing it.
Applied Improv
You're not practising "improv." You're practising a particular way of meeting uncertainty. And that travels with you, on stage or off.
Being attentive in the moment, instead of scrambling in your head for the next line.
Really. Not just waiting for your turn to speak.
The name says it: fail cheerfully. Play without thinking it through first.
With yourself. With others. With what's actually happening right now.
These are not soft skills from a seminar. This is what happens when you've stood on a stage often enough without knowing what comes next.
Join in
Drop in once, stick around, become a regular. Beginners and seasoned players alike.
Book Friday's spot ↗