Directors
Wade Jackson – co-director
Wade Jackson (BA, Dip. Drama) is a trainer, writer, actor, producer and qualified NLP Practioner.
Wade has been designing and teaching programmes that impart the principles of improvisation and ensemble storytelling to corporate organisations, tertiary institutions, actors, students, youth at risk and community groups since 1996.
Wade is a double world improvisation champion (Calgary 2000, Chicago 2002) and is the founding member of The Improv Bandits, NZ's most successful improvised comedy act.
He is also the director of Covert Entertainment and is regarded as one of NZ's most successful theatre producers. Wade founded the Covert Theatre, NZ's first and only fulltime comedy theatre which now runs regular shows out of The Classic.
Wade is an in-demand Keynote Speaker on Creativity & Storytelling and has appeared many times on national television; TV3 News, Breakfast, Nightline, Tonight, Holmes, Ice As, Today Live and the Good Morning show. Wade has been interviewed on many major radio stations across the nation and featured in every major newspaper and magazine in New Zealand including Unlimited and NZ Marketing Magazine.
Fluent in Japanese with 3 internationally recognised black belts in Martial Arts, Wade has also studied Shiatsu, Japanese acupressure massage and is a qualified aerobics instructor.
Wade's interests are helping people use the art of improvisation as a vehicle to discover themselves. Wade currently spends his time on stages and in organisations around the world performing and teaching the art of improvisation.
He is married to Evie and they live with their two cute dogs Sophie and Scamp.
Steve Hill – co-director
Steve Hill has been studying the Art of Improvisation since 2001 and has been designing and facilitating experiential programmes for corporate organisations and students since September 2002. He is also a regular guest speaker on Creativity at Auckland's New Media Design School and a qualified NLP Practioner.
Steve brings over 20 years of business experience to Improv Solutions stemming from the Building Industry into Magazine Publishing and more recently New Media. Steve enjoys the challenges of business and does the occassional mentoring.
The previous business he co-founded was the highly creative award-winning new media company WebMedia Limited (1997-2001). A company that in 4 years expanded to Hong Kong, Melbourne and San Francisco and in 2000 it won the overall gold at the European Multi-media Awards and best place to work in New Zealand in an 'Unlimited Magazine' competition/survey with a culture second to none.
For the last 23 years Steve has been studying areas of self-development, looking at ways in which to develop the body's awareness and senses.
Steve began studying martial arts and since has practised Jujutsu, Tai Chi, Koryu Uchinadi Kempo (Black Belt), Kenjutsu and Iaido – Samurai Sword (Black Belt Instructor) and Pa Tuan Tsin (Chi Gung).
Steve also worked with a medium, which led him into studying with a variety of spiritual elders, shaman, medicine men and women.
Learning about and experiencing other cultures, their stories and rituals continue to be a source of inspiration for Steve. That, and more importantly, his wife Helen. And from his two boys Kane (5) and Niko (3), comes the art of influence, distraction, storytelling, patience and emotional intelligence. :-)