CURRENT MISSION

To attend the SPRACHLOS Festival in Würzburg, Germany, and not completely run out of money!

ABOUT ME

Hi! I'm Ellis. I'm having a difficult time writing the absolutely perfect, not-disappointing-to-anyone description of myself in this box, which probably tells you more about me than the words I'm using.

3 years ago, I started doing Improv at the Loose Moose Theater Company in Calgary, Alberta. As a result of this, I now want to go on an adventure. If you're a fan of narrative like I am, you know that "breaking the routine" is the backbone of any story. And currently, my routine consists of "not being in Germany". So I'm leaving my home continent to

A) do this "travel" thing I've heard so much about
B) attend the SPRACHLOS ("Speechless") Festival in Würzburg
and C) find out how wrong I am about life, the universe and everything!

Basically the idea here is to learn by doing, get to know you (hi there!) and make a crap ton of mistakes.

PHILOSOPHY

Don't panic.
Be average.
Fail often.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Currently, I can only surf on your couch.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have never done this before! You will define my couchsurfing experience, and I look forward to it.

Interests

Drawing, improvisational theatre, monsters, time travel, Jorge Luis Borges, mashups of songs that shouldn't sound good together but do, hypothetical "if you could have any superpower..." questions, bad jokes, theorizing about the TV show LOST, New Orleans jazz, 2am "everything is funny" sessions, narrative

• writing
• theater
• festivals
• running
• flying
• tv
• traveling
• drawing
• jazz
• piano
• boxing

Music, Movies, and Books

MOVIES
Rango, Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy, Back to the Future, The Room, Step Brothers, The Iron Giant, Wreck-it Ralph, Kung Fu Panda
MUSIC
Ben Folds Five, The Black Keys, Kermit Ruffins, Jonathan Coulton, Trombone Shorty, The Cat Empire, Stan Rogers, The Arrogant Worms
BOOKS
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Illusions, The Areas of my Expertise, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, American on Purpose, The Little Prince, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Once, a fly landed on my hand and I grabbed so fast I actually caught it. Then, when I opened my hand to see if it was ok, the fly flew away! I felt like friggin' Gandalf.

Teach, Learn, Share

WHAT I CAN TEACH

How to improvise a good story
How to improvise a bad story
How to play the piano riff from that Coldplay song
How to assume the body language of an important person (useful for job interviews!)
How to assume the body language of an unimportant person (useful for comedy!)

WHAT I WANT TO LEARN

How to hand-fart
How to mountain climb