Anthony Veneziale (aka Two-Touch) is the co-founder of Freestyle Love Supreme, a live improvisational hip-hop comedy musical group started along with Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton and In the Heights) in 2003 and directed by Thomas Kail (director of Hamilton and In the Heights). The group currently runs the hit Broadway musical of the same name, featuring performers like Christopher Jackson, Daveed Diggs, James Monroe Iglehart, Wayne Brady, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Bill Sherman, Utkarsh Ambudkar and more.

For two and a half years, he worked with an otolaryngologist (aka ear, nose, throat doctor) at the University of California, San Francisco, to study which parts of the brain are activated and deactivated by freestyling. Subjects, which have included several members of Freestyle Love Supreme, lie in fMRI machines and play associative word games. Activity tends to cool in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which acts as your “monitoring-critic voice,” while the medial prefrontal cortex—“your creative flow”—heats up.

Anthony has been performing and teaching improv for more than 20 years and is a leader in the field of musical improvisation. He is the conceiver and co-creator of FLS Academy. FLS Academy was founded in 2018 with the mission of fostering diverse creative voices using improvisation and freestyle rap. FLS Academy is deeply committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which all individuals are treated with dignity and respect. Most of the learning experiences finish with a live performance where the values and ethos that the Academy stand for—inclusion, equity, diversity and creativity—are present.

He also co-founded speechlessinc.com, an improv thinking company that helps humans create, collaborate and amplify their authentic voice. He’s worked with with numerous networks/companies (HBO, TBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, PBS, Radical Media, Google, Salesforce). They have taught more than sixty thousand people, on every continent except Antarctica.

His stage credits include Freestyle Love Supreme, Servicemen, Seven Rabbits on a Pole, Death in One Acts, and Trashin': Time to Waste. Television credits include Sex and the City, All My Children, Looking, Bartlett, and Freestyle Love Supreme. He is a past main stage speaker at TED where he did an entirely improvised TED talk based off an audience suggestion of "Stumbling Towards Intimacy".

Topics:

  • In a hilarious, completely improvised keynote (famously featured at TED!), improv master Anthony Veneziale will take the stage for a truly one-of-a-kind performance. Armed with an audience-suggested topic ("insert your topic of choice") and a deck of slides he's never seen before, Anthony crafts a meditation on the intersection of your event’s themes, your organization’s goals and/or… avocados? No two improvised talks are alike, and your audience will never forget this interactive opportunity showcasing his masterful improv skills that will leave everyone in stitches!

  • When you’re performing your best, it’s because improvisational elements dominate what you’re doing—whether that be active listening at work or building trust with a trouble student. Improvisation is a skill that gets developed and nurtured over time. It’s viewed as a lifelong acquisition of skills and, therefore, requires continuous training and refining. When improvising, the part of the brain associated with self-monitoring, self-editing, judgment, selective attention and planning quiets and the part of the brain associated with creativity and self-expression increases. Join Anthony Veneziale as he shares insights into the art of improv. Through his expert training and real life examples, he’ll show you how entering into a mental state of flow can help you perform tasks more effortlessly and with greater creative expression. Whether looking to improve trust within your organization, with patients or with students or hoping to reach your maximum creative potential, Anthony shares how this essential skill will help you succeed.

  • Based on science-backed, improv training tracks P.O.I.N.T. and F.L.O.W., Anthony helps you tune into your inner voice, then share it with the world. From a TED Talk to your laptop, this workshop uses improv to help you make your point—no matter what stage you’re on. After nearly a decade of coaching world-class presenters, Anthony has distilled his organization’s learnings into a repeatable framework that anyone can use to amplify their unique voice. P.O.I.N.T. training focuses on: 

    • Presence (Body, Voice, Mind, Heart, Confidence)

    • Originality (Improvisation, Authenticity, Passion, Innovation, Process)

    • Inclusion (Respect, Listen, Trust, Connect, Empower)

    • Narrative (Structure, Genre, Theme, Goal, Metaphor)

    • Transformation (Inspire, Discover, Share, Grow, Lead)

    This unique workshop is offered in multiple modalities both virtually and in-person—be it 1-1 coaching, interactive team workshops, half-day intensives, certifications, and everything in between.