Joe Hammer, author of The Improv Edge and Blank to Brilliant, introduces your Phoenix team to essential improvisational communication skills that build spontaneity, listening, acceptance, confidence, collaborative creativity, and teamwork… all in an active and fun way!
Engage, adapt & influence. Get the Improv Edge in business!

Joe Hammer partners with forward-thinking organizations on interactive improv-based training and team-building workshops that build real skills in listening, collaboration, and adaptability under pressure. Some engagements open with Joe’s high-energy keynote presentation, a great way to set the tone at a conference, offsite, or leadership summit before the team moves into hands-on training. Others move right into Joe’s interactive training.
Joe opens your conference, offsite, or leadership summit with a high-energy overview of today’s communication and the skills that make interactions more effective.
Joe’s hands-on team-building training in listening, adaptability, and collaborative communication, built around your team’s real challenges… and in a fun way!
Participants leave with practical communication tools they can use immediately: listening better, thinking faster, collaborating more effectively, and handling the unexpected with confidence.
Led by improv director and communication coach Joe Hammer, our programs have already worked with Phoenix-area organizations like Banner Health and Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center. We understand the pace and pressure of Phoenix’s business community (healthcare, hospitality, tech, and professional services), and we build every session around your team’s actual challenges, not generic games.
Because business doesn’t come with a script. Every day, your team faces moments nobody rehearsed:
Your people can’t always prepare for what happens next… they need to know how to respond. Influential Interactions gives participants an engaging, hands-on way to practice exactly that!
Unlike comedians who are attempting improv corporate training, Joe has spent decades working in the professional speaking and business world. He understands the corporate landscape and knows how to turn improv principles into practical business skills.
Sessions run on-site at your Phoenix-area location or at our Scottsdale training center.


Six communication skills, practiced hands-on through improvisation and built around the moments your team actually faces.
Be present instead of preparing your next response.
Express ideas with greater confidence and impact.
Build on ideas instead of shutting them down.
Stay effective when circumstances change.
Generate possibilities when the obvious answer isn’t enough.
Stay composed, connected, and responsive under pressure.

Why bring in a distant training provider when experienced corporate communications expertise is right here? Joe Hammer is a Scottsdale-based professional speaker, business-development expert, author, and improv coach with decades of experience helping professionals communicate, present, and perform more effectively.
As founder and director of The Outcasters Improv Training Center, Joe brings improv training directly from his Scottsdale training center to organizations throughout Arizona and beyond. He is also the author of The Improv Edge and Blank to Brilliant, two best-selling books exploring the power of improvisation well beyond the stage.
Real words from real clients, including leaders from Phoenix-area organizations like Banner Health, plus video testimonials from the teams Joe has trained.
Planning a conference, offsite, leadership summit, or team training in the Phoenix area? Complete the form to check Joe’s availability, and we’ll be in touch.

Joe’s classes go beyond simple improv games; you’ll discover practical and constructive principles of both short and long form improvisation – all while enjoying ample stage time, personalized coaching and considerate feedback. There’s something new in every class!
And it’s all taught in a safe, respectful, and non-judgmental setting. No egos. No harassment. No criticism. Just progressive improv training in a positive environment!

As a perceptive chameleon, Banter recognizes the importance of being adaptable. Banter came to be the Outcasters’ mascot after trying to find a place to cool off from the blazing Arizona sun. He stumbled inside a drop-in improv class and, after seeing what The Outcasters were all about, he quickly realized he was home! Whether you’re an experienced improviser, just beginning your improv journey, or attending one of our shows, Banter invites you to join us!