Gary Hirsch

Gary Hirsch is the co-founder and a small piece of the puzzle that makes up On Your Feet. OYF is a networked organization, whose members include various: improvisers, filmmakers, anthropologists, advertising, marketing and research folks, two yoga teachers, and someone who spent several weeks as a mail carrier. OYF was created in order to explore how improv impacts communication, leadership, idea generation, brand building, organizational development, and anything else clients let us play with. Those clients include: Intel, Southwest Airlines, Nike, FedEx, Orange, Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden + Kennedy, Dr. Martens, The British Ministry of Defense, a small band of Northern California Buddhist Monks (really), and others.
Gary has performed improv for fifteen years, for the past nine years with the national touring company Brainwaves Improv Comedy. He has presented to groups and conferences internationally including: The Singapore Learning Symposium, The Portland Creative Conference, The BBDO World Wide Creative and Planning Director Conferences, and others. On occasion, when they are desperate, The Portland State University School of Business Administration will ask him to teach in their M.B.A. Program.

Gary is also an artist and illustrator. His public art commissions can be found in Dallas, Melbourne Australia, and in his hometown of Portland OR. He has exhibited his artwork at The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and in galleries in Portland and Seattle,. From 1985 to 1996 Gary ran a surprisingly (mostly to him) successful business designing and marketing utilitarian artwork and clothing, and launched Happy Fun Cards, a national greeting card line. He is currently illustrating a children's book that espouses the virtues of putting glue in your hair and convincing your grandmother that you are insane. He is happy to talk incessantly about this if asked.