Where comedy and medicine became one practice
Presence In Play is what happened when one of Chicago's best improvisers became a doctor of integrative medicine. This page is the story of how those two lives merged, the method that came out of it, and the two people who run it. It's one practice with many touchpoints: weekly sessions, retreats, and a teacher training, all doors into the same work.
She left comedy to find what was missing. It led her back.
Jet Eveleth came up in the Chicago comedy scene as a founding member of iO's Harold team The Reckoning and toured with The Second City. She moved to Vegas to perform as a clown in Absinthe at Caesars Palace. Then a stretch of television work in Los Angeles left her feeling disconnected and lost, and the search for what was missing took her somewhere comedians usually don't go.
She studied breathwork in the Pyrenees with Wim Hof, Taoist yoga with Paulie Zink, and the presence teachings of Eckhart Tolle. She earned her doctorate in integrative medicine and became a professor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. And the whole journey led her back to the one thing she'd always loved: play.
The result is a practice that treats laughter as medicine and play as a path home. She has taught it at Esalen, at the Elysian, and in a weekly gathering in Los Angeles. Presence In Play is the home for all of it.
Three moves. Every session, every retreat, every room.
Descend.
In Sufi philosophy, the spirit is the ocean and the body is the beach. We come to the body to dive into the great unknown. Stillness and breath quiet the inner judge so honest impulse can emerge in real time.
In plain terms: get out of your head and into your body first. Everything else follows from that.
Play.
From stillness comes organic movement, ritual, and games. The invitation is to get lost in childlike play without the need to perform. We follow our naivety, from the French for "natural": to simply allow.
In plain terms: once the body is quiet, the playful part of you comes out on its own. We just make the room safe for it.
Together.
Our bodies yearn to be part of a tribe. We work as an ensemble to reconnect to the web, to be part of the whole again. Isolation is the wound and authentic connection is the medicine.
In plain terms: this doesn't work alone in your head, and that's the point. The group is the medicine.
"Jet Eveleth is a freaking genius. Full stop. Do yourself the favor of seeing her perform live. What a gorgeous and heartfelt show of pure joy."Maria Bamford
"One of the best actresses to emerge from Chicago comedy's scene."
Chicago Tribune"Brainy, outrageous and razor-sharp improviser and actor."
Time Out Chicago"Characters, at once esoteric and identifiable, that appear to spring from deeply personal takes on humanity."
The Chicago Reader"Improv superstar."
Charleston City PaperTwo decades on stage. A decade in medicine.
The whole method rests on one unusual resume. Here it is, in three columns instead of one long list.
Medicine & presence
- Esalen Institute faculty 2025 to present
- Postgraduate studies in meditation and psychoanalysis, Harvard Medical School 2023
- Professor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Alhambra Medical University 2023
- Doctor of Integrative Medicine (DAIM) 2022
- Faculty at Kinship Yoga, LA 2022 to present
- Master's in Traditional Chinese Medicine 2020
- Graduate, Eckhart Tolle's School of Awakening 2018
- Breathwork and ice immersion training with Wim Hof 2018
- Taoist yoga teacher training with Paulie Zink 2009
The stage
- The Reckoning, iO Theater 2001 to 2017
- Clown in Absinthe at Caesars Palace 2015 to 2017
- The Second City 2008 to 2011
- Studies with Philippe Gaulier 2010
- Artistic Director, Chicago Improv Festival 2009 to 2011
Teaching
- Corporate training, University of Chicago MBA Orientation 2008 to 2013
- Professor of Comedy Studies, Columbia College 2007 to 2012
- Corporate training, Columbia University Business School 2008
- Master's in Interdisciplinary Arts 2007
- Presenter and facilitator, Theater of the Oppressed Conference 2006
Jet holds the room. Emmett holds everything else.
Emmett Olivia Sloane · Operating Partner & DirectorEmmett runs the business of Presence In Play so Jet can run the play. As Operating Partner and Director, she leads strategy, operations, and partnerships across Clown Church LA, the retreats, and the Teacher Training program. Jet creates the method; Emmett builds the structure that carries it into the world.
She comes to this work from two decades of building and operating organizations: founder of the music management company BABY MGMT, creator of Festy Baby (an independent music festival backed by Goldenvoice, Live Nation, Harman Kardon JBL, Fender, Luna Bar, and Boxed Water), owner of the unisex clothing line PG (PostGender, featured in Flood Magazine), Production Manager for Runway Collective producing events for Adidas, thinkThin, and the San Manuel Casino 30th anniversary featuring Duran Duran and Bruno Mars, plus over a decade of experience in real estate development and property management.
Her operating philosophy is simple: the best infrastructure is invisible, so the room stays sacred and the work stays alive.
Reading about it isn't the work. Doing it is.
The method takes an hour to feel and a lifetime to exhaust. Come try it once.
Find a Session Weekly in LA · No experience needed · Come unprepared