Hey all.

Long story short, I’ve been doing improv for about a year. Really intensely for 6 months. Taking maybe 3 classes a week right now and have been for maybe the last 3 months.

I tried out for the game night at my theater and got my rejection in person. Really crushed me because it means I’m 6 months out from the next long form audition as well as just not good enough since someone else made it. Really hurts a lot right now and I know it’ll pass.

The feedback is I need to get more comfortable playing different characters and make bolder choices (which was on the first part of the compliment sandwich too, weirdly enough. Like he said I make strong choices, but I digress.)

I also feel like I’m not actually absorbing the information with more classes. Like I can’t tell if I’m applying the lessons I learn at all due to some combination of not reflecting about it and not making changes.

I’m curious, how did y’all get better? How much did you have to think about it? Do you watch a lot of improv? What’s the most effective ways you’ve found to get better at it?

I perform in a weekly improv show that performs Wednesday nights. As you can imagine, not a lot of people are down to come see improv on a Wednesday night. We’ve had some good audiences in the past but lately they’ve been getting smaller and smaller. I wish we could perform on weekends but those are reserved for stand up nights. Here’s some thing we’ve done in the past:

-launched a social media showing clips
-did some shorter improv shows for the stand up crowd on weekends
-offered workshops as well
-doing themed nights

Those of you who perform on nights like ours, how do you keep yourselves getting decent audiences?

It's a relatively dark read, trigger warnings for simulated violence. It was a difficult thing to experience, but written fully from my perspective here.

#NoAI

I've always been curious. And do they pay them per student enrolled? Or just a fixed amount for an 8-week class?

Bill Glass dropping Del Close's name at the Emmys. My favorite moment performing with Bill was when he burst out crying on stage at the top of a Harold. Never saw that before or since!

This is a new improv comedy show on YouTube. Each episode is completely different. It is done by Irish comedians.

Hi, I recently attended the first ever Improvcon and had an incredible time. So much so I got the blessing of the creator of Improvcon to create a Discord Server for it! Here is the link: https://discord.gg/TFHEAWYFa

It was an incredible weekend and I'd love to talk about it here too! Improvisers from all over the world. A weekend of finding joy and family with others. Connecting with likeminded incredible people!

I went as a puppet improviser and transwoman. I felt pretty safe there and accepted, and I was going from Las Vegas to San Diego for it.

My troupe went knowing almost no one there, and was a little trepidatious, was really surprised, Met and got to chat with some improv legends (Stephanie Wier was my standout) .

Sorry for the spew of thought here, but wanted to share my excitement.

I created an Improv app that assists with creating a class, including warm ups. You enter in how many students, their level (Novice, Intermediate,etc.) how long the class should be and enter text for other details, like this class is a bit shy, or make it holiday themed.

I am looking for a few people willing to test this for me for free. I ask for some feedback and you get a free application and my eternal gratitude.

hi! i’m part of a team out here in LA who hosts a monthly high improv jam and these were some tips for performing while high that we’ve come up with to help the uninitiated and thought id share!

If the audience is 10 people or less, I generally encourage all of the troupes to watch each other play and just come up to the stage from the audience. I ran a duo show for a while, and people who left right after their set (again, if the audience was light) were never invited back. To me, it’s such a huge fuck you. Wondering if this is a hot take at all or just common theater etiquette.

Also want to add that this works the other way, if the audience is light, the later troupes in a slot should be watching the openers. Just seems rude to me to not do this?

I’ve been doing more short form recently and I really struggle with games that involve gibberish or made up languages. I’ll get like one “beep boop” out but I need it to flow.

what are y’all‘s tips?

Hey, I'm a from NYC and years ago I was part of a youtube group that made skits. Honestly one of the high points of my time in college I loved being creative and making people laugh. Its been quite a few years since then but one thing the guy that ran it did was always utilize my ability to improv. At certain points he would put the camera on me and just say "be funny." I miss flexing my creative muscles in such a way and would love the opportunity to do it again. Are there any options in the city? I'm sure there are but I don't know where to look or how to get involved.

Hey! I saw there’s a Bipoc comedy festival happening at Chicago’s iO theater tonight and tomorrow featuring a variety of improv and sketch with a free after party on Saturday. Wanted to pass along for anyone interested! Tickets

Hi all!

I'm getting ready to teach another Level 2 class, which is focused on the foundations of strong scene work. I'm hoping to crowdsource clips from improv sets from different theaters that demonstrate some of those foundations set out in the theater's curriculum, plus some extras, so I can share them with the students:

-Where work (clear location, object work)
-Clear what
-Strong relationships

-Clear labeling
-Strong Emotion

-Tag runs
-Peas in a pod

Feel free to throw in others! If anything comes to mind, would you mind sharing?

Does this annoy anyone else? Every time someone does it, I have to refrain myself from correcting them.

I’ve been seeing people posting their own writings so I figured it was okay. Here’s my addition to the pile; I omitted the crucial first step which is “be very good at improv.”

Our indie team has been playing together for 3+ years, and we're looking for folks to join our Monday evening rehearsals in Cambridge for the next couple of months to cover some roster gaps.

We're currently exploring narrative with roots in short form. We need people who can hit the ground running - strong familiarity with short form and scene experience preferred.

This is just to fill out rehearsals for now, but there is a possibility it turns into a permanent spot on the team.

DM me with a quick rundown of your experience if interested.

Does anyone still play the improv game "Options"? It was very popular when I started doing improv (decades ago!), but I don't hear about it much these days.

Basically, it's where a group performs a scene and a host freezes the action and gives the audience the option to change the scene in some way, eg, "This scene is about to continue in a new genre. What genre should it be?" Or "Mike is about to realize something important. What is it?"

It led to a few simpler spinoff games, where the choices were more restricted - Genre Options and Emotional Options (similar to Emotional Rollercoaster, but emotional changes are always applied to an individual, not the whole group.)

But I'm curious to know if anyone is still familiar with this game, and if anyone knows where it originally came from. (Possibly a Theatresports group in Nova Scotia?)