The Improv Wiki

UCB co-founder, SNL Weekend Update anchor, Parks and Recreation star, and the improv-world celebrity most responsible for keeping UCB financially alive through its 2020s restructurings.

Second City / UCB co-founder / SNL head writer / director of The Big Short, Vice, Anchorman — an improviser who became one of the most politically pointed filmmakers of his generation.

Co-founder of iO Theater and keeper of the Del Close legacy; built the institution that trained Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and most modern longform practitioners.

Creator of the Harold and the most influential improv theorist of the 20th century — mentor to Belushi, Murray, Fey, Poehler, Colbert, Farley, Myers, and a generation of UCB founders.

UCB's flagship Sunday show — a monologist and a rotating cast of heavy-hitters — the longest-running improv show in American history.

The first improvisational theater in America — seeded Second City, Nichols & May, and every long-form tradition that followed.

San Francisco's politically savage 1960s improv company — where Del Close refined his craft and the Harold was first attempted.

Mick Napier's Chicago theater — founded 1987 as Metraform — whose 'Individually Powerful' philosophy became the explicit counter-argument to polite Yes-And improv.

Gary Austin's 1974 LA training company — the single most reliable feeder to Saturday Night Live's West Coast pipeline for 50 years.

Del Close and Charna Halpern's laboratory for long-form — the birthplace of the Harold and the pipeline that fed UCB and SNL for three decades.

Keith Johnstone's Calgary theater — where Theatresports was invented in 1978 and where improvisers from six continents trained at the International Improvisation Summer School 1988-2019.

A monologist tells true stories from an audience suggestion; the cast improvises scenes inspired by the stories — often cited as UCB's most influential imported format.

The foundational long-form improv structure — a single audience suggestion explodes into three beats of three scenes each, bookended and separated by group games.

A daisy-chain of two-person scenes — Player B carries into a new scene with C, then C with D, until the chain completes a circle back to A.

A single scene, single location, continuous real time — full show length with no external edits.

Two players perform a scene; any other player can yell 'Freeze!' at any moment, tap one out, adopt the frozen pose, and start a new scene justified by the physicality.

Two teams perform the same thème back-to-back; the audience votes which one they preferred.

Match d'impro default category — teams play a scene on the given thème with no additional constraint.

Players from both teams share the ice and improvise one scene together on a single thème.

Mick Napier's anti-rules school — take care of yourself, strong individual choice over polite agreement, reject 'Yes, And' as doctrine.

The practice of using improv principles, tools, and mindsets for non-performance purposes — business training, education, therapy, healthcare, community work.

The lineage of improv running through Compass Players, Second City, iO, and their teachers — ensemble-centered, long-form-first, Harold as core discipline.

An offer that assigns a trait, backstory, or behavior to another performer — a gift the partner accepts and plays as truth.