Standing on stage without a script in front of dozens — even hundreds of people — might sound like a nightmare.
But that’s improv comedy, and it’s gaining popularity around the country as in-person events draw crowds and reels on social media grow big followings.
In today’s society, people are increasingly on their phones or screens. In contrast, improv plunges people into the vibrancy of the moment, according to Dellan Short, a resident artist who regularly performs improv at Florida Studio Theatre.
“We spend a lot of time putting up walls and putting on masks. I think improv really encourages you to take them off and just exist together and have fun and try and make each other laugh,” Short said.
With improv, “people gain a freedom that maybe they don't have in their everyday life,” he added.
Thinking on your feet, having confidence to blurt out whatever comes to mind, observing and being willing to adapt are key to improv comedy. But it really comes down to one foundational principle: “Yes, and.”
“It’s a great rule of improv. We say yes to an idea, and we add on to that and support that idea and say, I got you. I got your back,” said Florida Studio Theatre teaching artist Dave Stein. “I hear what you're saying. And what if this happened, too?"
Modern improv comedy was born in Chicago around the 1950s. Since then, shows like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” have popularized the art form.
Now, a new generation is taking improv comedy to social media, including the British group Shoot from the Hip, which has over 700,000 followers on Instagram.
Matt Fotis, a theatre professor at Albright College in Reading, PA, described improv in 2025 as “decentralized and growing.”
“It used to be, you went to Chicago to do improv, and now there's improv everywhere," he said.
Fotis has written multiple books on improv, including Long Form Improvisation and American Comedy: The Harold, Satire & The State: Sketch Comedy and the Presidency, Fifty Key Improv Performers, and he is co-author of The Comedy Improv Handbook.
Fotis went to college in the 1990s, intending to be a history professor and baseball coach. Then, he tried improv.
“And it really was the first time I ever felt like I could use my own voice. I'm like, super introverted. And that's one of the weird things about improv. It attracts introverted, socially awkward people,” Fotis said.
Fotis added that introverts tend to be skilled at one of the most necessary skills when it comes to improv.
"One of the key skills is observing, right? So you're observing and processing and putting things together, and that's what introverts do," Fotis said.
Improv shows often involve structured games, like one in which a person offstage calls “change!” Each time, the actor talking must say the sentence differently. That can mean changing accents, meaning, or word choice in a split second.
Other games will bring a long line of people on stage, with each allowed to say one word in a sentence. Laughs ensue as the audience discovers the winding path the phrase will take.
"Improv is just a great skill to have in life," said Stein, who teaches improv to teens and adults. "It really helps us to commit to ideas and to think on the fly and support each other."
The community that improv builds can help boost confidence for kids and teens going through those awkward years, said Florida Studio Theatre teaching artist Kira Manuel, who co-taught this summer’s camps with Stein.
"I know it's a theatre camp, but still, a lot of times kids are nervous to put themselves out there,” she said. “And then they totally surprise you, because they're also willing to just jump in and try it."
Florida Studio Theatre incorporates kids and teens in improv shows.
At a recent family fun night at an FST stage in downtown Sarasota, Avi Verier-Dunn, 10, got to ring a bell in a game called gibberish ding, forcing the actors to switch from English to gobbledy-gook with each ring.
Before the show, Verier-Dunn was excited to be there and couldn’t wait to get on stage with friends he had made at improv camp.
"They are so fun. They're always like open energy, and it's always fun to just be here,” he said. “And I made up the saying: ‘Once you come here, you live here!’"
His younger brother, Joah, 7, also got to take part in a game called "Pillars," in which the adult actors pause so a kid can fill in the blank with a word. That’s how ice cream ended up costing $15 million.
“Well, then you're just gonna have to go back to your mommy and ask for,” said Short, pausing.
“For more money,” said Joah, as the audience laughed.
Later in the evening, there was a bit about cavemen who could read each other's minds. It had the audience in tears.
It's hard to describe after the fact why it was so funny. It’s one of those times when you just had to be there. It all came out of nowhere, unscripted, in a room full of strangers. That’s the secret to the best nights at improv.
“It's an inside joke with that particular audience," Fotis said. "That night, something like ‘dishwasher’ is hilarious. And if you make that dishwasher reference, everybody's like, yeah, I get it. And it's this great sense of community that is just inherent to the art."
According to Stein, improv mimics life. It’s about being in the moment.
"Life is just a giant game of improv, when you think about it. We're listening to people. We're absorbing that information. We're translating in our head. We're thinking about how we're going to respond, and we go with it,” said Stein.
“That is what improv is all about. It's not knowing what is going to happen next but being ready for anything."
