How to start improv in Los Angeles

Improv classes teach you to make up scenes on the spot with other people. There is no script: you listen, accept what your scene partner offers, add to it, and build a scene, a character or a joke together. For actors, the same skills show up everywhere else: listening, staying present, making choices quickly and recovering when something goes wrong.

LA theaters teach two broad styles. Short-form improv is a series of quick games and scenes, often with audience suggestions. Long-form improv builds a longer piece out of connected scenes. The best-known long form is the Harold, which iO, the Chicago theater that developed it, calls its signature form and teaches from its first level. Many LA programs also branch into sketch writing, character work, musical improv and stand-up.

You do not need acting experience to start, and the school list below shows which schools state a beginner level. What you do need is a willingness to look silly in front of a room of strangers for a few weeks.

Dedicated improv and comedy theaters often teach in levels. You take a fixed-length course (with a name like 101, Level 1 or Intro) and finish it before moving to the next. Some programs require an audition or the teacher's sign-off for upper levels, so ask how you advance. A level is typically a weekly class over several weeks, sometimes ending in a short student show.

Acting studios teach improv differently: as one class among many, or as a tool inside scene study and audition classes. That can be a good fit if your goal is acting rather than comedy performance, but it will not lead to performance teams the way a theater program can.

The school list below shows, for each school, the levels and formats it states on its own website. "Drop-in" means the school says you can attend single sessions without enrolling in a course. Prices are shown exactly as each school states them.

A first improv class usually starts in a circle with warm-up games: passing sounds and gestures, name games, quick word association. They look silly, and that is the point; they get a room of strangers listening to each other and reacting without planning. Then the teacher moves to short two-person scenes, usually built from a one-word suggestion, with notes after each one.

Early notes tend to be simple: listen to what your partner just said, agree with it, add something specific, and do not try to be funny. The laughs in good improv come from players paying attention, not from jokes. Wear clothes you can move in, expect to be on your feet for most of the class, and leave any idea of looking good at the door.

1. Watch a show or two. Improv theaters perform for audiences, and watching a few shows is a quick way to find a style you like. A theater whose shows make you laugh is a good place to look for training.
2. Try a drop-in or a free jam. A single session costs little or nothing and tells you whether you enjoy it before you pay for a full level. The free options checked by Arlo are listed below.
3. Take a first level. Commit to one full course. The first few classes are awkward for everyone; the payoff comes later in the run, when the group trusts each other.
4. Practice outside class. Jams and student practice groups (people from your class who rent a room and keep playing) are a common way to keep improving between levels.
5. Decide what you want next. Keep going up the levels, switch to sketch writing, or take what you learned into scene study and auditions. Improv training is useful even if you never perform on a team.

• Style. Long-form, short-form, musical or character-based? Watch the theater's shows to see what its students learn to do.
• Schedule. Levels run for several weeks on a fixed night. Missing classes hurts more in improv than in most training, because the group builds together.
• Total cost. A full program is several levels. Look at the price of the first level and ask what the following levels cost.
• Location. You will be driving there every week, and often staying for shows. A theater near you is easier to stick with.
• Online or in person. Several schools state online options. Improv is ensemble work, so ask how an online class handles scene work before you sign up.

Older advice about LA improv often names two programs that no longer run here. iO West, the Los Angeles branch of iO, closed in February 2018; Los Angeles Magazine reported that the final shows ran on February 24 and classes ended February 25, and that the theater cited financial difficulties. The Second City does not list a Los Angeles training center: its classes page lists Chicago, Toronto, New York and online training. Its teachers' union, AICE, says Second City announced in June 2023 that it would no longer seek a physical space in Los Angeles.

If you see either one recommended as a place to start in LA, the recommendation is out of date. Arlo lists only schools with a working website, and each school below shows the date Arlo last checked it.