Best Improv Comedy Classes in Chicago

Chicago's relationship with improv comedy is genuinely foundational. Viola Spolin developed the form here in the 1940s and 1950s; her son Paul Sills co-founded Second City in 1959 on the North Side; Del Close developed the long-form Harold structure at iO in the 1980s. These institutions are not just historical footnotes -- they are active training centers that have launched virtually every significant name in American comedy over the past sixty years. Taking an improv class at Second City or iO is not just trying a new hobby; you are stepping into a lineage that produced Bill Murray, Tina Fey, John Belushi, Amy Poehler, and most of the writers behind Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show.

That history creates an unusually high baseline of quality for the instructors and curriculum available in Chicago. Level 1 improv classes at the major centers are taught by working performers who have spent years developing material and performing in front of live audiences. The feedback you get in a Chicago improv class tends to be specific and actionable in a way that reflects real performance experience on the part of the instructor. The city also has enough improv venues -- shows running seven nights a week at multiple theaters -- that you can watch what you are learning applied at a professional level within walking distance of where you took your class.

For people who want to take improv seriously, Chicago is the obvious place to do it. The training centers have level systems that take students from beginner through advanced over the course of a year or two, culminating in performing in house ensembles. For people who just want to try it once, the single-session workshops available at most centers are genuinely good experiences that leave most people wanting to come back. Either way, Chicago is the right city: the infrastructure, the culture, and the caliber of instruction are all at a level that you cannot find anywhere else.