Community Posts

Scott LeekerStaff

LEEKER TAKES YOU TO: An Immersive Theme Park Experience returns with our 5th season in about two weeks! FREE show! Mark your calendars and stay tuned here for more info or follow us on instagram @leekertakesyouto! Check out the subtle hint in this photo for the subject of Season 5 Episode 1 See less @MzX90E0E

Melanie PennStaff

🎶 MUSICAL WORKSHOP AND SHOW 🎶 There's another special workshop happening at The Improv Shop next month: it's MUSICAL IMPROV BAG OF TRICKS, hosted Nashville's Cherry Bomb! There are two sections to choose from, both on Saturday June 20th: 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00. This workshop is designed for folks with some prior musical improv experience, and the registration link is below in the comments. Also! Cherry Bomb will be performing an improvised musical at 7:00 that night, with The One Four Fives joining in for some fun in the second act. Ticket link is in the comments too, so consider getting advanced tickets early as this thing is gonna sell out faster than you can sing an F sharp! 🎹 https://theimprovshop.com/show/cherry-bomb-an-improvised-musical/ https://theimprovshop.com/workshop/musicalimprovbagoftricks/

Melanie PennStaff

Hi again, Improv Shop! Big thanks to Taylor Snyder for creating a cool new newsletter formatting that helps us link to the website for show descriptions and the wiki for its inventory of teams. 🤝 And happy birthdays to Charles Harris, Taylor Dukeman, Kevin Miko, Emily Hogan, Alfredo Jahn, Michael Weems, Elizabeth Bolhafner, and everyone celebrating birthdays this week! 🎂🎂 Here's some stuff to look forward to: Thursday Show Programming Thu, May 7, 7:00 PM House Team Night & Jam Basement Family, D.I.C.K, Moist Thu, May 7, 7:00 PM The Menagerie Bumblefuck, Plot Twist, Experi-Mental Thu, May 7, 9:00 PM The Merry-Go-Round Catt Map, Goon Platoon, The Nightcaps, It Wasn't Me Friday Show Programming Fri, May 8, 7:00 PM THE ASTERISK* In this show, we give the suggestion to YOU. Every... (This week's theme is "maternal figures.") Fri, May 8, 7:00 PM Big Team Bash An irresponsible number of improvisers enter the s... (The big teams featured for this show will be Floorplay, Heavy Meadow, and Comic Strip!) Fri, May 8, 9:00 PM Cagematch Cobbler, Mansplain Fri, May 8, 9:00 PM TV Dinner: Sitcom Night with Basement Family Basement Family Knotty By Nature The fiber arts craft club Knotty By Nature meets again this Saturday May 9th between 10:00 and 2:00 at Espresso Yourself Coffee & Cafe! Come bring a craft project and socialize with friends. 🧶 Contact Cassie Ema at crepn2@gmail.com for information! Musical Jam This Saturday May 9th is also the second Saturday of the month, so time for another Musical Jam, 5:00-6:15 in sidestage! The Musical Jam is a free dropin workshop open to anyone regardless of musical ability or improv experience, so tell your friends. Big thanks to Tara O'Nay and Brandon Bowers for facilitating and to Rinn Netherton for MDing! 🎹 Saturday Show Programming Sat, May 9, 7:00 PM We Are 40 Alex turns 40 on May 4th. Janelle turns 40 two mon... Sat, May 9, 7:00 PM Shoes Off: An All Asian Improv Show Shoes off, welcoming you into our home of improv. ... Sat, May 9, 9:00 PM 80085 4 U 80085 Sat, May 9, 9:00 PM Grandma’s Den Hang with Mansplain Just some femmes and a them channeling their dude ... (Manplain will be hosting friend teams Catt Map and Bankrupt.) RUNNING CLUB) This Sunday May 10th, the weekly run+jog+walk meetup convenes again, starting 10:15-10:30 at the Stone Shelter in Tower Grove Park. All paces welcome, so bring friends and dogs! 🏃 Monday Jams This Monday May 11th, come out for more miniworkshops 6:00-6:45-ish: Student Jam with Austin Kellogg! Grad Jam with Nathan Engle! Nathan's workshop will focus on yes-and and trust, and Austin's workshop will focus on spatial work à la "Set Design." 😎 Both will be awesome and fun. Monday Show Programming Mon, May 11, 7:00 PM Teams Level 2 Student Showcase Join our Teams Level 2 students as they showcase t... Mon, May 11, 7:00 PM Teams Level 1 Student Showcase Join our Teams Level 1 students every Monday at 7p... Mon, May 11, 9:00 PM The Gift What’s in the box?! Three improv teams take turns ... (...plus a special musical showcase around 8:30 in mainstage by the Musical Level 2 team Ooogly Boogly!) 🎶 Class Registration About one more week before we start closing class registration for the May-July session, so be sure to register by May 13th for core classes and workshops; HMU if you'd like to set up a payment plan or retake a class with a discount. 🤑 I believe that's a wrap for now, fam! Happy Mothers' Day to all the parents, grandparents, stepparents, petparents, grandpetparents, parental figures, guardians, caretakers, cool aunts, and everyone who has complicated familial relationships. Thanks for sharing your time and care with this theater and this artform; hope you have a great week. 🫶

Melanie PennStaff

Happy almost-May, Improv Shop! 🌼 And happy birthdays to Shannon Russell, Tuesday Badell, Kaylee Vanatta, Julie Gill, Mike Shocklee, Alex Ringhausen, and everyone celebrating birthdays this week! 🎂🎂 Here's some updates, gang: THURSDAY PROGRAMMING - Come out for shows this Thursday April 30th: House Team Night at 7:00 in mainstage with 2zin Tarandon, Sophie Tucker, and Songbird The Menagerie at 7:00 in sidestage with Yes Andersons, Panick Attack!, Oh Geez, and Where It's At The Merry-Go-Round at 9:00 in sidestage with We Need A Name, Experi-Mental, hbh51hbh, and Boyride ...plus The Jam at 9:00 in mainstage with some fresh new and old fave shortform games 🤸 FRIDAY PROGRAMMING - This Friday May 1st, new month + new and returning shows: THE ASTERISK* at 7:00 in mainstage ~ this week's theme is ceremony 🥂 Chaos Gremlins at 7:00 in sidestage where three teams - Spit-Take, Zam Pow!, and Some Black People - play with their respective coaches - Tracey, myself, and Alayna - as we try to wreak chaos on our teams 😈 Cagematch at 9:00 in mainstage with returning champions Mid-Tantrum vs. new challenger Mansplain Welcome to Frog Hollow at 9:00 in sidestage ~ it's the pilot episode of a new location-centric, character-highlighting, TV-series-inspired show QUEER IMPROV JAM - It's the first Saturday of the month this Saturday May 2nd, so time for another Queer Improv Jam, hosted by our friends of Yas And! Queer Jam is a free dropin workshop at 5:00-6:15 in sidestage, open to any LGBTQIA+ participants regardless of improv experience, so tell your friends! 🌈 Speaking of Yas And... SATURDAY PROGRAMMING - Another fun show night to be had this Saturday May 2nd: Yas And Friends at 7:00 in sidestage with Yas And and C-Sweet The One Four Fives present an Improvised Musical! at 7:00 in mainstage Dreamscope at 9:00 in sidestage Harold Houdini at 9:00 in mainstage with two full-length Harold teams Floorplay and Potato Wedgies ...plus the Inaugural Improv Shop Derby at 11:00 in sidestage! There will be horse races, musical performances, and mint juleps at the bar; see Charles's post for information and follow the link to submit names for racehorses. 🏇 RUNNING CLUB meets this Sunday May 3rd at Jefferson Barracks Park, starting around 10:15-10:30 at the Taco Bell Fitness Course. Yep, that's a real thing. Sunday forecast should be sunny and 60s, perfect time to be outside. ☀️ MONDAY JAMS - Come out for more miniworkshops at 6:00-6:50 this Monday May 4th aka Star Wars Day: Student Jam in mainstage with Megs Davis! Grad Jam in sidestage with Jeff Sheary! Big thanks to Megs and Jeff for facilitating, and big thanks to everyone for coming out. 💪 MONDAY PROGRAMMING - It's week #6 in this cycle of student showcases - only two more till graduation! That's two Teams Level 2 showcases in mainstage, plus two Teams Level 1 showcases in sidestage, followed by School Night at 9:00. Do like me on a school night in 1999, stay up too late constructing costumes out of a big trash bag of scrap fabric in your bedroom - except instead of constructing costumes you're watching longform improv and instead of your bedroom you're at The Improv Shop. Ok that's a wrap for now, team. Remember to sign up for core classes or workshops by May 13th if you're planning on taking a class in the May-July session, and lmk if there's anything you need. Thanks for being part of this thing. 💛

Charles HarrisStaff

Many have been asking me about the horses racing in the Inaugural Improv Shop Derby. They say "Charles! What are the names of the steeds that will be partaking in this incredible event?" The answer is that I don't know yet because I'll picking from your name submissions. Here's the form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepU9SYrsbjKE5er-po4zXM3Sy7tK4yQsWiL4nfBjoVq3SSjA/viewform

Touch Baseball

I have heard those three words so many times in my improv career. And I don’t know what it says about me that I take thems as fightin’ words (not really, but also maybe)...

Speaking of The Merry-Go-Round - sign-ups for the June and July of The Merry-Go-Round are now open! The Merry-Go-Round happens every Thursday in Side Stage at The Improv Shop at 9:00 PM, following The Menagerie. Four teams will play in each show. There will be an intermission between the second and third teams. This form is for the run of shows from: June 4, 2026 - July 30, 2026. Please note that there is no show on Thurs. July 2 as The Improv Shop will be closed. This form will close at: Sat May 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM CDT. Teams will be notified via email of the selections by: Monday June 1, 2026. Each person can sign up a single team per run. You will need a Google account to submit your team via the form link below. For more information, and to register your team, please visit https://nsperrin.com/merry-go-round/

Our mission? Turn audience suggestions into a rich, vibrant tapestry of stupid. Your mission? Witness the highest level of effort ever applied to such remarkably low stakes. @goon-platoon

Heeeey Everyone 👋🏾😆! Did you miss last season of POC league? Did you want to see them perform again onstage? Perfect timing 🙌🏾😆! Because we have a show coming this Saturday called, “POC League: Family Reunion Season 1”! 🔥🔥🔥🥓🍣🍝🍛🍗🍟🥗🌯🍔🌮🍕🥪🌭🥟🍳🧇🍞🎂🥧🥞🥯🥟🍚🍢🥫🍤🔥🔥🔥 Come see us on the MainStage at the shop and be a part of this great reunion! It’s going to be amazing! Tell everyone you know! See you there! When: Saturday, May 23rd @ 9pm Where: Improv Shop - MainStage POC League: Family Reunion Season 1 Show Description: The 1st season POC league teams welcome you back for a family reunion! Where It’s At, Late Night Diner, and Whatever are coming to you for a throwback night of joy, color, comedy, and unity. Reunited and it feels so good!

Hey everyone! Open Window this month is Saturday, May 30th at 4 pm on Sidestage! This is a community event designed to give improvisers (or anyone improviser adjacent) an opportunity to meet and get to know each other better. You do not have to be a toastmaster, master storyteller, or writer. Just come and listen to, and potentially tell, some stories! Also, due to the timing of it, let’s do a potluck!! I will add a google sheet to say what you will bring so people don’t bring something someone else is making. The completely optional prompts are: What is something you had to stick with and saw it all the way through? What is something you would preserve or protect from time/damage/change? Someone taught me to ________, and I will never forget it. A peculiar or noteworthy sleep story you may have. I hope to see you there!

Pep LaMarch

Ever been to a show that begins & ends with the ENTIRE audience? If not, here's your chance! It's SQUIGGLE! Sat, May 2 @ 9p Side stage at The Improv Shop - STL!Part improv, part live installation, entirely unpredictable. Featuring 𝒁𝒂𝒎 𝑷𝒐𝒘! (Erin Pazderka, Max Levin) & 𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏? (Nicole Durel & I) The audience will transform a hoodie into a one-of-a-kind souvenir one lucky person gets to keep!a ＤＲＥ▲ Ｍ ＳＣＯＰＥ productionhttps://theimprovshop.com/show/ｄｒｅ▲-ｍ-ｓｃｏｐｅ

The Menagerie

The Menagerie 4/30/26 @UErWvBAM @0jhHxjox @DDFSWv5J @aZBu7J21

Rahul Ragunathan

WE NEED A NAME, alright, so you better start talking. This EXPERI-MENTAL truth serum that we fed you is starting to take effect, so spill it: where can we go tonight to watch four local improv teams perform and have a good time? What’s that? HBH51HBH?? BOYRIDE?? Stop with the gibberish and start talking!!!! …. Aha, THE MERRY-GO-ROUND, TONIGHT AT 9 PM ON THE IMPROV SHOP SIDE STAGE??? Now we’re talking! @pwFVsI2e @UzM9dO-w @TGsfSfhA

Iván Otero

Chaos Gremlins is back this Friday May 1st at 7pm in Side Stage! The concept: 3 improv teams will run their normal form with one catch… their coach will be onstage with them, acting as an agent of chaos to the set. Can these teams survive their own coaches?! Get your tickets here! https://theimprovshop.com/show/chaos-gremlins-3/ Featuring: Spit-Take with Tracey https://improvshop.wiki/team/spittake Some Black People with Alayna https://improvshop.wiki/team/sbp Zam Pow! with Melanie https://improvshop.wiki/team/zampow Flyer artwork by Griffith Moore

Pep LaMarch

One of two I̲s̲ ̲t̲h̲i̲s̲ ̲s̲e̲a̲t̲ ̲t̲a̲k̲e̲n̲?̲ shows this weekend! Come get to know Nicole Durel & I through our form all about getting to know each other!KTK Productions w free parking at Mallinckrodt St & N 14th! Remix of a well-historied chair circa 1400s from the MET NYC public domain works. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/196580 @0VNJqKrP

Appreciate all of the testimonials that were sent in! Means a lot how moving our shows were to people from all walks of life. Come see D.I.C.K, 2zin Tarandon, & Sophie Tucker this Thursday at the Improv Shop at 7 pm @dick @2zin @guQZsxFS

@W1wXLkcJ

Touch Baseball

This was our first ever headlining a slot at festival! Thank you to @thenesttheatre, Tara and Rance, and all of the volunteers who make that place so warm and welcoming. Also to everyone who signed up for our workshops which were BOTH sold out. We had so many folks who took our workshops last year come back and it really filled our cups. So many great improv teams including @celibate_improv and @goonplatoonstl who represented our city so well! Also @nngwe17 and @prowland76 are one of the most fun twosies to watch anywhere. Also, we got to see Here: The Improvised Musical which was so so impressive. Lastly, our show was so sweet and fun. We got to do a 35 minute monoscene about a dad coming to terms with moving his daughter into an apartment several states away. We had the best time laughing and crying real tears with everyone haha. We bought you this off-brand Beanie Baby TM of everyone's favorite *NSYNC "teen" heartthrob, Chris, as a token of our gratitude. We hope to be back soon. Love you.

The concept: 3 improv teams will run their normal form with one catch… their coach will be onstage with them, acting as an agent of chaos to the set. Can these teams survive their own coaches?! Get your tickets here! https://theimprovshop.com/show/chaos-gremlins-2/ Featuring: Floorplay with Slobe Celibate with Leeker Whatever with Sloey Flyer artwork by Griffith Moore @4PmKoJyA @celibate @vnuuoRzm123

Brandon Bowers

Come through and pack the house for THREE new all POC Improv teams

Nathan Engle

Open Window tomorrow! 4pm Sidestage! Come hang out, tell a story or listen to others. Either way it is a good time! Optional prompts: 1. An experience being/having an elder. (Sibling, person of importance, or just when you felt old or young) 2. What would you choose to be the most televised event in the world. 3. A POC who has made a difference in your life. 4. What non-American holidays have you participated in or enjoyed?

You’ve seen Celibate do improv. They’re bold, they’re sexy, they’re drinking Red Bull. But now… Celibate presents “Time is Extremely Ticking”: A 4D Sketch Experience. Every minute counts, even the ones you aren’t counting. Every pre-purchased ticket comes with a FREE Celibate sticker. If we remember. If you remind us. @celibate

It's all gay. Promise.

Hey, come check out our show Missed Connections this Friday. We'll be playing with our friends Thank You, Next! @bHPV7mWG

Touch Baseball

New Substack Post! Is it a Punchline or a Button? Ryan recently wrote about how “trying to be funny” in our improv scenes (and we’re talking specifically about long form improv, here) creates the kind of pressure that distracts us from taking our characters - and their authentic feelings - seriously. Think about your favorite comedic characters from movies and TV […] None of them think they’re funny. They’re not telling jokes (“That’s what she said” excluded). They’re trying to succeed, to be loved, to protect their pride, to get what they want. The comedy comes from how sincerely they pursue those things.