The San Jose Improv is a comedy club located in San Jose, California.
The San Jose Improv is a comedy club located in San Jose, California.
Formerly known as the Jose Theater, built in 1904, is the oldest theater in San Jose, located on Second Street, near San Fernando Street. Construction of the Jose was started in 1903, under the ownership of David Jacks, a Monterey landowner (who was the namesake of Monterrey Jack cheese). At that time, the theater was a popular showcase for stock companies and vaudeville acts.
Despite rumors, neither Charlie Chaplin nor Harry Houdini ever performed at this location, although both toured through nearby San Francisco.
Today, it is home to the San Jose franchise of the famous Improv Comedy Club chain and is owned by LEG.
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
A comedy club is a venue where a variety of comedic acts perform to a live audience. Although the term usually refers to establishments that feature stand-up comedians, it can also feature other forms of comedy such as improvisational comedians, impersonators, impressionists, magicians and ventriloquists.
The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz and Drew Franklin. Other early members included Neil Flynn, Armando Diaz, Ali Farahnakian and Rich Fulcher.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
The Improv is a comedy club franchise. It was founded as a single venue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in 1963, and expanded into a chain of venues in the late 1970s.
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre is an American improvisational theatre company and training center founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh.
The culture of San Francisco is major and diverse in terms of arts, music, cuisine, festivals, museums, and architecture but also is influenced heavily by Mexican culture due to its large Hispanic population, and its history as part of Spanish America and Mexico. San Francisco's diversity of cultures along with its eccentricities are so great that they have greatly influenced the country and the world at large over the years. In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek voted San Francisco as America's Best City.
San Pedro Square is a historic neighborhood of San Jose, California, located in northern Downtown San Jose. One of San Jose's oldest districts, San Pedro Square today is a popular dining and entertainment destination for Downtown.
Charna Halpern is an American comedian who is co-founder of the ImprovOlympic, now known as iO. Upon iO's founding, in 1983, with partner Del Close, she began teaching Harold to many students in the Chicago theater community. Many prominent comedians performed at iO, from Neil Flynn to Jack McBrayer. Also appearing were up and coming comedic minds such as Craig Cackowski.
iO, or iO Chicago, is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater taught and hosted performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The theater has many notable alumni, including Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert.
ImprovBoston is a nonprofit improvisational theater, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers shows and classes its theater in Central Square. Classes are offered in improvisation, stand-up comedy, musical improv, and sketch writing.
The Playground Theater is the only continuously operating non-profit theater in Chicago dedicated to Modern Theatrical Improvisation, a form of theater invented in the city. The Playground was founded in 1997 by its original member companies. Located on Halsted Street, The Playground features performances every night.
SAK Comedy Lab (SAK) is a 250-seat Improvisational Comedy (Improv) theater in downtown Orlando, Florida. SAK's most notable alumnus is actor Wayne Brady, who has played as a guest player in several SAK shows since finding fame as a performer on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Let's Make A Deal, Chappelle's Show, and other projects. SAK's regular performers are referred to as the SAK Ensemble.
Fratelli Bologna is a business theater company based in San Francisco.
The Committee was a San Francisco-based improvisational comedy group founded by Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson. The Myersons were both alums of The Second City in Chicago. The Committee opened April 10, 1963 at 622 Broadway in a 300-seat Cabaret theater that used to be an indoor bocce ball court in San Francisco's North Beach.
Bovine Metropolis Theater was the first dedicated improvisational performance and improvisational comedy theater in the Denver Metro Area. It is located at 1527 Champa Street, Denver, Colorado.
Trevor Michael Wallace is an American comedian, writer, and actor from Camarillo, California. Wallace is a regular on the YouTube channel All Def Digital and has been featured on BuzzFeed, UNILAD, Funny or Die, Super Deluxe, Fusion TV, WorldStarHipHop, and MTV2.
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