Improv Quotes

#1. I'm not a huge fan of improv theater or improv sports or whatever, because it still just looks like a tool. It looks like a technique to me.

John Michael Higgins

#2. I remember being upset because I was finally legal to drink in Canada, and I decided to throw that all away and move to America, where I had to wait another two years. I came here to do improv and to try to join the Groundlings.

Ryan Reynolds

#3. I've always felt that improv looks and feels more clever when you're there to experience it live than when you have the degree of separation that television creates. Television raises expectations.

Alan Thicke

#4. One of the favorite games I play, when I improv or take on a character, is what I like to call arrogant ignorance. That's the game I enjoy playing most.

Rob Riggle

#5. My background is all comedy. I've been doing improv since I was 17. It's funny, because when I meet people, I'm known as this guy who will punch you in the face or throw you out a window, when I also have a background in comedy.

Derek Mears

#6. I often tell my students that you can't worry about the end of an improv scene because the end is not up to you. You just play as hard as you can until someone changes the scene. The scene has changedthe end is not up to us.

Mark Sutton

#7. I love improv. 'Crazy, Stupid, Love,' the script was really great, but the directors were open to letting you try different things. And that felt like a muscle I hadn't exercised in a really long time.

Emma Stone

#8. I know now for a fact that improv can't hold a candle to doing standup. It's not the same buzz, it just isn't. It feels infantile to me at times. When you see guys who do it really well, great. But improv needs a rewrite.

Ron James

#9. I took an improv class in 2005 in Chicago at ComedySportz, which was short-form, more of a games-based improv. I remember it being real fun and helping with my stand-up. If I did an improv class, and then I did stand-up later, I felt looser on stage and more comfortable.

Hannibal Buress

#10. I got involved with an acting school and studied for a couple years. They used to have improv exercises that you would work on and you would do improvs.

Barry Levinson

#11. I'm not much of an improv guy. That's a talent I don't have.

Henry Rollins

#12. Improv relies just as much on listening as it does you delivering dialogue. That's the hard for some people. Some people just concentrate on what they're going to say, and they're not listening. You have to listen in order to see where the other person is going to.

J. B. Smoove

#13. It was improv that really helped me start coming up with recipes and just believe in my instincts. That's why the first recipe I made up was 'I Ain't Chicken Chicken' because I finally felt bold and fearless in the kitchen, which was an entirely new feeling for me.

Aarti Sequeira

#14. Even though I do a more traditional type of being funny on television, I still know a lot of comedians and stand-ups and improv actors.

Busy Philipps

#15. I've always loved improv. It's my thing.

Oscar Nunez

#16. When I worked with Robin Williams, now there is improv! He is just as funny as you think he is. We did at least five or six takes of every scene, improvising every scene differently. He was a riot.

Stephen Root

#17. I was always drawn to performing. I took improv and acting classes during the summers and was involved in middle and high school plays. But when I discovered indie and punk music in high school, those things sort of took over.

Carrie Brownstein

#18. I know the benefits of having a really great improv show are amazing because it was this one rare and fleeting thing that was incredible, but the risk just didn't appeal to me. I liked the control of sitting down and writing things.

Allison Tolman

#19. Very rarely do I talk off the top of my head on stage. I'm not an improv guy. I'm a writer-guy who presents what he's written.

Steven Wright

#20. '24' is a pretty serious show - there isn't a lot of improv that is happening. Having said that, I do play around with the delivery. A lot of the humor comes from playing a character who is very furious and really up in her own brain and in a serious situation. That is humorous to me.

Mary Lynn Rajskub

#21. I feel confident writing on my feet with improv, but it's different when you're sitting down and writing it out.

Amy Sedaris

#22. You need to know what doesn't work to know what works. It's especially true in improv and stand-up.

Mike Birbiglia

#23. We have a full writers' room, and with something like 'MyMusic,' we've scripted it out with professional writers. There is some very basic improv from the actors, but everything is very to the letter, so it's easy to edit down to an episode. There are fun little things an actor might throw in there.

Benny Fine

#24. You know how sports teach kids teamwork and how to be strong and brave and confident? Improv was my sport. I learned how to not waffle and how to hold a conversation, how to take risks and actually be excited to fail.

Emma Stone

#25. I never did improv professionally, but that was certainly in my training as an actor. I like it.

Steve Buscemi

#26. In the happy scenes there were really fun times. Sean would say really funny stuff because he likes to improv. I would want to laugh, but you are not allowed to do that during the take.

Dakota Fanning

#27. In jazz improv, there is no such thing as wrong notes, only notes that are better chosen and it's not about the note you play, it's about the note you play next.

Larry Carlton

#28. An improv team would have eight guys and one woman; that was still pretty standard. If you were a woman improviser, it was actually kind of an advantage because, if you were halfway decent, you'd get a lot more stage time.

Rachel Dratch

#29. It may seem like improv because it flows quite naturally, and a little bit of leeway for improvisation is good, but you have to be judicious with it. So it's good, but sometimes people deify it. You can't improvise your way out of a paper hat.

Steve Coogan

#30. I did sketch comedy, but I never did improv. So I've just tried to learn as I go.

John Oliver

#31. I miss improv. I hate it in a way - watching it, doing it - but only because it's so challenging and nerve wracking. Improv is the only belief system I've ever experienced that directly works on how to be. Just how to be.

Ilana Glazer

#32. Sometimes with films you have a freedom to be able to, Okay, we got that take so let's try another one where suddenly I'll say this, or you'll get to improv. You can't do that with stage. We have to make it new every time, and also within the structured settings.

Sebastian Stan

#33. Working on a sitcom and improv improves your comedic chops. If you do it long enough, the one thing you learn to do is listen to the other characters.

Diedrich Bader

#34. What happens in improv is you create your own storyline.

J. B. Smoove

#35. I love doing improv. I love comedy. I have always felt this way, even when I was really young.

Dakota Johnson

#36. My prayer is improvised - though like some standard jazz performance, the improv happens within pretty strict parameters - and asks for nothing.

Darin Strauss

#37. I don't like working by a monitor. I stand right next to the camera, and I'm very performance-oriented. That really means everything to me, whether it's doing an improv of a joke or an emotional scene, and everything in between.

Drew Barrymore

#38. I'm a comedy geek so anything comedy related, whether that's standup shows, improv shows, I'm all over that. That's my favorite way to be entertained always.

Rashida Jones

#39. If you're an actor, if you're not writing as well, or you're not going to improv classes, there are long spurts where you're not physically in production - unless you're Channing Tatum at this moment right now - where you need to be doing something.

Bret Harrison

#40. Bad improv happens with people who are inexperienced with each other and don't know the craft that well. But bad stand-up is something that could happen to someone at any level in their career.

Kristen Schaal

#41. I think there's something really freeing about improv, that it's a collective, creative, in-the-moment piece. That's really exciting and really frustrating, because it's there and gone. There's an amazing interaction with the audience that happens because they are very much another scene partner.

Tatiana Maslany

#42. I don't even think you should tell the audience you're improvising. It's like an apology in case it's bad : 'we're just making it up' If the improv isn't better than the rehearsed stuff, then you should just rehearse it.

Keith Johnstone

#43. I started doing improv when I was 8 years old, so it's always been in my life. I would feel naked without it.

Jillian Bell

#44. Honestly, my biggest education regarding improv comedy actually came on the job working for 'My Boys.'

Reid Scott

#45. I had been on this improv team at this really great improv theater. It's called iO now. It used to be called Improv Olympic. They have showcases for Lorne Michaels and other writers and people who work at 'SNL' usually about once a year, although I don't know if it always happens.

Vanessa Bayer

#46. Well, actually, the Second City thing came about because I was taking a few improv classes there. I thought that the improv classes would help with my wrestling career, which it has.

Trish Stratus

#47. Coming out of Dallas and doing commercial work in Dallas - if you had improv background in Dallas, then you were instantly shot to the top of the list of commercial bookings because they loved improvisers because you could elevate the material.

Allison Tolman

#48. What I think improv is great for is making dialogue more natural.

Chris O'Dowd

#49. All improv turns into anger. All comedy improv basically turns into anger, because that's all people know how to do when they're improvising. If you notice shows that are improvising are generally people yelling at each other.

Albert Brooks

#50. You can't improv off of bad writing. Then you have to actually create your objective, which is really hard to do in an element without the skeleton to go off of.

Eliza Coupe

#51. After college, I knew I wanted to work in comedy, so the first thing I did was go to where the comedy was. I moved from Charlottesville to Chicago, because that's where The Second City and Improv Olympics are. You have to go wherever you need to go to study what interests you.

Tina Fey

#52. When your set is led by a great guy and visionary like Director Tim Miler and a true superstar talent like Reynolds who's so easy to connect and improv with it allows it to be a lot of fun along the way.

Kyle Cassie

#53. I went to a French immersion school, and French-Canadian improv is a big thing, and we had an improv team at school, and 12 of us would get up and make things up against other elementary schools. I'd always wanted to perform, and that was just another extension of it.

Tatiana Maslany

#54. I always wanted to be a stand-up comedian, even as a kid. Me and my dad would watch 'Evening at the Improv' on A&E.

Adam DeVine

#55. I come from a background where I like collaboration and improv. I think that it is important.

Darren Boyd

#56. Sometimes I think your intellect can get in your way as an actor or an artist. When you come from a world of improv and comedy, you're able to let it flicker and fall out.

Paul Dano

#57. I took one class at Second City called Improv for Actors, and that was it, and that was only because my agent told me I had to.

Timothy Simons

#58. In improv, the whole thing is that it is a relationship between the two people, as a back and forth. In standup, you don't really want to be listening to what somebody is saying; you want to project your jokes into their face.

John Oliver

#59. I love improv so much. Listening. I think that's the key. When you improvise, you put a lot of pressure on yourself to create, and to be generating information, and trying to be funny, but if you just listen to what's being said to you, and then react honestly, you generally get better results.

Rob Riggle

#60. I've done lots of improv things but not a whole movie.

Martin Short

#61. I love improv. I do it with my co-star John Michael Higgins in both 'Pitch Perfect' films.

Elizabeth Banks

#62. When improv is bad, it's excruciating to watch, and to be involved with it is a unique type of torture.

Zach Woods

#63. Chicago was where I realized that improv is its own thing, its own art form. And through that, you kind of develop a work ethic of not selling it short.

Thomas Middleditch

#64. It's so cliche, but I love the feeling you get from improv that anything can happen. The audience is already accepting that there are no props or costumes or furniture, so the performers can be anywhere doing anything; cut from underground to space, and it doesn't matter.

Andy Daly

#65. When it comes to improv, Specifics beget specifics.

Craig Cackowski

#66. Sometimes I'll start a sentence and I don't know where it's going. I just hope to find it somewhere along the way. Like an improv conversation. An improversation.

Michael Scott

#67. I came to New York and started doing stand-up and improv, and started auditioning for commercials and voiceovers and stuff. My first job was on a pilot of that prank show called 'Boiling Points' on MTV.

Nick Kroll

#68. I think it's a lot richer than what we call fleshy improv, I think it's very funny, puppet improv and fleshy improv.

Brian Henson

#69. Improv is not something I had a lot of experience with, because for a long time, my only experience in front of a camera was all television, which is pretty rigid script-wise, except for the occasional scene where you toss in an ad-lib just to elongate something.

Gary Cole

#70. I grew up in Iowa, and the improv comedy club Comedy-Sportz across the river in Illinois held auditions. They took me even though I was only 16 - you really had to be 18, but they never checked me for ID.

Eric Christian Olsen

#71. I'm a very anxious person, and it's hard for me to be in the moment. Improv demands that you be in the moment.

Zach Woods

#72. When I was in primary school, I was given a five-line script in 'Anansi the Spider Man,' and I decided to just improv and make it my own. For a second, I felt like Kevin Hart because everyone was laughing. I just continued to do it. Why not?

John Boyega

#73. My brother was an improviser. He's now a lobbyist, but he used to perform improv in the city when he was in high school, and one of the funniest guys I know to this day.

Jake Johnson

#74. I'm an actor first and foremost, who happens to do improv. I've also done sitcoms, I've done stage.

Wayne Brady

#75. Generally, I've found that a heckler in an improv audience is just enjoying the show so much that they want to be in it.

Scott Adsit

#76. I started doing improv my sophomore year.

Rachel Dratch

#77. I don't like improv at all. It terrifies me. I like to know exactly what I'm going to say. Being surprised does make me a better actor. Anytime I'm afraid of something that makes me rise to the occasion, it scares me, but it's what makes great actors - being in the moment.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

#78. As they say, there are two rules in improv: Never say no, and never ask why. When another actor asks 'Why?' or says no to something you're suggesting, then it's very clear that they're putting the onus on you, because they're not comfortable with it themselves.

Johnny Galecki

#79. I'm gonna be pretty honest; there wasn't a lot of improv allowed on 'Eclipse.'

Justin Chon

#80. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do when I get there, but that's why someone invented the fine art of improv. Or, when that fails, stalling.

Danielle Ellison

#81. I still do live concerts all over the country - about four a month - with singing and characters and improv. It keeps me limber. I'll never lose that. And comedy is still the bread and butter.

Martin Short

#82. I'm not a one-stop music shop with jazz improv in aisle 3 and country and western in aisle 4. I have a fairly focused and established kind of melody and approach, so people know what they're getting into when they go into business with me.

Charlie Clouser

#83. When I'm working with improv people, I give them the green light to just bring it and try things.

Jon Favreau

#84. Whatever is on the page is what I'm married to. I'm very prepared. I'm a thespian. I don't like to improv. I don't like to go off course 'cause I think that's where stuff happens. When you stick to the material 'cause it's written so well, that's where the magic happens.

Kevin Hart

#85. I was once doing an improv show and it was my turn to jump on stage and I fell on my face. It's a really terrible way to start a show.

Brea Grant

#86. The thing about the performance part ... starting with improv and standup, you're starting with yourself as the character, and I don't feel as much like, 'Oh, I'm a vessel for -' I feel like someone who calls themselves an actor is a vessel.

Ilana Glazer

#87. Improv has been immensely beneficial to me as both an actor and a writer.

Jim Rash

#88. I met Kevin when I was 19, at a Second City workshop. We were paired up together in the first class I went to. By the end of the class we formed our improv group, and over the next three years we performed leading up to the formation of The Kids in the Hall.

Dave Foley

#89. Improv training allows you to get out of your head a little bit and take more risks, which is something I would like to continue to improve upon.

Allison Tolman

#90. For 'Iron Man' I had to improv with Robert Downey Jr., which is like going up against LeBron in basketball. At one point he stopped and said, 'Can we give a round of applause to Olivia, because she's rocking it right now.'

Olivia Munn

#91. Stand-up is the scariest thing - whether it's TV, movies, improv - stand-up is the worst.

Melissa Peterman

#92. Harvard is Classical Military Theory, Improv is Vietnam

Tina Fey

#93. I was never that good on stage with live improv. I was much better on film or writing something and then thinking about it. I was too in my head when I was on stage.

Bill Hader

#94. There's always way less improv than people think. The truth is something like 15 percent.

Adam McKay

#95. Almost every college playwright or sketch or improv comedian was sort of aware of Christopher Durang - even kids in high school. His short plays were so accessible to younger people and I think that was inspirational to me.

Mindy Kaling

#96. I think that I can improv.

Jane Levy

#97. I love improv-ing, you know, from very early on when I started acting the school that I went to and everything was very big on ad-libbing and improv-ing and messing things up, so I feel very comfortable doing stuff like that.

Jennifer Lopez

#98. My life is like a song and I think I know the words,
And as I start to sing along the whole verse becomes a blur.
So I freestyle improv, make mistakes and evolve,
The obstacles repeat, cause naturally it revolves.

MURS

#99. From there, I tried out for a community theatre play, joined an improv group ... it all started opening up.

Kevin James

#100. But, yes, I learned everything working in theater. I learned the importance of community - I was constantly going to play readings, stand-up nights, improv. nights.

Elizabeth Meriwether