Top 100 Improv'd Quotes
#1. And from these corporal nutriments perhaps Your bodies may at last turn all to Spirit Improv'd by tract of time, and wingd ascend Ethereal, as wee, or may at choice Here or in Heav'nly Paradises dwell;
John Milton
#2. Can we all admit that 'Parks and Recreation' is horrible? Is this something we would all know, but don't say? Maybe everything should not be improv'd.
Andy Kindler
#3. Steve Buscemi is hilarious. He's really, really good with improv.
Steve Carell
#4. Sometimes you have to say the words exactly how they are on the page, but sometimes when you improv, it only helps to get across what's on the page, and I just love working with directors who allow that.
Taraji P. Henson
#5. My background is in improv and writing.
Paul Scheer
#6. You don't want to jump in on your first day on a show and start improv-ing and changing the show.
Geoff Stults
#7. Maybe she was really good at improv. I couldn't be certain she was nineteen or that her name really was Nora Halliday. Maybe she was like one of those sweaters with an innocent little thread hanging off of it: One pull, the whole thing unraveled.
Marisha Pessl
#8. In orthodox film-making, you never shoot sequentially - but with improv, obviously every move you make has a knock-on effect; it is a cumulative process. I have improvised, on the non-scripted 'Timecode.' It can become entirely indulgent: actors smashing crockery and competing verbally.
Saffron Burrows
#9. I'm terrified of improv. Improv in a show or in front of an audience sounds terrifying.
Elizabeth Olsen
#10. When I graduated from college, I moved to New York and started doing improv because I read all about the early 'Saturday Night Live' guys having come through Second City and learning how to improvise, so I wanted to get immediately into that.
Andy Daly
#11. When you do improv, you're everything. You're a performer, writer, and director, because you're moving the scene in the direction you want it to go, you're making it up as you go, and you're acting it.
Rob Reiner
#12. I'll drive down the street, and I'll practice improv. I will sit there at a red light and see two guys talking to each other, and I will just start playing both characters. I can't hear them, but I can see their mouths moving, so I'll just put words in their mouths.
J. B. Smoove
#13. I worked with the Groundlings, doing sketch comedy and improv at a theater here in L.A. It was my hobby, but I took classes and stayed passionate about it because it's what I wanted to do. It just fit. It takes a while before you can actually make money at it. I worked for years.
Fortune Feimster
#14. To improv-nerd-out for a second, it's like the most aggressive yes-anding you can do - if someone's like, "Yeah, you're super thin, right?" And you just pull that into a character and do seven more episodes of the podcast and remember to bring that up.
Jon Gabrus
#15. Every improv must be song specific. It has to grow organically out of the particular elements involved or it's just glib self-expression. I hate when I feel like I'm the lead guitarist in a rock band. We all gotta be going somewhere strong together, you know?
David First
#16. I come from the world of improv; I love any show or any vehicle that gives me an opportunity to be in the moment.
Brad Garrett
#17. I belong to an improv group, I play cello, I have these phases - fencing, tae kwon do, baseball, ice hockey, boogie boarding in the summer, snowboarding in the winter.
Ty Simpkins
#18. Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become stageworthy.
Viola Spolin
#19. I can rap. Not openly in the world, but it's important that people know! I can rap for a very specific reason, which is that in college I was in an improv comedy group, and we did musical improv.
Allison Williams
#20. Yeah, it was always a low-budget passion project. It's my directing debut. I've always wanted to make an improv movie because I have so much experience in it, but it's not a big studio movie. It was an experiment that turned out better than I thought.
Matt Walsh
#21. I am a stage actor. I do mostly improv comedy. The only national television stuff is 'Archer' and' Frisky Dingo.'
Amber Nash
#22. When I was in improv workshops or doing stand-up or writing comedy with others, or just doing comedy, I just laughed. Funny was funny; I loved to laugh. I always liked people I found generally funny.
Michael Keaton
#23. The thing that always fascinated me about improv is that it's basically a happy accident that you think you're initiating.
Tina Fey
#25. I didn't do improv in college, I never performed, I didn't do theater either. I was in student government, I was a history major.
Demetri Martin
#26. Life is improvisation. All of those [improv] classes were like church to me. The training had seeped into me and changed who I am.
Tina Fey
#27. 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
#28. We have over an hour of footage with Ken Marino. Same with Kevin Smith. Because you never know, when you let people who are so talented at improv go, what you're going to get. You don't want to strangle them with your own words, because probably what they're going to say is way better.
Lauren Miller
#29. 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
#30. I'm convinced to do improv. All you have to do is listen to what people are saying to you, and then just add more information to what they've just said. That's all there is to improv, but it's the hardest thing to do.
Ryan Stiles
#31. I write pop songs. But I think it is sprinkled with a lot of counter-culture references. It ranged from rap to hip hop to trip hop, house, drum and bass, and experimental and improv and jazz.
Nelly Furtado
#32. Improv Everywhere tramples the lines drawn between spectacle and spectator, theatre and real life, public and private, performance and protest, and reclaims the streets for ordinary people.
Lyn Gardner
#33. My first time performing was in the black box theater of my high school's basement as a member of 'Clownaz,' the school's improv team. We charged money for tickets, saying the proceeds went to our school's recycling program. Then, immediately after the show, we divided up all the money and kept it.
Joe Mande
#34. We do long-form-style improv. Our focus was characters and telling a long arc story over about an hour and a half. It was closer to a one-act play than one-off sketches.
Tatiana Maslany
#35. I feel like my own background in improv and doing documentaries makes me really comfortable with a situation where you're letting things unfold and you don't have to be a jerk, stomping his feet, trying to get his way on everything.
Seth Gordon
#36. I'm not from that world where you get on your feet and somebody gives you a suggestion and you improv your way through things.
Kevin Dunn
#37. I went to comprehensive school in North London and left without any qualifications [diploma]. And I was doing bits of acting and improv in a drama club in the evenings. Then I discovered you didn't need qualifications to go to art school, you just needed a body of work.
Joe Wright
#38. Working in comedies is not something I set out to do. But, I love it. I've taken some improv classes here and there, but I don't consider myself a comedian by any means.
Erick Chavarria
#39. I think when a lot of actors hear improv, they think of throwing a line in or doing a slightly different take.
Adam McKay
#40. Improv plays such a huge role in finding great lines - you'll be surprised at what comes out of your mind inadvertently. A lot of times it's better than a script you've worked out ahead of time.
Nick Swardson
#41. Improv seemed to replace stand-up, which was very big before that. Stand-up comedy was real hot in the late '80s and through the '90s.
Joe Flaherty
#43. I did improv at Yale, with the Exit Players. It was great, but they played a little rough.
Allison Silverman
#44. Improv classes were too expensive, so I just started going to open mics. And the day I did it, I did, like, three because I just loved it so much. It was so much fun. And it wasn't good, it was just fun to do. It felt like a release.
Michael Che
#45. I like the adrenaline of playing improv - it makes me feel really calm.
Kim Gordon
#46. We use improv in all kinds of fun ways. Sometimes it's to invent or discover new things, sometimes it's to weird out the other actors, and sometimes it's to create a sense of fun, to find new things inside the scripted lines.
Josh Gad
#47. A lot of times, good improv is when both people, or however many people are in the scene, really have no idea what the next thing you're going to say is.
John C. Reilly
#48. I never went to acting school, so improv was my training. Just being quick on your feet helps in everyday life.
Ben Schwartz
#50. Executives and studios really like to have control over their product. They panic or they're not secure enough to trust in the powers of really amazing improv people.
Harland Williams
#51. If you work in Chicago in the improv scene, anyone is happy for you if you get a job.
Steven Yeun
#52. My natural inclination to be improv rather than an educated character serves me well.
Gary Vaynerchuk
#53. With improv, it's a combination of listening and not trying to be funny.
Kristen Wiig
#54. Improv requires one thing I lack that I think most mothers need - the basic instinct to put someone else first.
Jen Kirkman
#55. Believe it or not, this simple phrase, "Yes! And . . ." is the secret of improv.
Amy Lisewski
#56. Maybe it's just my improv and sketch background, but I'm a lot more comfortable in a group. I like sharing focus and populating an ensemble.
Jason Mantzoukas
#57. Improv is a very big thing for me. The thing with actors is I do not understand at all how they do what they do. I'm fascinated by it, and I have such a respect for it.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
#58. Improv is so different, it's such a collaborative thing, you're working with other people, nothing is planned and it's kind of this community mentality, whereas stand-up, you're alone and it was really hard.
Aubrey Plaza
#59. The trouble with improv is that it is often about being funny in the moment without any real consideration for the bigger picture.
Simon Pegg
#60. Tracy Ullman, I grew up watching her shows and standup and improv and specials. Bette Midler and Whoopi Goldberg. They inspire me to do it all. I always wanted to do it all; I never wanted to be put in a box.
Bresha Webb
#61. When I finished my residency in New Orleans, I went to L.A. where I would work as a doctor during the day, and then at night I would actually go to The Improv and do standup, all the while kind of cultivating my comedy resume.
Ken Jeong
#62. My brothers and I always did improv stuff in our basement with our friends; we're super nerds, and that was our way of spending a Friday night.
Tatiana Maslany
#63. I'm a goofball, so I think comedy is one of my stronger points, as an actor. I just never get to do it. But, I'm taking classes at Groundlings, where Will Ferrell and Lisa Kudrow studied, and it's all improv comedy. It feels good to be able to do that and be funny.
Tinsel Korey
#64. Things that make me laugh range from a wonderful stand-up like Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. and Chris Rock to my son Gabe, who does great improv work. I also look backwards to the great comedic actors like Jackie Gleason, Paul Lynde and Phil Silvers.
Jason Alexander
#65. Practice your improv more than learn your lines. 'Cause there's no way you'll be able to learn all those lines in a short time. You have to realize what you know and what you don't know - and what you don't know, just come up with three alternate lines or improv that you can put in that spot.
Anthony Mackie
#66. I haven't done improv since I was in middle school.
Gillian Jacobs
#67. Taking improv has helped every other aspect of my field.
Ben Schwartz
#68. I guess I'm sort of spoiled because, most of the things that I get to do, people know that you're a good improviser, so they allow you at least one improv take, and for comedy, that's great.
Matt Walsh
#69. I worked with Marlon Wayans on the show 'They Wayans Brothers,' and we hit it off. One thing about Marlon, when he casts a movie or a TV show, he expects you to bring it. You've got to be ready to improv, because Marlon will say anything, and you've got to be ready to come back.
Kym Whitley
#70. Is this a generation of orphans who are going to the improv to do stand-up?
Mindy Kaling
#71. When I moved to New York at 22, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I took an improv class, and the first scene I did, I felt like 'I want to do this for the rest of my life.' It was the first time I ever felt like that about anything. I tried to make a living off improv.
Kurt Braunohler
#72. I've always wanted to be an actor. I didn't get into this game to be the best improviser in the world. I didn't choose improv as a stepping stone, it just happened to become one.
Rob Corddry
#73. I know how to have a conversation, but I've never done improv. I've never taken improv classes.
Brie Larson
#74. What brought me to L.A. was work! I moved to Chicago after college - I went to Kalamazoo - did my nerd thing, graduated, and moved to Chicago to pursue improv.
Steven Yeun
#75. When I started stand-up, the first thing I did was to take an improv class.
J. B. Smoove
#76. What I don't like is when I see stuff that I know has had a lot of improv done or is playing around where there's no purpose to the scene other than to just be funny. What you don't want is funny scene, funny scene, funny scene, and now here's the epiphany scene and then the movie's over.
Paul Feig
#77. I graduated from Second City Los Angeles. It helped me tremendously, not only in my roles in films but in helping shape me into a writer as well. In improv, you will fail sometimes, so it teaches you to be brave and try anything. The worst that can happen is nobody laughs.
Carly Craig
#78. And I've always loved commercials. I like working out how to organically weave a brand's message into the writing process. It's like an improv show, where comics ask the audience to throw out a word and a skit is built around it.
Jason Bateman
#79. If a director brings a guy to their movie who does improv, they've got to let him do what he does - otherwise it's like bringing Michael Jordan to your basketball team and telling him to just pass the ball and don't shoot.
J. B. Smoove
#80. What crushed my soul was hanging out with bitter, desperate comics backstage. They're a different breed than the bitter yet eager psyches in the wings of an improv theatre. Struggling stand-ups have externalized self-loathing into an art form. They're a hunching, quaking, unshaven lot.
Scott Adsit
#81. The current Babe Ruth of improv? Sacha Baron Cohen. He's pretty amazing.
Seth Rogen
#82. Improv is what helped me overcome the anxiety that I was feeling sometimes. It's the thing that pushes me to be present, and to keep moving through all of the what-ifs that go through my mind.
Emma Stone
#84. I don't think that many people today, understand the nature of what an improv does for an actor in a specific setting. What an improv does for an actor is help him find the life; it's the life that an actor's after.
Giovanni Ribisi
#85. The good thing about having chemistry is, when you get to the improv section of a scene, you've got somebody to feed off. It can go on and on and on, and the sky's the limit.
Kevin Hart
#86. I did improv for about 10 years professionally, and before that, I had done it in high school as part of an improv team. It was definitely a big part of my upbringing.
Tatiana Maslany
#87. ...playing these physical and imaginative group games instantly creates community connection.
Hannah Fox
#88. I've been working straight since 2003, so I might just want to take an improv or theater class. That excites me. I can't wait to do different characters - not necessarily the leading chick who gets the guy, but the weird, freaky cousin.
Fergie
#89. I take improv classes. Improv is something I can use in any aspect of life.
Vinny Guadagnino
#90. After going to theater school, and then subsequently dropping out, I would say that when I first went to Chicago and learned long-form improv, that was a far better acting workshop than any acting school I've been to.
Thomas Middleditch
#91. If you are in an improv jazz ensemble or a small chamber group, you learn to think fast on your feet and how to be flexible and to collaborate and compromise, and that may yield a creative outcome.
J. Richard Hackman
#92. You have to be able to fail with the improv. You have to not care.
Adam McKay
#93. For the last 30-plus years, I have been doing one long, uninterrupted improv.
Henry Rollins
#94. Many of the people I've worked with over the years came from a sketch-comedy background or an improv background, and I've learned a lot from them.
Megan Mullally
#95. Improv kind of goes hand in hand with what I do. I was on 'Reno 911!' for six years, and that was a completely improvised show.
Nick Swardson
#96. Well people love to go dirty and stuff like that. It's funny, because even really dirty things can kind of inspire, but all things inspire really dirty improv and monologues. So then really dirty things can inspire the exact opposite. It's kind of a crapshoot.
Amy Poehler
#97. I think for anyone - male or female - in improv, the biggest thing to get over is the fear. I think every improviser has that.
Rachel Dratch
#98. I always loved acting and improv and sketch comedy and theater, which I did at a local youth theater.
Emma Stone
#99. These games create a space for us to play together and connect with our joy; they also develop imagination, confidence, critical thinking, trust, connection and understanding within groups
Hannah Fox
#100. I joined an improv group in college, which was a lot of fun. After I graduated, I moved to Chicago to try to get into the Second City.
Steve Carell
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
