Improvisation reminds us to enjoy each moment as it happens, say “yes, and..”, and be playful.   Today we take a moment to say THANK YOU for joining us to create so many fun moments this year… over 12,003 of them!

12,003 is the actual number of tickets and registrations this past year (including 4,254 of those were complimentary tickets), each representing someone joining us for an improv class, show, or workshop.  More importantly, each of these moments were the start of bringing more joy and laughter to someone’s life… including ours! 

We are incredibly grateful for each of these opportunities and the moments of playful that you shared with us.  

Shows

Total show attendance  9,133! 

(not counting festival weekend)  So many people enjoying improvisational theater!  Some highlights…

• “The World According To…” introduced us to over 50 community personalities including JJ Virgin, Bent Pitch, Wicked Tongues, Whitney Shay, Micah Parzen, Gill Sotu, Angie Bunch, Amber Mesker, and Sara Abernathy.  Erin and Matt
• Amy got to fulfill a dream of being President Hillary in the show created by Marc Warzecha and Andy Cobb of The Second City.  Featuring Jesse Suphan and Christine Fairfax, it played to sold out audiences and word is it will be back this Fall!  Please vote for us 🙂
• Twistered: A Wickedly Ridiculous Wizard of Oz was more fun than we could have imagined with a super ensemble cast of Christine Fairfax, Erica Clermont, Brian Teng, Kevin Six, Kat Brown, Chris George, and John True (piano).  584 people enjoyed this zany sketch comedy!  Our biggest show yet!  And, no, we never want to deal with that many costumes and props again 😉
• In the works for over a year, we finally launched BrewSchool’d!  with Groundswell Brewery, Karl Strauss, Greenflash’s Cellar 3.  This show is really taking off and we are currently booking it onsite at breweries all over San Diego in 2016!  Drinking and laughing… if we must 🙂
• We had two great shows created and produced by ensemble members this year.  
  • Redneck Romeo and Juliet was created by Paul Cross and included a huge cast of ensemble members.
  • Almost 500 people came out for The 3 and a Half Star Musical created by Peggy Walkush with help from ensemble members Kevin Langdon, Nancy Langdon, Simon Pond, Jordan Liberman, and many more!
• We are proud to have hosted Inner Mission Production‘s Vagina Monologues, helping them to raise over $3,500 for Break the Silence Against Domestic Violence.
• We capped off a fantastic year with more irreverence in our send up on the dreaded office holiday party with It’s F**king Christmas! Over 300 people donned ugly sweaters and other festive gear and joined us for the most ridiculous holiday celebration in town. We especially enjoyed creating this show collaboratively with a dedicated group of ensemble members and students.  The press had a lot of fun introducing our cast to the public and helped expose Finest City Improv to a wider audience.  We are looking forward to next year’s version!

Community Outreach, Charity, & So Much Fun!

• We participated in a super rainy PRIDE parade!  Looking forward to 2016’s parade!
• We donated our talents to Over the Edge For Brain Cancer.
• We helped make the Music and Sports Combine a fun time for all, benefiting Movember and the San Diego Girls Alliance.
• The World According To… Jessica Yaffee, raised $1,000 for No Silence No Violence.
• A crew of ensemble members brought improvisation to the folks at TedX AFC, held on the campus of SDSU.
• Our performers delighted families at a show at the Poway Library
• We sent a great group of house team members to perform at the Del Mar Fair
• We held our first IMPROM, which was a ton of fun and helped us raise much needed funds to upgrade our sound proofing in the theater (almost completed!)
• We launched the Project Spotlight competition to allow community members to take over our stage on Thursday nights.  Congrats to our first winners “Super!”  Come see them on January 28th, February 25th, and March 31st!
• We hosted the 2nd annual San Diego Improv Festival which brought over 300 people for a dozen workshops and hosted 35 different teams! Tickets and workshops are on sale soon for the 2016 festival featuring Susan Messing and Rachel Mason from Chicago.
• Amy delivered a mostly improvised presentation at IGNITE! San Diego for 300 people asking them “Why Not?!”  Watch her presentation titled “Improvisation will help you conquer the world.”
• In October, Amy served as the announcer for TedX San Diego at Copley Symphony Hall.
• In December, Amy improvised a story at The Narrators, which is now featured online on The Narrators Podcast.
• We made a film for the 48-hour Film Festival!

Training Center

• We welcomed 197 new improv students through fourteen Level One classes this year.
• We offered 51 core classes (levels 1-5) and 8 electives (clown, musical improv, acting, games)
• A huge congratulations to our 64 Graduates in 2015! (See the full list!) So many of them are still performing in indie groups or with our house teams, too!
• Through highly attended auditions, we added three new incubator teams, now regular house teams:  Goose Nation, Black Belt Siblings, and Camelflage.  These teams provide some of our graduates the opportunity to play in weekly shows so they can continue to grow their craft.
• Dozens of new teams such as Fairly Local, Mostly Icing, We’s The Same, Krispie Meme, Tribal Luminescence, and Whiskey Bitch formed out of class groups!
• Drop-in classes were a huge hit providing weekly work-outs to all levels.  Total drop-in class attendance was 589 over 60 classes with more than 20 different teachers from our ensemble.
• We provided eight Free Discover Improv days that reached a total of 269 people!
• We welcomed Jeffrey Ingman, Erica Clermont, Vanessa Anton, and Keith James to our faculty.
• We held our first coach and teacher development program, which helped 6 advanced improvisers become coaches and teachers.

Press

We are incredibly thankful for the press that we have begun to receive with the help of Mixte Communications.  Our community does such wonderful work and we love to make sure that their shows are seen by as many people as possibile!  Some highlights…

• Kat, Jesse, Jack Grubb, and Erica Clermont appeared on Fox 6 to promote the holiday show
• Kat, Jesse, and Erica spent a morning goofing around with Brad Perry on KUSI
• Erica Clermont, performer and new teacher, was featured in the Union Tribune, sharing how improv has improved her life in the piece “Making Life A Laughing Matter”.
• Amy was featured as a “Kick-ass Entrepreneur” in the Union Tribune.
• Amy was interviewed by She Means Business radio and Women Leading The Way radio

Visiting Artists

We offered 19 master class workshops (in addition to the SDIF 2015) with a total attendance of 233.  Our visiting artists included:

Emily Candini, Mark Beltzman, Jen Curran, Red Bastard (Eric Davis), Craig Cackowski, Chad Diamini, Red Door, Opening Night (Shulie Cowen), Paul Vaillancourt, Ptolemy Slocum, Kelly Buttermore and Justin Peters, Micah Sherman, Karen Graci, Marc Warzecha

Improv for Business

We know that improvisation can help everyone in their lives and their work and had the privilege of working with dozens of organizations this year outside the theater.

Some highlights include…

• Kat and Amy travelled to South Carolina to bring improv to Mary Morrissey’s Alpha Omega Institute.
• We provided both shows and workshops for celebrity nutritionist JJ Virgin.
• We partnered with “The Queen of Sales Conversions” Lisa Sasevich to help her Invisible Close clients be more confident and say “Yes, and!”
• We once again were a part of Greenflash Brewery’s end of year retreat and collaborated with them for our first off-site BrewSchool’d show!
• We worked with the leadership teams at the Art Institute, San Diego Trading Company, the San Diego Museum of Man, Kaiser, and other great San Diego companies.
• A team of our talented performers helped bring Sabra Hummus and IBM events to life.
• For the second year in a row, Amy hosted the Roast of the Commodore for the San Diego Yacht Club along with Kat Brown and Jesse Suphan.
• Amy delivered five improv workshops to five Vistage groups in San Diego and San Francisco (approximately 50 corporate leaders learned about the improvisational mindset and it’s value for team building and innovation!)

Want more awesome moments from 2015?

Check out this six-minute slideshow of some of our favorite moments!