Participating in improv is one of my worst nightmares. I can't imagine being onstage and not knowing what's coming up next, having to make things up on the fly, and trying to be funny on top of it all. However, I married my opposite. Ben T. decided to try improv after having been an actor on the side a few times, and he loved classes at Atlas. I will leave it to him to fully review the classes here, but I will say that he had a lot of fun, learned a lot, and met some really cool people (who he then introduced me to!).
At the end of the improv course, you can participate in a class show. For me, this would be one of those "opportunities" that I would rather pass up. But Ben was really excited about it -- And I was very excited to be an audience member and see what he had learned over the course of 10 weeks. I was lucky to have met a few of the other improv course attendees, and I really think it added something special to the show to know a few people participating in it.
Atlas is in a great location, although I found the parking lot difficult to find on a dark night. I ended up parking in a nearby parking lot and hoping I wouldn't be ticketed. The inside of Atlas is really cozy and cute, and the people up front were friendly. Since I was there early and by myself, I was seated right up front. The seating is a bit close together... So I made a new friend, the person sitting next to me!
The show was hilarious. It reminded me a lot of Whose Line is it Anyway, which I used to LOVE and cry-laugh watching. The emcees (course instructors) were funny, friendly, and encouraging. The point system can get crazy, like it was on Whose Line, which adds to the fun. The audience was great at throwing out ideas when solicited for what we ate for breakfast or random letters of the alphabet, although to be honest even this made me nervous. I think I was just waiting for some point where they would drag someone on stage or something like that, but we were safe in the audience!
I can't wait to make it here for the "real" non-student shows. If the students learned that much in 10 weeks at Level 1 I think the more experienced people would be insanely talented. I was very proud of Ben T. and the rest of his class!