These are some truly amazing improvisers that trained at some of the top improv schools. This group, Bleach, does a lot for the local improv community and they create some amazing opportunities for new improvisers to grow. I have been to a lot of the Bleach shows and find them consistently hilarious and entertaining, one of the best groups in town, and they have performed and been invited to perform in several improv festivals around the US. They are among the few who I recommend people learn from in Vegas. They are among the few who I recommend people learn from in Vegas.
As with any art form, and especially improv comedy since it is being co-created on the spot, is sometimes the show doesn’t hit. Every one of your favorite stand-up comedians has flopped on stage, and sometimes your favorite athletes fall short. Everyone fails before they succeed. One beautiful lesson to learn in life, is not to measure yourself or others by the inevitable short-comings that come along with the path of learning and working on an art-form, and to not assign binary judgements to something, someone, or yourself, especially when you are judging based off of one moment. And that’s something that doing something like improv really teaches you, to accept failing and to risk failure is a way to embrace, experience, and live life.
Not every art form is for everyone to enjoy or do, and that’s ok, because the diversity of tastes and interests is what brings new ideas and perspectives, and gives homes for all types of people.
As Steve Kaplan points out what is funny to someone is “subjective”, and what is funny is not always comedy. A lot of people don’t know the difference, and think that if something didn’t make them personally laugh, then it wasn’t comedic or the entity is not comedic. And a lot of people make a judgement against improv based off of not understanding what it is or because the art form itself isn’t their taste. I don’t care much for magic shows, but that doesn’t invalidate magic shows and I wouldn’t tell people not to go just because I don’t like magic shows.
There is something terrifying about going out on stage in front of strangers and friends without anything scripted and creating something on the fly with a team. And there is something exhilarating and empowering when you succeed at creating that thing, and bringing joy to other people. And there is a lesson and strength that comes with failing to do so. Improv will change your life for the better of you are open to it. And you don’t have to be “funny,” to be successful at it. As Kaplan says in this long but spot on quote, “Comedy is telling truth of what it is to be human. And who are we? We’re a motley crew, hurtling through the void in a cold, uncaring universe, not knowing where we came from, not knowing where we're going, trying our best in our fumbling, bumbling human way, to make each and every moment in that universe as good as we possibly can, or just a little bit better than the moment before. We’re a species who continue to get up after being knocked down, either because we’re too stupid or stubborn or hopeful to continue to stay down where it’s safe, and where we’ll all end up anyway. It’s stupid, futile, hopeless. But no matter how hopeless we are, how pitiful, how pathetic, how wrong-headed, how selfish, how petty our solutions, it's also wonderfully, gloriously human. And the comedian is simply the courageous person who gets up in front of a large group of strangers and admits to, simply confesses to being human—telling the truth about herself, and others. People may be sitting the dark thinking, ‘I’m a failure, I'm defeated, I'm all alone.’ The comic artist goes out there and says, ‘Me too.’”
I don’t do a lot of Reddit, but if you need further verification that I’m not of bot or purchased account, feel free to dm me and I’ll give you my other social media handles, unless your the Peter guy in the above comments, as I’m not really looking to associate with people who are looking to tear down others.