CIC Is The Most Influential Improv Institution In Chicago Right Now

*Speaking solely in terms of contemporary influence on the art form, not influence in terms of broader cultural reach, or impact on individual career success.

I’m throwing this hot take out there because I still see and hear the discourse around Chicago-style improv in terms of iO, Annoyance, and Second City. All three are certainly bedrock institutions, but I’d argue that their influence on the development of the art form itself has waned considerably in the past decade+. To me, they’re more facilitators of improv talent rather than innovators of the art.

CIC, on the other hand, successfully created an original style of play that is very much in line with Chicago’s history of boundless, organic improv. Their training curriculum reframes the utility of tag edits away from in-and-out heightening cutaways, to a way to explore established realities within a longform piece via "threads." This puts the focus of the comedy back on discovery within the improv itself, rather than using tags (or other edits) as a mechanism to insert ideas from the backline. There’s more to it (go take their classes!), but that was my biggest takeaway. (I promise this is not an #ad)

I see this exploratory style of play EVERYWHERE in Chicago. Basically any longform set by established improvisers that isn’t explicitly a named form (Harold, Armando, etc) is more likely to use tags to explore established realities through threads rather than the classic “tag in, heighten, tag out” mechanism. I'd guess that many players use tags this way without ever having taken CIC classes! The culture of improv in Chicago has so readily absorbed CIC teachings into the fabric of its collective play that I think it’s become subconscious, likely the same way that UCB-style play is the baseline in NY and LA.

Last bit I’ll say on this: I love that Chicago is rediscovering what it means to be “Chicago-style.” Chicago has always had “organic play” as a central tenet of its improv, but, in my opinion, the improv tools necessary to execute that as a style got murky within the bigger institutions. It feels like CIC ushered in a new way to embody an old ethos, and gave improvisers here a set of usable on-stage tools to create longform pieces that feel tonally specific, and, importantly, are reliably successful (without the need for a manual, zing!).

Would love others’ thoughts! Thanks.