Is Dropout.Tv The Great Improv Disruptor?

has the next big thing in improv already arrived?

Will Hines

Apr 12, 2025

Two things I think about:

What will the next big thing in improv comedy be?
In what form, will some kind of TV accept improvised shows?

The answer to both might be Dropout.

The Dimension 20 Juggernaut

Dimension 20, the improvised Dungeons and Dragons show headed by improviser/actor/writer Brennan Lee Mulligan, is a juggernaut. Famously, they are so popular they successfully hosted a sold out show at Madison Square Garden this past January. They run on the streaming service Dropout.tv and are one of the big reasons for the success of that platform.

Along with podcasts that have huge Patreon subscriptions (The Doughboys, Blank Check etc) - Dimension 20 is big enough that its existence challenges whether we need TV Studios or film productions. The people can fund their entertainment directly - who needs studios?

But while they are shaking the foundations of big studio entertainment, is Dimension 20 (and Dropout.tv in general) also shaking up long-form improv?

Dimension 20 and Dropout Are Improv Shows

Dimension 20 is not an improv show in the classic sense. But the shows are improvised in that they are not scripted. There’s not studio giving notes on the shows and making them re-record segments. And the players are almost all trained improv comedians. Brennan himself was a teacher and top player at UCB in New York. I don’t think anyone would argue against the idea there’s a lot of long-form improv magic mixed into the Dimension 20 cauldron.

Many shows on Dropout.tv have improvised components and feature many improv comedians. Game Changer and Make Some Noise asks its contestants to improvise characters and bits and sketches throughout. Although it’s not as freeform as a long-form show, it captures of lot of the fun of an improvised show.

The head of Dropout.tv, Sam Reich, was one of the only people who made online video work in a way that gained a huge audience and was also profitable. Maybe he’s gonna get improv to the masses, also.

Dropout is Solving Improv For TV

I’ve written before about the frustration of pitching improv to television people. The problem is that they fundamentally do not accept that the act of making things up is a funny thing to do. They want to squeeze out the part that’s improvised. As I say in that essay, imagine substituting “baseball” for “improv” for the ideas TV execs like.

Let’s tape 3 baseball games and show the best parts of all 3.
Let’s script 1/2 the baseball game.
Let’s get the players to do 3-5 minutes version of baseball tricks with props.

But on Dropout, they are letting improv comedians be funny largely unedited / unaltered. No, it’s not completely free form. But it’s way closer to a long-form improv show than anything I’ve seen.

And they are finding an audience. This might be the thing that convinces TV folks that improv works. Or it might be the thing that kills TV outright.

The Next Big Thing

Improv theaters seemed to peak in the early 2010s. UCB had two theaters in two cities. iO moved into a massive complex. Tina Fey’s autobiography Bossypants was inspiring a new genertion of folks to try improv.

Then, the bubble burst. By the late 2010s, it seemed the big theaters couldn’t pay their bills. After 2016, #MeToo highlighted sexual misconduct that had gone on at all theaters. iO West shut down, Second City started buckling, and The Covid pandemic came along and seemed to put the bail in the coffin. UCB closed, got sold, and came back at 1/4 the size.

Now, it feels like improv has returned, albeit in a diminished size. UCB is healthy in LA. Veterans are selling improv shows for big ticket prices (Ben Schwartz and Friends, Ultimate Improv Show, Dinosaur Improv, not to mention podcasts hosted by UCB alum like How Did This Get Made?)

I keep thinking that the only thing missing is a new young team to show up and finish revitalizing the community. Some group of people too talented to worry about doing it “right,” too young to be reverent about the “rules.” I think about how Hot Sauce shook up UCB NY in the mid-2000s, and how Derrick Comedy won Cagematch a ton before they dominated YouTube with their sketch comedy.

That may still happen. That may BE happening. UCB features a ton of young talent. My theater WGIS and the other LA indie scenes are giving stage time to people much earlier than they would have been able to get it during what I’m describing as improv’s “peak” in the early 2010s.

But maybe the young talented upstart is Dropout.tv! Disruptors never look like what you expect.

Plugs

The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC!
How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re broke and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.