The Power of the Improv Jam
guest post by Sebastian Martinez
This is a guest post by improviser Sebastian Martinez. Sebastian is part of UCB-NY where he currently produces/performs in the monthly show THEATRE: The Improvised Play. He's also studied at the Magnet Theater, Brooklyn Comedy Collective and the PIT.
I liked Sebastian’s essay because I’ve seen a good jam do a lot to foster new people into a community. It takes work and good people running it, but a good jam is a special thing.
If you want to pitch a guest column, send me a few sentences of what you’d write about and what improv teaching/performing credits you have at will@wgimprovschool.com.
The Improv Jam. A place to get reps in without having to pay anything (most of the time). For me, it became a place that was more than just reps but where I met some of the most important people in my life.
On November 7th, 2022, I attended my first-ever improv jam. This wasn’t even the plan for the evening; to attend a random improv jam in NYC, on a school night. I was in college at the time and I knew I wanted to start taking improv a bit more seriously. Members of my college troupe had told me about these jams & encouraged me to try it out.
When I took my seat inside the PIT Loft, I remember getting extremely nervous about the thought of performing improv in front of random folks and not my college improv team (which is a completely different style of improv). When I got called up for my set, I thought to myself “okay, this is it. This is where I find out if I’m good or bad at this”.
As I stepped onto stage, I remember one of the hosts, smiling at me with pure excitement and laughter. I felt a wave of energy come over me. Not the type of energy that you get when you feel like you’ll pass out from nervousness, but that calm energy you get when you get onstage with folks you’re comfortable with. You know...that energy that reminds you to just have fun with the people you get to perform with?
The set was a blast but it was the “after” potion that really grabbed me. After the jam, everyone just ... .hung out outside of the theater...chatting!! It felt like a full-on party!
Everybody was just going up to each other, telling each other about how great their sets were, what they loved about their style, what they wanna work on themselves, etc. Beyond that, people just wanted to chat and get to know each other. You’d find yourself talking about the jam for maybe 15-minutes and then, you’re chatting about pop culture, news, and your upbringings the rest of the time! You had people as young as 18, to people with grand-kids, interacting and bonding at the same level.
These bonds are created off of something special and vulnerable. Something that you can’t get anywhere else.
I distinctly remember my first improv jam for several reasons but one reason in particular was because I met one of my best buds there, Santos. That evening, his set went after mine and I remember saying to myself during the set, “Gosh, that guy is hilarious”. Then I remembered seeing his Stanford sweater and thinking, “what the heck is this guy doing all the way from Stanford for a jam?” I went up to him after, complimented his set, and asked instantly, “so you went to Stanford?” He responded, “No, I just like the sweater”. Yeah...it was the most hilarious response I could have gotten.
As the months went on, Santos and I then started doing two-prov together under the moniker, “Baby Bumper Cars”. We eventually were given a one-year residency at the PIT. This was all in the two-month span of us meeting and chatting.
Beyond Santos, I also met many more of my best friends at future jams. We’d all hang out afterwards, throw parties, do shows together, go to food festivals, see concerts together, etc.
There’s too many of them to name but isn’t it crazy that something as silly as an IMPROV JAM brought me some of the most important people in my life?
That’s the beauty of an improv jam that we often overlook: the chance to meet people from different areas of life. I could talk more about how people have met their significant others here, gotten married here (this is a true story), or have just met someone super important to them here. Funny enough, my girlfriend and I met because a mutual buddy of ours was producing a mash-up show and we were put on the same team. Where did we meet that mutual buddy? You guessed it.
So why write about improv jams? Improv is a wonderfully complicated art-form. People have been doing it for decades and will continue to for decades more. Once you get that first laugh, you unlock this level of addiction to laughs that you can’t find elsewhere.
BUT....
We forget what's important to living an eventful and sweet life: having others to share that life with. Whether that’s a sibling, significant other, friend, parent, or anyone, we all crave human connection. A place like the improv jam offers this rare opportunity to practice that art-form and also develop a human-connection with others that you share at least ONE common interest with.
I can safely say the “improv jam” changed my life for the better. I don’t attend them as much as I used to but the memories I hold are worth more than anything. The laughter, the tears, the conversations, the happiness. If you’re a reader who’s never been to a jam yet, go. Meet people. Perform. You never know what that experience might entail. You just might just meet that person you’ve always been needing to meet.
Thank you, Sebastian!
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This was so fun to write about. Thanks Will!
I met my wife in an improv jam, so hell yes!
But I'm curious; what does an improv jam entail for everyone's cities? In Columbus, the Nest does Reps where you do longform scenes; outside of that, there are meetups that are primarily short form games. I'm just curious what others run in to!