From Level One to the Harold in Under a Year

“The Waffle House is our only refuge in a hurricane!” That line came out of a student named Dana in the middle of a Harold workshop on our stage in downtown Mesa — delivered with total conviction, in a scene she was inventing as she spoke. Not long before, most of the people in that room had never done a minute of improv. Night one, some of them could barely say their own name into the circle.

That distance — from nervous first Wednesday to calling scenes in improv’s most famous long form — is the actual product of Phoenix improv comedy classes, and it’s the part nobody sees from the audience. At the Neighborhood Comedy Theatre, the path runs through five levels, one session at a time. Session 4 is mid-flight right now: Levels Two through Five are meeting every week, and the students in those rooms are somewhere along the same road. Here’s what that road really looks like — and what the people who’ve walked it wish they’d known on night one.

Night one: Level One in downtown Mesa

Every improv class in Mesa starts the same way ours does: a circle of strangers, most of whom are convinced they’re the only one who’s terrified. Level One — Intro to Improv — exists to dissolve that in about forty-five minutes. You play games where it’s impossible to be wrong, and then you discover the first big secret: your partner is doing half the work.

In one early Level One class, two students built a five-minute scene out of the single word “lentils.” Neither of them was funny on purpose. They just kept agreeing with each other — “yes, and” — until the scene got funny on its own. By week three, the same people who whispered their names on night one are volunteering to go first. The thing graduates wish they’d known from the start? Nobody is grading you. The room wants you to succeed, loudly, and you’ll have been part of someone else’s best scene before you notice it happening.

The middle levels: where characters start walking in on their own

Levels Two, Three, and Four are where games give way to scenework — short form performance, storytelling, and scenes that hold together longer than a punchline. It’s also where students stop playing themselves and start playing people. A scene stops being “what’s the joke here” and starts being “who are we, and what do we want” — which, it turns out, is where the good jokes were hiding all along.

In a recent advanced workshop at NCT, a student named Carmen invented “Pirate HR” — a human-resources officer for pirates, which is exactly the kind of character you can’t plan and can’t forget. Another student, Kate, committed so completely to playing an ostrich that the room simply accepted there was now an ostrich. That’s the middle of the path: the moment invention stops feeling like risk and starts feeling like play. (Yes, an ostrich can attend a staff meeting. This is a safe space for ostriches.)

Just under a year in: the Harold

The Harold is long-form improv’s signature structure — three storylines and group scenes woven from a single audience suggestion, invented live and connected by the end. It’s the form Level Five students spend a whole session learning, and it’s where everything from the earlier levels pays off at once. New levels start every nine weeks at NCT — go straight through, and you’re rehearsing the Harold about ten months after your first circle-up. You need the listening from Level One, the characters from the middle levels, and the nerve you didn’t have on night one.

Where is NCT located?

NCT shares a space with The Sacred Pint Taproom in Downtown Mesa.
When head in and look for the secret door marked with our logo.
You’re exactly where you need to be!”

Can we get tickets at the door?
Yup, but its always way faster to buy them online.

Is there a drink minimum?
Nope, there is no drink minimum but supporting the sacred pint would be cool.

Where do we park?
There are over 5,000 FREE parking spaces available in Downtown Mesa every day!

Is there places to eat downtown?
Heck Ya! Here are some awesome restaurants in our Neighborhood.

Wanna learn more about NCT?
Check out all the cool live shows and Improv classes we do.