We do not get involved in the improv flame wars and do not believe that there is a "right" or "superior" way to do improv. We believe that successful improv depends on an alignment between:

• The demands of a specific show format (e.g Harold, Armando, Monoscene) and the director's vision.
• The desires and expectations of the participants (performers, tech)
• The desires and expectations of the audience

Outside of fundamental skill issues like poor listening ability, we believe that most unsuccessful improv can normally be traced back to a misalignment between these aspects. For example, if the audience buys tickets to a format like a monoscene expecting rapid laughs then there is a misalignment between the audience expectations and the demands of the show format that may sour the mood even if the improv is good. This misalignment is a marketing issue and can be easily resolved with improved advertising. The more serious issue is when players and coaches are misaligned with each other and the format.

We believe that the best way to avoid these issues are for the director and players to agree to a clear vision for the style of play they want from a show and to regularly discuss with each others what they want to achieve so that performers are matched with shows they want to be in and everyone is on the same page before they go on stage. This avoids resentments from building in players who can't tolerate playing in a way that matches the show's vision and leads to:

• Teams that are cast around the demands of specific formats.
• Highly adaptable improvisers who trust one another, know their preferences, play to their strengths but respect and adjust to the context.
• An audience that trusts that they are getting the type of show they paid for.
• Accountability for performers who keep trying to deviate from what has been agreed upon without good reason.

To achieve this, we thus need to structure our teaching in such a way that students:

• Are exposed to differing styles of play.
• Know the demands of specific formats.
• Know how to evaluate how scenes and formats are progressing.
• Know when it is appropriate to intervene and in what way.
• Are adaptable.
• Know their strengths and weaknesses.
• Have clear terminology to express their preferences and motivations to each other.

Traditionally, improv training has been split into levels, with a pass at one level allowing continuation on to the next. We believe this is problematic for several reasons:

• It encourages students to view improv as something akin to a railroaded video game where the aim is to complete one level and move on to the next rather than as a lifelong craft where you are continually honing and revisiting skills.
• The order of levels can cause disillusionment in students if the skills they are instinctively worse at are early in the course and they are then made to repeat terms whilst their classmates speed ahead.
• It can create cult-like behaviour where people who have completed higher levels are seen as higher status or start acting like they are better than others.

At the same time, we believe that a student needs to have a certain level of competency and understanding before tackling formats and that learning formats is best achieved when working with a fixed group of people. We thus take a hybrid approach to achieve our aims starting with a 101 course that is a set term with a fixed group of students. This allows us to introduce fundamental concepts, like listening, agreement, emotional reactions and edits. After finishing 101, students then have the following weekly drop-in sessions to choose from:

• Realist Play

  In these drop-ins we go deeper into concepts such as TJ & Dave's heat/weight, Bogart's and Landau's Viewpoints, Razowsky's tension balloons and more.

• Absurdist Play

  In these drop-ins we go deeper into concepts such as game of the scene, position play, scene structure, tilts, pimping, side-support, tags, and more.

• Scene Swole

  These drop-ins consist entirely of scene practice and feedback. No new concepts are introduced.

For more information on why we structure it this way, please see the blog post Realism vs Absurdism. The brief summary, is that we believe that this is the simplest and most accurate way for evaluating style of play, both on an individual and a format level. We believe both approaches are valid and our aim is thus to expose the student to both so they can make informed decisions about how they wish to perform going forward and can find other community members who align with those aims.

Students must attend a total of 30 lessons before progressing on to the next stage of learning. 12 of them must be from Realist sessions and 12 of them must be from Absurdist sessions. The remaining six can be from any session: realist, absurdist or scene. Students can attend as many or as few drop-in sessions as they like each week and they can take them in any order. For example, a student may choose to alternate each week between realist, absurdist and scene, or they may choose to take 12 realist sessions, followed by 12 absurdist sessions and then another 6 realist sessions.

We believe that the order does not matter - only that you are exposed to both and begin to see how they contrast and complement each other. We are happy to give you recommendations based on your strengths, weaknesses and overall goals. In general, we recommend taking more classes in the area you are weakest in as we believe this will serve you better in the long run. However we recognise that it is a personal decision and that some people prefer to stick to their strengths although bear in mind that when we cast our house teams, being adaptable will generally go in your favour.

After meeting your quota, you can sign up for your first format term: The Harold. The Harold is exceptionally malleable and can be played in many ways which is why it persists as the first format most beginners learn in so many improv schools around the world. The way that we initially teach it, is to balance realist and absurdist play, transitioning from realist in the beginning to absurdist by the end. This way both styles of player must adapt and cooperate to meet the demands of the format. We believe this stands student in good stead for their later comedy careers, where they will have to adapt to a variety of playing styles.

After you have completed your Harold training you are then free to enroll in any of our other format based or any other advanced workshops we may offer. This will include Advanced Harold classes where we tackle different variations of the Harold, such as a Bat (a Harold in the dark, essentially an improvised radio play) and a more game orientated UCB-style Harold. We recommend that students continue to attend our drop-in sessions in between terms or as needed to keep their skills sharp as well as to meet newer members of the community.

All in all, we think this offers the perfect blend of structure and individual freedom and avoids many of the pitfalls associated with the traditional approach offered at other schools.

We also believe that improv is best learned when a student has a solid theoretical framework from which to operate. With this foundation, students can play more freely and spontaneously, having faith in their intuition and with the confidence to identify and fix problems should any occur. At each stage in the learning process we aim to help the student understand how each tool and guideline fits into the overall picture, and aspire to create a comprehensive curriculum of recommended theory and reading materials for each of our courses.

For those with previous improv, acting or comedy experience, we do offer the ability to progress faster by skipping the intro term or reducing the quota of lessons required at the drop-in stage. This is offered on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to an interview and audition process. More information can be found on the fast track page.

We strongly believe that all sketch writing programs should start with audio sketches, for the following reasons:

• Starting a sketch podcast can be done by anyone with minimal equipment or by renting a podcast room.
• Students get used to creating a finished product and have something that they can use on their comedy CV.
• Radio sketch is still the most accessible route into the UK comedy writing industry.
• Writing without being able to rely on visual information will make you a stronger writer.

We also believe that most sketch writing programs lack in the fundamentals which is why our courses also contains lessons and information on joke writing, formatting, structures, sourcing props and effects, submission packets, and context around the "rules" and when it is appropriate to break them.

In the age of smartphones and cheap recording equipment, it is a less clear cut decision as to whether to pursue stage or screen sketch after completing an audio sketch writing course. We plan on offering both, but favour stage for the following reasons:

• As with audio sketch, you are more limited than you are with screen. Working around these limitations will make you a stronger writer.
• It gets you more involved with your local comedy community. The momentum and support you get from being involved in a comedy community cannot be overstated.
• You can choose to take a show to festivals, further building your network with national and international industry contacts.
• You learn how to structure, organise and produce a stage comedy show which is a very useful skill.
• If you choose to put on your own shows and the quality is good, you may be able to turn a profit quicker than with screen.
• There is a strong tradition of comedy writers who started with audio and stage before progressing to screen. Spike Milligan, Monty Python, League of Gentlemen, The Mighty Boosh, Mitchell & Webb, Flight of the Conchords and countless others all made a name for themselves with radio and stage shows before screen.

For our screen course, we start with skits (less than 2 minutes long) that are suitable for social media before moving on to full length sketches. As sketch with a high production value is likely out of reach for most, we also hope to offer courses on AI and animation in the future, which we believe offer a low budget route to getting your screen sketches off the page and into a finished product.