Kansas City Improv Festival Begins, 9/10

It's here!  I-A is again proud to host the Kansas City Improv
Festival, now in its tenth year!  Our headliners are Jason Sudeikis's Der Monkenpickel and Messing with a Friend, with Chicago legends Susan Messing and TJ Jagodowski.  Please join us at the festival, and at the after-parties!Here's some information, press release style: In 1994, Kansas City hosted the first independent improv festival in the U.S., including groups from faraway places like... Iowa.  We're bigger now.

This year, some of the best improvisers in the country are converging in Kansas City for five nights of amazing, live comedy.  In addition to local hero Jason Sudeikis of Saturday Night Live, two different performers are coming in who at different times have been named "the best improviser in Chicago."

Those people are Susan Messing and TJ Jagodowski of Chicago, who will perform
together as Messing with a Friend Sept. 10-11.  Sudeikis and friends perform as
Der Monkenpickel to headline Sept. 17-18.  Each night, the headliner will be
joined by three other hand-picked groups -- some of the very best from Chicago,
Utah, and Minneapolis, and others who call Kansas City home.

Kansas City created the improv festival, and now we help populate them
throughout the country.  Festivals nationwide have noticed the talented groups
Kansas City has, and in the last few years, the top KC troupes have been invited
to play festivals in Chicago, New York, Austin, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and
elsewhere.

Local group Improv-Abilities has taken the torch from the former producers of
the KC festival, most notably Trish Berrong of the now-defunct Kansas City group
Lighten Up.  After a few years of festivallessness, KC's growing improv
community revived the festival in 2007, led again by Berrong, now of the
perfectly-funct groups Tantrum and Spite.  Since 2007, the festival has served
as a homecoming of sorts for local performers who have moved on to careers as
actors and comedy writers, as well as top-level improv gurus who were part of
the KC festival in the early days, and who now pass on their wisdom to KC's
improvisers in classes...and at the after-parties.

What hasn't changed? Our commitment to high-quality shows and workshops,
hospitality, and lots and lots of fun.
Details are at kcimprov.com/festival!

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Featured Performer in a Play - Top 3

1. Laurie Metcalf - Death of a Salesman

8.1% of votes

2. Alden Ehrenreich - Becky Shaw

5.7% of votes

3. Ben Ahlers - Death of a Salesman

5.4% of votes

Vote Now! View Live Stats