Our recreational improv program!
Adventure Club is a new recreational performing opportunity for improv comedy people. Participants will be placed on an improv team with other performers for a six-week run of rehearsals and shows. This program is offered as an extension of our improv training program and is open to anyone who has completed our foundational curriculum (at least through Level 2) or who has equivalent performing experience!
The final date to submit an application for season one is Friday, Sep 15. However, we will be assembling teams as early as the weekend of September 8, so the sooner folks apply, the sooner we can get started!
How does it work?
You will be teamed up with 7 other improvisers based on availability
Each team will be assigned a director/coach who has the same availability.
Each team will have a run that includes 6 rehearsals and at least 3 shows. Adventure club performances will be scheduled alongside our flagship weekend improv show.
Participants will pay a club fee so the program can run.
Adventure Club is an extension of our training program and is intended to give our current and recent students a way to perform improv more regularly without the hassle of organizing their own rehearsals and shows. In addition to Buffalo Improv House students, Adventure Club is open to members of the wider Western New York community who want to perform improv comedy recreationally and have long form improv experience equivalent to our Level 2 class, with Level 3 being recommended.
dues
For more information about this fee, check out the Dues Breakdown and Dues Explanation at the bottom of this page
Notes about Dues
Dues will not be collected until teams are assembled and scheduling is finalized
Discounts are available for college students
We have the ability to offer a limited number of need-based discounts on a first come, first served basis
These dues are for season one of Adventure Club and are subject to change in future seasons
This fee can be paid at once or in two installments
Dues can be paid via Venmo or Credit Card
Season One of Adventure Club will consist of six rehearsals and at least three performances.
Rehearsal Scheduling
For this first season of Adventure Club, teams will be assembled based on performer and coach availability. So, you will be placed on a team with other performers who were available to rehearse the same time as you, and will be paired with a coach who was also available at that time. Rehearsals will begin late September or early October and will run for six weeks. Please read “How Teams Are Assembled” below to learn more about this process.
performance scheduling
For Season One, Adventure Club performances will be programmed alongside our flagship weekend improv show, either before (6pm) or after (9pm) the main performance. As this is our experimental/pilot season of this program, the details are still in development. Dues will not be collected until the schedule is finalized.
Please note that our flagship Friday Night Improv show will switch to Saturday Nights beginning October 2023, so this first season of Adventure Club may include at least one Friday night performance followed by one or more Saturday Night performances.
Schedule
how teams are assembled
For this first season of Adventure Club, teams will be assembled based on performer and coach/director availability. So, your team will be made up of others who were available for rehearsals on the same day of the week as you, lead by a coach who was also available on that day.
We will begin assembling teams the weekend of September 9, and will continue to assemble teams as applications come in until we reach capacity or until we reach the September 15 deadline.
If we get more early applicants than we have capacity for, priority will be given to Buffalo Improv House students who have come up through our core curriculum, with next priority being folks who come to our jams and/or have taken our classes and workshops, after which the remaining spots will be filled by random lottery. If that priority pool of early Buffalo Improv House student applicants ends up being larger than our capacity, admission to this program will be done on a first signed up, first served basis. Students who apply but are not able to perform with the first set of teams due to us having more applicants than spots will be first in line if new teams open up, or for the next season of Adventure Club, whichever comes first.
We plan to re-visit this process every season and to make whatever changes are necessary to ensure that Adventure Club remains a high-quality, popular and sustainable program.
Please know that this will will not be the only type of performing opportunity that will be eventually available to our students and “graduates” but it will likely be our primary one for the foreseeable future.
For performers who are looking for a more professional, audition-based performing opportunity: that type of thing is likely on the horizon for us, but is not in the short-term plans for us as an organization. In the meantime, Adventure Club is a great way to get and stay on our radar while also having fun. Or: feel free to do your own thing! We’d love to see the improv scene in Buffalo grow and diversify!
Benefits
Aside from participation in the program itself, Adventure Club participants will have the following benefits:
Open Admission to any Adventure Club event or performance
Free Rush Admission to regular Buffalo Improv House Faculty performances (Friday/Saturday Night Improv, etc.)
Discount Admission to premium and out-of-town performances
Early knowledge of and first dibs on special opportunities such as out-of-town clinicians
We expect to add benefits as the program grows.
Dues breakdown
The $142.50 fee is to cover rehearsal coaching, rehearsal costs, show costs and administration for the program.
This is cheaper than the dues/fees of similar programs at other improv companies in the US and is in line with other recreational activities in Western New York.
dues explanation
Adventure Club is a recreational improv comedy opportunity that we are offering. Similar to recreational league sports or other recreational activities, Adventure Club requires time, money and “people power” to run. The dues for this first season of Adventure Club are right in line with the costs of recreational sports leagues, and cheaper week-to-week than our classes.
Adventure Club was born out of our commitment to provide different types of stage time to our students and recent students. We discussed and explored a number of possible options, and a “rec league”-style improv program kept being the one that made the most sense for us to start with at this time as a company.
Since the Buffalo Improv House team are improv performers who have been in all sorts of situations across our shared decades and decades of experience, we are super sensitive to the costs and logistical stresses involved in being on a performing improv team. Ultimately, we recognize that stage time, coaching, marketing and rehearsal studio facilitation cost time and money, and these things can get expensive and messy for a team, especially one that is just starting out. This all was a big part of our decision to create a rec-league style improv program as our first type of offering in service of our commitment to provide different types of stage time to our students.
Adventure Club is directly inspired by Supernova in New York City and Secret Society at Mettlesome Theater in Durham NC. This general type of program was highly recommended to us by several other improv companies when we reached out to them about how they provide opportunities to their students.
We want Adventure Club to be popular, worthwhile, and sustainable, and we will be continually re-evaluating the details, scope, and logistics of this program to ensure that it remains popular, worthwhile and sustainable! We have good knowledge that this type of program has proven to be very popular and sustainable when offered by other improv companies, so we will be sure it works.