Get Tickets

  • Santa Fe Improv Manifesto

    Santa Fe Improv Manifesto

    Written by

    Ben Taxy

    in

    Comedy and improv are different things. Related — but different.

    At the core of comedy, there is a certain ruthlessness. There has to be. Every joke is a punch aimed at someone. Every new comedian needs to show how funny they are. There are only so many stages and so many laughs to get. Thus the competitions: Kill Tony, Funny or Die, cagematches.

    However, as you may know, when improv was invented by Viola Spolin and her mentor Neva Boyd in Chicago in the 1920s, it was to help orphans and immigrant children develop social and emotional skills, creativity, and self-confidence.

    Spolin’s son Paul Sills was one of the founders of Second City and brought improv to the professional stage, where it was co-opted by the highly competitive world of acting and comedy. This turned out to be a very good thing. Comedy became the vehicle by which improv was distributed.

    Humor is a compass that helps us find truth. Play drives personal growth. It is possible to have each without the other. In improv, you can have both, and the combination of humor and play allows truth to drive growth. In this way, improv is like meditation or yoga. It is a practice where you discover yourself and the world around you.

    At Santa Fe Improv, we absolutely care about comedy. We teach it using best practices from Second City, Groundlings, UCB, and Theatersports. But we aren’t trying to turn our students into professional actors. Our objective is to use comedy to train our students in courage, listening, and teamwork.

    If you are courageous, if you listen well, and if you put the team first, your natural sense of humor and authentic perspective will emerge, you will get laughs, and you’ll help your teammates get laughs. Over time, the improvement in your work on stage translates to your life off-stage.

    Most especially: you will become a better listener. Listening is a core skill to leadership, management, relationships, sales, therapy, coaching, negotiation, facilitation, and more. Improving listening skills even a tiny amount can have a massive impact on your life.

    The problem is that it’s not to easy to train to become a better listener. In a general sense, it’s because it’s hard to recognize when you’ve missed something. If you’ve listened suboptimally, you don’t know in the moment, and it’s not like someone pulls you aside later and tells you all of the things you didn’t pick up on. You can leave a conversation or a meeting and think you listened well. This is why so many people think they are good listeners… and they’re not.

    Improv provides near-immediate feedback to your listening skills in the form of laughter (or the lack thereof). When you’re creating something in the moment, in the spotlight, with other people, and without a script… good listening results immediately in harmonious play and often in laughter from the audience, and poor listening throws things out of whack and cools off the audience.

    Improv rewards good listening and provides those rewards rapidly. There is no better way to train what is arguably the most important human communication skill.

    We believe the world could use more listening, more empathy, more play, and more humor. We know that improv is a fun way to develop ourselves personally and professionally, and we are intent on bringing the best of this art form to as many people as possible.

    If that sounds like fun to you, you’re in the right place.

  • Understanding “And” in Yes And

    Understanding “And” in Yes And

    Written by

    Ben Taxy

    in

    When Yes And is taught, the verb used (in my experience) is that we are supposed to ADD information. In my opinion, that’s not precisely correct. It should be DISCOVER information.

    It is useful for us to believe that at the moment the scene begins, everything we need is already there. Our job is to make it more of whatever it is. Not what we want it to be, not what we think the audience wants it to be – we make it more of whatever it actually IS.

    It takes courage to work with what is really there and discover more of whatever it is. To add the small, truthful piece of information that you actually have, instead of the big piece of information that might make you look good. To put down one brick instead of adding an entire city.

    Allowing the group’s creation to evolve naturally takes courage.

    It also creates engagement with the audience and trust within the team.

  • The “Just Noticeable Difference”

    The “Just Noticeable Difference”

    Written by

    Ben Taxy

    in

    If you’ve ever turned up the volume on your TV, you know that when the volume is low, when you hit the volume “up” button, it’s easy to hear the volume increase. But when the volume is already high, often you have to press the “up” button a few times before you can detect a change in volume.

    In psychophysics, a branch of psychology dedicated to understanding perception, this is known as the JND, or “Just Noticeable Difference,” and in technical terms, a JND is the minimum amount the intensity of a stimulus must increase or decrease for our senses to notice it.

    As improvisors, we are tuned in so closely to our teammates. We hear exactly what is said. We notice exactly what is done. Caring about small details, seeking the just noticeable differences, guides the play without us having to force what happens next.

    When something seems boring, simple, expected, lens into the way it was done, the energy, the tone, something that gives us some texture and traction on the thing. This is often how we discover the unusual thing and find the funny without there needing there to be a “mistake” or someone artificially putting some spin on the ball.

    As soon the first thing happens on stage, it’s useful to believe what you need to discover and play the scene is already there. And it will be, if you pay attention closely enough to find it.

  • The Mayor of Santa Fe Stars In True Stories

    The Mayor of Santa Fe Stars In True Stories

    Written by

    Eric Weiss

    in

    ,

    True Stories is a recurring show at Santa Fe Improv benefiting Improv4Schools, our program in New Mexico Public Schools where we use improv to teach teens durable skills to enhance communication, problem-solving, and executive presence. On Saturday September 19, 2026, Mayor Michael J. Garcia sold out Santa Fe Improv and told true stories.

    Here’s what happened: in the True Stories format, a guest gets interviewed and tells real stories with no notes or talking points. Our ensemble listens, then builds comedic scenes off what they just heard, then it goes back to the guest for more stories, then back to the ensemble.

    A few things he told us, and the scenes they became:

    • His first job was at a baseball card and collectibles shop. That turned into a scene about a guy trying to use a rare card as collateral for a bank loan.
    • He’s genuinely into the judicial branch. That turned into a scene about a support group for people so obsessed with Supreme Court justices they’d lost every other friend.
    • He almost became an architect, then changed course and followed his heart into politics.
    • He told the story of how he met his wife. The ensemble turned it into a scene that got the room laughing and going “aww” at the same time.
    • He’s an absolute sneakerhead. The ensemble did not let that go….

    The Mayor has a real sense of humor about himself and was great to work with.

    By the end of the night he told the crowd: “I think I’m hooked.”

    Thank you to Mayor Garcia and his family, and thanks to everyone who came out and was part of this one-of-a-kind event.

    Thanks also to our partners who helped make the night possible: Future Focused Education and the City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department.

    Oh, and one more thing… alongside our adult ensemble, Ali Sandoval — a high-school student in our Improv4Schools Upward Bound program — jumped right in and performed with our teams. That was one of the best parts of the night.

    Take a bow, Mayor Garcia!

    Mayor Michael J. Garcia takes a bow with the Santa Fe Improv improvisors

  • Mutual Phase Locking (The Sync)

    Mutual Phase Locking (The Sync)

    Written by

    Ben Taxy

    in

    Let’s go analog physics for a moment (as one does).

    Suppose we set three wind-up metronomes at random phases on a board resting on two soda cans. Within a minute or two they will tick together. The board connects them into one system, and that system doesn’t want to have conflicting vibrations, and so the board naturally guides the pendulums to sync their oscillation and thereby minimize the conflict.

    This phenomenon is called “mutual phase locking,” and it’s not just for metronomes:

    • If you put two heart cells from two different animals on a microscope slide, they sync up and beat in the same rhythm. It works for individuals of the same species, a human heart cell and an animal, and as of 2026, heart cells from two different humans.
    • An audience starts with loud incoherent clapping, then suddenly locks in, after which everyone claps at the same instant and the same rate. Waves of being in-sync and out-of-sync occur as the audience varies between wanting to be loud and wanting to sync up.
    • Fireflies (specifically Photinus carolinus) have no intrinsic rhythm at all in isolation, yet in a swarm the insects synchronize with their neighbors into a 12-second burst cycle.

    Improv teaches us to connect with one another in this way because we are more successful when the collection of individuals becomes one system.

    The first step to achieving this state is to become aware of when you’re connected to each other. This is a feeling you learn to sense. It’s somewhat like the feeling of meditation, only it’s a social, moving meditative state the entire team tunes into.

    The way it works is that in doing initial improv exercises and warm-ups, there’s a point where the group starts to come together. This happens when everyone:

    • Makes eye contact
    • Uses open body language
    • Listens and observes carefully
    • Prioritizes the ideas of other people
    • Contributes honestly
    • Notices and uses patterns that evolve

    When this happens, it’s obvious. Words and movements flow more quickly, smiles and laughter come easily, and suddenly you realize that the room is “warm” because we’re in sync.

    Here’s the vibe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlYIyKic3w8