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People's Improv Theater
Rating Details »
Category: Performing Arts [Edit]
Neighborhood: Fashion District154 W 29th St
(between 7th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas)
New York, NY 10001
(212) 563-7488
- Nearest Transit:
-
28th St-7th Ave (1)
33rd Street (PATH)
34th St-7th Ave (1, 2, 3)
- Good for Kids:
- No
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"Hilarious and cheap alternative for a night out in NYC....definitely recommended to all with a sense of humor! Can't wait to go back."
7 reviews for People's Improv Theater
I have a fear of watching friends perform. This is because I have a fear of lying to the people I love. I have seen way too many friends play rock shows, or perform in plays, and I have had to lie to their faces WAY TOO MANY TIMES.
"Yeah, you were great."
"Fucking...awesome"
"That was. Really deep."
I took a leap of faith by going to see a friend's improv show, and I'm pretty glad I did. I didn't have to lie once, and I laughed a lot. At $5.00 a ticket (if you reserve ahead of time), you really can't go wrong. It's something new and different in a city that sometimes feels like a giant sea of alcohol. Yes, I drank a beer. The experience was still a breath of fresh air, but not fresh enough for me to want to take a class...baby steps! Baby steps!
Went here on a Friday night maybe half a year ago for an improv show. We grabbed food in K-town while we were waiting for the show to start and we were pleasantly surprised.
A tiny theater (maybe seats 60-70 people?) that was maybe half full, but an audience that was obviously ready for laughs. The premise of the show was to take an audience member's experience from living somewhere exotic. Luckily my friend had lived in Saudi Arabia during her childhood, so the whole show was making fun of her time in Saudi (SAUUUoooooooooooDI)! It made for some great laughs, albeit dotted with some stale moments (but that's to be expected with improv).
All in all a good way to spend a night if you are turning in early without breaking the bank.
3 stars for a pleasant experience with friends that was full of laughs
Revisit? Maybe
Low in cost but high in returns (if measured by laughs).
I came to the PIT for the first time last night with a few friends to catch The Harvard Sailing Team (one of my co-worker's brothers is in the sketch group). We were laughing pretty much non-stop! $10 for an hour of live improve entertainment = not too shabby.
The theater is small small small, so prepared to get cozy. It's a little uncomfortably cramped in the lobby before the show starts, and only one bathroom - eeek! As soon as the door opens, try to get seats high up on the bleachers. There are about 10 rows with 8 seats in each row.
Some of the shows sell out pretty quickly - try to show up at least 20 minutes before the show starts to get tickets. Or, to really make sure you get tickets, call up the theater beforehand to reserve yours.
If you want to have a drink during the show, there IS a bar, so you can buy wine for $5 a glass (I think beer, too) to bring into the theater.
Good for a passive night out and cheaper than most movies. The stuff is done in a large humble room with a bunch of chairs in the back facing "stage." No drink minimum.
Went on a Saturday for the sketch show. The show before it was standup with naked comedians which didn't appeal to me. Many of the sketches were okay. Its like I get it, I understand, thats funny, but not laugh out loud funny. I'd give them a B+ for effort. Still better than the current SNL (which unfortunately isn't saying much).
Huzzah for Improv!
OK I'm a bit biased. I love improv. I went to all the Improv shows at my school. I took an Improv class my senior year. I decided to try and teach improv to 10 and 11 year old girls. Improv is an incredible skill, that I never considered myself good at really but people who do it have my ultimate respect.
I had walked by PIT once before when I wanted some food and got lost in the wasteland that is Midtown South before 9PM. I saw the red door and thought to myself that I should check it out one day. Yesterday was that day. A brother of a friend of a friend was performing. It's a converted apartment walk up. I think that is so cute! The black box was great and intimate. Full house. I came to see Secret Hospital. I was in stitches. The audience was rather dead but oh man! The cast was incredibly funny. SH! players work really well together to pull off long-form which is in my opinion the hardest thing to do. Sketch comedy can be really on but a lot of it has to do with how the audience is feeling that night.
There's a mini-library with some interesting literature (Shakespeare to Nietzsche). The ticket system is kind of weird.
TIP: I suggest buying tix in advance so you can avoid any kind of hassle. Just show up and say your name. But don't lose your ticket waiting for the house to open. Then you hold up the line and might have to sit in a broken chair and slouch to feel comfortable. while craning your neck to see over the wide-shouldered person in front of you. (...not that that happened to me or anything ... just a suggestion.)
the People's Improv Theater, or the PIT as the hipsters call it, is a small imrov venue nestled in the foothills of wholesale shops and discount furriers. It's unassuming red door reveals a stair up to a smallish waiting room. The PIT serves alcohol, so no need to brown bag it. The theater itself is pretty small and fills up very quickly, mostly with a mix of PIT improv students and audience members.
The show I checked out was the Wednesday House team night and the Faculty show, spotlighting the teachers at the PIT. The best part is that Wednesdays are FREE! Yeah, free! It's a great way to blow a few hours before a train out of Penn Station. As with any improv show, it's always different so if you didn't like one night check out another night.
My only criticism of the PIT was I wasn't at all sure how the theater worked. The first thing you have to do is get a ticket at the bar with a number on it. The number means nothing, other than to notify the PIT on how many cards they have given out. You then have to mill around a decent sized waiting room for the doors to open and clamor through them to get a seat.
TIP: for popular shows the PIT adds 2-3 extra rows of chairs in front of the bleachers. If you are in the front set of seats you are going to have trouble seeing any scene work below the waist. If you're short you better hope the improvisers are tall. I would recommend sitting in the third row of seats up the bleachers. You'll get a better veiw even if you are further away from the stage.
The best place for Improv in the city. Any night of the week they offer a great show (and many free one's).
