So you have an improv troupe and you are ready to jump on stage and show the world what you have as a team! Hooray! That is great, it is always an exciting and nerve wracking moment when you decide it is time to do a show but never fear! There are places you can do this and are set up for new groups trying to test new things. I live in London so a lot of my references will be about the Capital City, however if you look up in the area that you practise improv I am sure if you talk to your local trainers then they can give you advice on where you can go to perform.

There are many areas in London that are there for you to perform when you first start out as a troupe – one of the main places you can look to for stage time is Hoopla. They offer slots of 10-15 minutes for new acts in the form of ‘pre-shows’, these are usually on Satruday’s before the main shows. There used to be a whole night dedicated to new acts called Launch Pad, however over the last few months they have turned into a sort of ‘mid week pre-show ‘ before the main shows. They are good for when you are looking for some stage time when you are new and also for trying out new content.

Another place that you should be looking at for stage space is The Nursery, they have two potential opportunities for you to perform at – one is the Thursday Night Lights show where they can offer you up to 20 minutes to perform with a number of jams in between. Or there is a Sunday show called Carousel where you have a whole month of Sundays to perform sets where you can try out new material every week to see what works.

There are so many opportunities to perform in London and even if you are not in a troupe never fear there are nights again that offer performance opportunities such as Duck Duck Goose In Brixton, C3Something Sundays in Waterloo and even mid week at the Nursery and Hoopla.

The best way to find out what opportunities are out there is to look online  because there are so may to choose from that you can be picky and choose the ones that you feel suit you the best = both because of location and also because of what you want to get out of the performance.