MISSION STATEMENT

To continually strive for comedic excellence

Provide a comprehensive comedy education through a variety of courses with professional curriculum and faculty

Deliver entertaining comedy experiences in an intimate theater setting

Foster a supportive, safe environment to develop a creative comedy community

VISION

To be the premier comedy destination for the city of Tucson.

IMPROV PHILOSOPHY 

Game based comedy. Played quickly and supported fearlessly

OUR STORY

Tucson Improv Movement brings laughter, joy and fun to the southern Arizona community through the art of improvisation. We've created a movement of positivity through our work in improv, sketch and stand-up comedy! Every week we bring you game-based comedy, played quickly and supported fearlessly, in our cool comedy theater (and yes, we have alcohol!) located right off of historic Fourth Avenue in downtown Tucson.

Tucson Improv Movement (T.I.M) was founded in October of 2012 by Justin Lukasewicz, an improvisor with years of performing experience gained in North Carolina. When he moved to the Old Pueblo, he wanted to bring his specific brand of long-form improv comedy to the Tucson community. It all started with an Improv 101 class,on October 25th, 2012 in a small room at the Lotus Massage and Wellness Center. From five, brave first-timers, T.I.M. now boasts over 500 students!

But classes weren't enough. It was time to have our first show! The TIM cast debuted at the Red Barn Theater on December 15th 2012. TIM started performing regular weekly shows in early 2013 and has never looked back. Improv is about building community and working together to perform something special on the stage, and our performing company is deeply connected. We currently perform six+ plus shows weekly, and have over 70 regularly performing company members. What we do is special, is connected, and something we love to share on a regular basis with the Tucson Community.

Our theater’s flagship show is called the Soap Box, and performs weekly on Friday nights at 9pm. This premier team is made up of some of our most senior improvisers and has become a staple in telling Tucson’s stories. We invite local celebrities to tell five short, personal stories, and our team takes those stories and weaves them into a hilarious show. The Soap Box started performing weekly in October 2014 making it Tucson’s longest-running long-form improv team. We've had a number of notable guests over the years including former Mayor Jonathan Rosthchild, Chief Investigator on the OSIRIS-REX project Dante Lauretta, former Gubernatorial candidate Kelly Fryer, muralist Joe Pagic, and Jeannette Maré founder of Ben’s Bells. The Soap Box has even been the wedding reception directly after a ceremony.

Over the years, TIM has been a part of several major Tucson milestones.

In May of 2015 we hosted the preshow for the University of Arizona’s graduation live in Arizona Stadium. In September of 2015 we headlined the first Bennuval Festival at the Fox Theater in Downtown Tucson.

In November 2015 we launched the first annual Tucson Comedy Arts Festival with the goal of bringing the national comedy scene right to the Old Pueblo. We have been lucky to have headliners at the festival ranging from Maria Bamford, Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall, and nationally know improvisers like Eric Hunnicutt, Brian James O'Connell, and Emily Holland.

In February of 2016, we started the Cactus Flower Comedy Festival with a goal of celebrating women and non-binary comedians through a yearly festival. In 2020, we hosted Jill Bernard to perform her internationally-known show, the Jill Bernard’s Drum Machine.

We’ve performed all across town at the Tucson Festival of Books, the Arizona Desert Museum, and beyond. Our performers have traveled to perform across the country in comedy festivals like the Del Close Marathon in New York City, the Diversity Festival in Los Angeles, and Impride in San Diego.

Our current location seats 45 people and supplies us with an intimate environment to bring you weekly improv comedy shows. Since moving, we’ve introduced popular premier shows like Pilot Season where the team makes up a soap opera, The Dating Scene where we do improv based off of the audiences dating experiences, and The Feed where we play with the wild world of social media. We have the Friends of Make Pretends of FOMP! geared towards children 10 and under and many other show traditions like The Ugly Sweater Party in December, The Bat or improv in the dark during October, and our competition shows Improv Madness and the 3v3 Tournament. There is always something happening at our theater that we know you will love!

Improv is a team sport, and it takes lots of people and hours of practice to make what we do look easy and funny. We hope you join the movement and look forward to seeing you in our theater at 414 E 9th Street.