Improv is, by design, ephemeral. Here for a moment, then gone. As you're likely to hear before an improv show, "The show you're about to see has never been seen before and will never be seen again." Improv is transitory.
Some improv theaters are that way too.
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katie, wonak, rempe and i peeked in the window of improv kitchen just before it opened a few years ago. the owner gave us a behind the scenes tour and described how you could come there and watch a hilarious video of someone breaking into your car outside and then that same person would run away - but through mountains of mashed potatoes. we wondered what would become of it.
Killed by terrible, terrible mis-management.
A state-of-the-art performance venue with all the problems of A.) a restaurant B.) an improv theater and C.) a television studio, all ran by a guy who had zero experience running any of those things. He took half of a workshop at IO, once, but quit because he kept forgetting to go and then missed too many.
There was a point when it could've worked. The staff had it figured out and show quality was improving and the place turned a profit for the first time, a year and a half after opening. It could've worked.
And then the owner got encouraged by the success and got "more involved" and killed everything that was working. The chef quit. The Bar Manager quit. Performers quit. Engineers quit. finally, the manager quit and that was the end.
As a legacy, though, two of the many flat screen tv's in that theater are now hanging in the new Comedysportz theater. It's not much of a legacy... well... I guess that's appropriate.
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