Omaha Improv Festival '13

Welcome to the Omaha Improv Festival

The Omaha Improv Festival brings performing teams and audiences together for a full weekend of shows at Studio Gallery. The 2013 festival ran from Thursday, June 27 to Saturday, June 29, with nightly lineups, hands-on workshops, and coaches working with players throughout the weekend.

Friday, June 28 shows started at 7:00pm, 8:00pm, 9:30pm and 11:00pm. Saturday, June 29 shows started at 5:00pm, 6:15pm, 7:00pm, 8:15pm, 9:30pm and 10:30pm. Teams on the schedule included PodProv/Full House, Grandma Mojo's, Ladies & Gentlemen, and The Avengers.

Browse the festival schedule for show times and passes, learn about workshops and the coaches, and read the team submission guidelines if your troupe wants to perform.

The Omaha Improv Festival gathers performing teams and audiences for a full weekend of shows, workshops, and shared creative energy. Rather than a single performance, the festival unfolds as a series of nightly lineups paired with hands-on sessions, giving improvisers of every experience level a place to play, watch, and learn. Attendees are encouraged to move between stages, observe different groups, and consider how spontaneity and structure interact in live comedy.

Improvising well depends on trust, listening, and a willingness to support the scene rather than steal it. The festival's workshops focus on exactly these skills, working with players throughout the weekend so that newcomers and experienced performers alike can sharpen their instincts. Coaches guide participants through exercises that build confidence, collaborative instincts, and a genuine sense of play, all within an atmosphere that feels welcoming to first-timers.

A festival lineup gives audiences a rare chance to see many distinct styles of improv within a single weekend. Short sets stack back to back, so spectators can sample short-form, long-form, musical approaches, and character-driven work without committing to one show for the entire evening. This variety is part of what draws performers and fans together, and it is one of the reasons the festival continues to attract attention from across the country.

The Omaha Improv Festival has a clear goal: putting a strong focus on Nebraska's growing improv community. By hosting workshops, bringing in visiting teams, and creating consistent space for local players to perform, the festival builds a scene that supports itself. Over successive years the event has matured into a recurring tradition that feels both ambitious and grounded, valuing the people who make it happen as much as the audiences who show up.

Live improvised comedy has a particular energy that is difficult to capture on a screen. Something happens in the room when a group commits fully to an idea, when a premise gets turned inside out, or when an unexpected choice lands perfectly. Performing at the festival lets teams test that energy in front of responsive crowds, while spectators get to witness moments that literally cannot be repeated, created in the moment and gone by the end of the set.

The festival weekend is organized around clear, easy-to-follow rhythms so that visitors can plan their time and still feel spontaneous. Evening shows begin at regular intervals across the run of the weekend, with additional afternoon and early evening performances offering a gentler way to explore the lineup. Between sets, the space between shows is where conversations, friendships, and collaborations tend to form, making the whole weekend feel like a shared experience.

Sponsors and supporters play an important role in keeping the festival accessible and sustainable. Their backing helps cover the costs of venue space, workshop materials, guest coaches, and travel for performing teams, which in turn allows ticket prices to remain reasonable. The result is a programming environment that prioritizes the art itself rather than the business of presenting it, and that balance is something organizers continue to think about carefully each season.

Attending an improv festival is also a chance to understand the craft from the inside. Workshops are often more informative than any single show, because they expose the mechanics behind the laughter: how a scene finds its shape, how a player supports a partner, how a group pivots when a premise stalls. Whether you are a performer, a director, a student, or simply a curious audience member, that insight tends to travel home with you.

The visual identity of the festival reflects the same restraint. A muted slate blue paired with olive green accents sits against clean white and light grey, with pale blue callout boxes used to frame supporting information. Light-weight geometric sans-serif type for headings and a familiar system sans for body copy keep everything legible and airy, while generous spacing and subtle borders let the photographs and lineup details carry the warmth.

Ultimately, the Omaha Improv Festival succeeds because it makes a simple promise well: create a welcoming room where improvisers, coaches, and fans can spend a weekend together, laughing, learning, and building on what came before. As the festival continues to grow, the emphasis stays the same — focus on the community, invest in the players, and let the work speak for itself. Those who have attended often describe the weekend as memorable, and the hope is that many more people will give it a try.