• Level 1: Beginners Improv Course

beginners improv course

8 week beginners improv courses to learn the core skills of improvised comedy.

Hoopla offer the most fun and friendly environment to learn improvisation in the UK.

Complete beginners are welcome. You don’t need any drama, acting, comedy or impro experience whatsoever. You don’t have to be clever, fast or funny either!

Hoopla create a friendly, fun, playful and supportive atmosphere in our improv courses where people are free to play and be themselves.

Improv is not the same as stand-up; you’re not alone on stage and it’s not about telling jokes. It’s about working together as a team with other improvisers to spontaneously create group stories, scenes & sketches.

Over an 8 week course of weekly workshops you’ll get to know your fellow students & teacher and progress as a team while learning core improvisation skills.

Topics include Spontaneity, Confidence, Creativity, Commitment, Listening, Yes And, Collaboration, Character, Support, Teamwork, Scenes, Games, Story and most of all playing and having fun with improvisation!

We also have regular socials and a friendly community of fellow improvisers for you to join.

Our classes have recently been recommended by The Guardian, The Independent, Time Out, The Evening Standard, BBC Radio 4, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Metro, The Londonist and more!

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next available dates

Next Available Dates in London Bridge:
London Bridge venues, see booking links below for addresses.

Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 17th January 2024 with Susan Harrison. BOOK


Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 18th January 2024 with Charlie Vero-Martin. BOOK


Every Saturday morning for 8 weeks from Saturday 27th January 2024 with Mandeep Singh. BOOK


Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 15th January 2024 with Sophie Pumphrey. SOLD OUT


Every Tuesday for 8 weeks from Tuesday 16th January 2024 with Claudia Novati. SOLD OUT

  • Weekdays: 7pm – 9pm. Weekends: 11am-1pm / 2pm-4pm.
  • London Bridge or Borough.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Kings Cross:

Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 17th January 2024 with Mandeep Singh. BOOK


Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 18th January 2024 with Charlie Jackson. BOOK


Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 15th January 2024 with Claudia Novati. SOLD OUT

  • 7pm – 9pm.
  • Kings Cross.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Bank/Liverpool Street/Fenchurch Street:

Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 15th January 2024 with Chris Mead. BOOK


Every Tuesday for 8 weeks from Tuesday 23rd January 2024 with Conor Jatter. BOOK


Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 24th January 2024 with Sophie Pumphrey. BOOK


Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 25th January 2024 with James Irving. BOOK


Every Saturday morning for 8 weeks from Saturday 13th January 2024 with Chris Mead. BOOK

  • Weekdays: 7pm – 9pm. Weekends: 11am-1pm / 2pm-4pm.
  • Bank, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Aldgate.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Liverpool Street:

Every Tuesday for 8 weeks from Tuesday 23rd January 2024 with Lisa Lynn. BOOK


Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 8th February 2024 with Rory Vieyra. BOOK

  • 7pm – 9pm.
  • Liverpool Street.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Holborn:

Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 7th February 2024 with Jenny Rowe (with guest teacher weeks 3 and 4). BOOK

  • 7pm – 9pm.
  • Holborn.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Warren Street / Euston:

Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 8th February 2024, 6pm – 8pm, with Isabelle Glinn. BOOK


Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 8th February 2024, 8pm – 10pm, with Stephen Davidson. BOOK

  • As above.
  • Warren Street or Euston.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Marylebone/Paddington:

Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 26th February 2024 with Lisa Lynn, with a break on Easter Monday. BOOK

  • 7pm – 9pm.
  • Marylebone, Paddington, Marble Arch.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in Shaftesbury Avenue / Tottenham Court Road:

Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 21st February 2024 with Melissa Parker. BOOK


Every Saturday morning for 8 weeks from Saturday 24th February 2024 with Fran Reid. BOOK


Every Saturday afternoon for 8 weeks from Saturday 24th February 2024 with Claudia Novati. BOOK

  • Weekdays: 7pm – 9pm. Weekends: 11am-1pm / 2pm-4pm.
  • Tottenham Court Road or Holborn.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.
Next Available Dates in London Blackfriars / Fleet Street / City Thameslink:

Every Monday for 8 weeks from Monday 5th February 2024 with Conor Jatter. BOOK

  • 7pm – 9pm.
  • Blackfriars, City Thameslink.
  • £220.
  • As above.
£220. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £120 once the course starts.

teachers

Liam Brennan, improv teacher

Liam Brennan

Liam performs with The Science of Living Things, Fright Night and The Improvised Crystal Maze and directs many of our new shows. He has trained at UCB and iO.

Monica Gaga

Monica Gaga

Monica hosts Hoopla's main weekend shows and performs improv in Do The Right Scene and Derek's Mojo. She trained in Community Theatre at East 15 Drama School.

Maeve Ryan

Maeve Ryan

Maeve performs in and produces Ladyprov, Hoopla's regular show celebrating women in improv. She trained in Acting at The Arts Educational School.

Britt Pay sq

Britt Pay

Britt performs with Hoopla house teams Michelle AND The Descendants. She also performs with The Playground, Classic Andy and Unbridled.

Susan Harrison

Susan Harrison

Sue performs in the Olivier award winning Showstoppers the Improvised Musical, Beings, and BAFTA winning sketch show Class Dismissed.

Lisa-Lynn-Sq

Lisa Lynn

Lisa performs in Music Box and Mutiverse improvised musicals. She also directs Acaprov the improvised a capella musical. She trained in Musical Theatre and has a Drama PGCE at Masters Level.

Jonah Fazel

Jonah performs with Bumper Blyton the Improvised Enid Blyton Adventure. He trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He also trained with Keith Johnstone.

Francesca Reid

Francesca Reid

Fran performs in Dreamweaver, Multiverse, The Playground, The Yes Queens and more.
She trained at East 15 drama school, iO in LA, Second City and UCB.

Sabrina sq

Sabrina Luisi

Sabrina performs with Multiverse the improvised musical, Hoopla long-form house team Michelle, Hoopla team Buffet and improvised murder mystery Play Dead London.

James Whittaker

James Irving

James performs in Dreamer Quartet, one of Hoopla's most popular improv shows. He also tours nationwide with The Impromptu Shakespeare Company and Bumper Blyton.

Mandeep-Sq

Mandeep Singh

Mandeep performs in and produces Gamez, one of Hoopla's biggest house teams, and also regularly performs in The Inflatables, Improv Anything, Tightrope and more.

Stephen-Davidson

Stephen Davidson

Stephen is the Artistic Director of Improvable, QI: Queer Improv and of Zeal: The Pride Improv Festival. He is the author of two books about improv: Play Like an Ally, and Improvising Gender.

Greg Birks

Greg trained at LAMDA and performs in Dreamweaver and Music Box the improvised musicals, two of Hoopla's most popular shows.

Nick Oram

Nick Oram

Nick performs in Do Not Adjust Your Stage, one of the most popular shows at Hoopla. He has trained with IO, Second City and UCB.

Jenny Rowe

Jenny performs with the award winning Maydays and The Impromptu Shakespeare Company. She trained with iO Chicago and The Annoyance Theatre.

Claudia-Novati-Sq

Claudia Novati

Claudia performs with Hoopla's TheatreSports team, and is the founder and co-director of ISL - Improv as Second Language. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama.

Chris Mead, improv teacher

Chris Mead

Chris performs with the award winning Maydays and Project2 improvise sci-fi. He is artistic director of The Nursery and co-founder of The Improv Place.

Ayla Pengelly-Moore

Ayla performs with Hoopla house team Shuffle and is a Hoopla jam captain, and also producers her own improv and comedy shows and jams across London.

what's included

Each session consists of some fun and friendly warm ups, then some exercises on some of the core skills of improvisation, followed by having some fun with improvising games, scenes and stories as part of a team.

You’ll be rehearsing with the same people regularly every week, so you progress each week, getting to know each other and building up a team with your fellow improvisers and the director.

Most of all we make improv fun!

 

Recommended by:

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Teamwork

  • Making the other person look good.
  • Supporting each other on stage.
  • Trust.

Listening

  • Active listening and awareness.
  • Being in the moment.
  • Presence.

Yes And

  • Creative Collaboration.
  • Accepting and building on offers instead of blocking.
  • Agreement instead of conflict.

Being Obvious

  • Being obvious instead of trying too hard to be funny.
  • Making creativity simple by being obvious.
  • Being honest in the moment.
  • Improvising realistic scenes.

Spontaneity

  • Going for it. Improvising carefree.
  • Playing and having fun with mistakes.
  • Playing without fear.
  • Commitment.
  • Confidence on stage.

Character

  • Physical characters.
  • Emotions, reactions, being altered.
  • Playing with status, voice and movement.

Scenes

  • Fun simple scene structures.
  • Scenes based in agreement and relationship instead of conflict.

Games

  • Lots of fun short-form games.
  • Confidence with being in front of an audience.
  • Having fun with improvising as part of a team.

faqs