21 Things You Should Know Before You Date Someone Who Does Improv

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1. Our friends are weird as f*ck. You don’t have to point this out to us. We already know it. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

2. When you come to parties with us, it basically means you’re about to meet fifty other people who are just as loud, crazy, and strange as we are.

3. We’re always performing. In the car, at happy hour, at work, during errands, on our commute, on dates with you. It’s not that we’re being fake or insincere. On the contrary, we’re just being ourselves. Part of what makes us who we are is that we love being goofy and carefree, and we love making people laugh. That includes putting on shows and performing in any way that we can.

4. We were probably weird in high school. Or wall flowers. Or nerds. Or awkward. Or drama geeks. Or all of those things and MORE.

5. If you’re not down to go to a midnight improv show on a Wednesday every once in a while, you probably shouldn’t date us.

6. On that note, while your support means the world to us, that doesn’t mean we expect you to come to every. single. show. we. ever. do. We’re well aware that comedy is our life, not yours. And we know that the only people who are going to attend a 9 o’clock show on a Sunday night are probably… other improvisers.

7. But if you do come to a show, we’ll love you more than you could ever imagine. Especially if you bring other people with you.

8. …And our fellow improvisers will probably love you even more than we do.

9. For some reason, we don’t actually laugh out loud that much. Maybe because we’re used to being surrounded by hilarious people all the time. Usually when we think something’s really funny, we’ll just say “That’s really funny” with a straight face. And we’re dead serious.

10. Improv is actually a great financial investment, because we’re saving tons of money that we would otherwise have to spend on a therapist years down the line.

11. When you want to talk to us about a tv show, especially a comedy, be prepared. You’re opening up a can of worms.

12. …Because we won’t just want to talk about our favorite characters and the best scenes and the overall best episodes. We’ll also want to talk about who wrote each episode, who directed it, how the creator came up with the idea, which actors knew each other before they got famous, etc.

13. We’ll also make you watch all the bloopers with us on YouTube and we’ll try to guess which moments were scripted and which moments were improvised.

14. We love talking to people about what we do, but it does depend on the situation. Because we’ve been at one too many parties where some drunk guy yells, “Oh, you do comedy? Do a show right now! Tell us a joke!” And then he won’t stop yelling about it and it’s always the worst.

15. Our diets are kind of all over the place. There’s no organized breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At all times, we’re running off to practice or to a show or to class or some other comedy event. So our meals usually consist of us scrounging down some leftover Chipotle from last night as we’re walking out the door. Don’t lecture us about it. Yes we know it’s unhealthy and yes we’ll change it… eventually… somewhere down the line… probably.

16. One of our favorite things to do is look up famous comedians on Wikipedia and read about how they got to where they are now.

17. We’re pretty good in job interviews, mostly because frustrated creatives always spend a large portion of the interview asking us all about our comedy life and what it’s like to ~*perform*~ and how freeing it feels to ~*chase our dreams*~

18. We’re not famous or important (yet). So you’ll be spending a lot of your time watching us in small, dark, damp theaters you’ve never heard of – ones with weird names and dirty bathrooms.

19. Improv means that it’s different every time, and that anything could happen. So we’re not always going to be funny. In fact, we’re going to have a lot of bad shows. And when we do, don’t feel bad for us or give us pitying looks (because that will probably make us feel worse). Just make us laugh it off, help us take our minds off it, and remind us that there’s always next time.

20. Our friends make really weird and obscure comedy references that you’ll probably never understand. Just embrace it.

21. We’ll always be all over the place. Silly, wild, friendly, exuberant, and adventurous, while simultaneously being insecure, tired, anxious, and vulnerable. We can’t promise that dating us will always be a calm, sane ride, but we can promise that you’ll have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.