"This is a story of a Missouri boy who traveled far and wide..."

The Improv Trick was founded in 2004 in LA by St. Louisan Bill Chott who has over 20 years experience performing and teaching improvisation.  After the classes in LA were formed, Bill wanted his home town of St. Louis to remember its huge part in the early history of performance improv in America...The Compass Theater! The Compass later moved back to Chicago and became The Second City.

Bill moved to Chicago in 1991 to study improv since there was no place in St. Louis to study.  There, he discovered that his home town was the epicenter of comedy during the Beat Generation.  Nobody in St. Louis talked about it when he was growing up.

From The Second City, Bill's star rose to such shows as Saturday Night Live, The Dana Carvey Show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Top ten films with The Farrelly Bros, and most recently he has gained fame playing Mr. Laritate on Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place.

In addition to teaching actors in LA, Bill brought an improv theater and school to his home town so that those who want to study this artform can do so without leaving the best home town in the U.S.A, Saint Louis Missouri!

The creation of The Improv Trick in St. Louis resulted in a growing improv scene in that town, and Bill returns to teach Improv Trick classes as his LA shooting scheudle allows.

With new opportunities to create and grow in an "instant" environment, Bill and the students of the school have mounted some of the most successful independent comedy events, events for large organizations, Sales Training Videos and programs for Organizational Development.

Improv Trick in L.A. seeks to provide a supportive environment for people looking to study improv in a non-competitive environment. We hope that our success in making everyone feel welcome can also contribute to success in life, in work and in laughter.

We're a social group that seeks to connect improvisers at all of LA's improv theaters.

We're a place to play and a place to keep up your skills so you can constantly improve your improv!