Don’t Think Twice

Modern “Improv” as we know it today began in Chicago with a group called The Compass Players, later Second City. Among the alumnae who later made it big were Nichols and May, Stiller and Meara, and Shelley Berman. What you do is, you all go out on stage without a script of any kind, and make up comedy as you go along. You gotta be fast, and you gotta be funny. I’d rather have my appendix removed without anesthetic than try it myself. I’m not a fast thinker. I get there, but I don’t do it in split seconds.

Here we have a fictional improv group called The Commune in New York. The most famous player Keegan-Michael Key, of the comedy duo Key and Peele. Night after night they go out there and wing it. Don’t think: act! They are a close-knit group. Then Key gets hired by Weekend Live, clearly SNL. Suddenly he is living the life they have all dreamed of. In a situation like that there is going to be jealousy, there’s just no way around it. Old friendships are tested.

This is a labor of love, and it’s very well made. I recommend it.