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Human beings are natural improvisers. Life is rarely scripted and so we have evolved the ability improvise. We do it all the time and have combined it with our imaginations  for the purposes of entertainment ever since the first cave dwellers sat around the fire telling stories.  Improvisation as an art form arrived in the 16th century with Commedia Dell'Arte. Here we had a groups of actors roaming Europe from town to town performing plays whose scenarios and characters were broadly decided but where the dialogue and action were made up on the spot.

Sadly, this form of entertainment fell out of favour as theatre became more structured and elitist. Until, that is,  the 1930's when a woman called Viola Spolin started making up theatre games to help immigrant children assimilate into American life.  As she noticed how these games helped people get back in touch with their creativity, she started to focus more on this. And her son, Paul Sills, took this a step further by co-founding a theatre company utilising these games and inventing some more. This company eventually morphed into The Second City, which has been the breeding ground for numerous comedy actors such as Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, and many many more. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Keith Johnstone was developing games to help his actors become more spontaneous and creative. He created concepts around status and blocking, and an improv form he called TheatreSports. This has since gone all around the world, and was the inspiration for the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? with its merry band players including Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Tony Slattery, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie.

And now, although Whose Line is no longer being made in the UK, we have an improvised musical in the West End, Showstopper!, a touring improvised comedy based on the novels of Jane Austen, Austentatious, as well numerous clubs both large and small offering totally made up, on the spot entertainment for all.  Interest in improv is flourishing, as is the awareness that the techniques of improv can help in many areas of our lives.