r/improv • u/Mifftie • 8h ago

Discussion Was the comedy/improv industry "smaller" 20ish years ago?

I was just reading Tina Fey's wiki page and it seemed a lot of great comedy writers and performers had their start together at second city in chicago. Now this is just one example, I always see that of that older generation of comedians in almost any entertainment industry, they often come from the same roots in terms of their start in the industry, whether that be the same theatres, clubs, etc.

I understand this is just how it happens because they all exist in the same areas and network and help each other out, but is this type of expansive familiarity within the industry still a thing for newer aspiring artists in this industry.

It almost feels like the entertainment industry as a whole is so oversaturated with people that, that type of small "class" dynamic is not possible. I'm sure their are collaborative groups and such but the mass "everyone knows everyone" in the scene is sort of gone no? especially with the added element of digital content.

I dont even know if i explained well what im trying to say, sorry.

8 Upvotes

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21

u/cartooned 8h ago

People don’t write wiki pages about the people who didn’t make it.

18

u/improbsable 7h ago

It’s currently small. My first day of improv classes made me like 2 degrees away from people on SNL

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u/Mifftie 7h ago

Wow that's really cool, I guess from an outside POV it just seems like it would be oversaturated especially considering how the film and acting industry is. Where do you take improv classes if you don't mind me asking, I'm fairly new to this craft.

10

u/mikel145 8h ago

A lot of people come up together but a few make it. So it makes sense that a lot of people that came up in the improv world known each other. People I have done improve with are now Second City mainstage understudies but there's very few of them compared to all the people I took classes with.

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u/Top-Performance-6482 4h ago

It's more likely to be survivorship bias. The ones who get success remember the other ones who found success - they're not talking about the ones who didn't.

3

u/SpeakeasyImprov Hudson Valley, NY 1h ago

Point of order: 20 years ago was 2006. Fey rose up through Chicago improv in the 90s.

1

u/WizWorldLive Twitch.tv/WizWorldLIVE 4h ago

More improvisors now than 20 years ago—& fewer good jobs.

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u/Duke-Berryman 3h ago

More improvisors now than 30 years ago because there are more women involved. It used to be a boys club and the material suffered because of it.