Allen Morrison has been in the improv comedy game for two decades.

The performer and teacher at The Improv Centre got his start after a friend goaded him onto the stage at the Urban Well in Kits.

“I was terrible,” Morrison confesses over a phone call. “But then he made me come back the next week, and I did the show, and I was marginally less terrible—so he kept forcing me to come back, and I got a little better.”

It was the group he met there that would become his initiation into The Improv Centre—though at the time it was called Vancouver TheatreSports League—where Morrison has been performing and teaching and, for a spell shortly after the pandemic, working as artistic director.

“But my favourite thing to do, for sure, is to perform. It’s just a really addicting thing. The way I describe it to people is that you get to sort of trance out,” Morrison says. “Everybody’s got that thing that they trance out in; maybe it’s guitar, maybe it’s painting or whatever. And I get to do it in front of a bunch of people and have them become a witness and also collaborate in that whole process. So it’s very rewarding, and also very lucky that I get to do it with people that are as talented as they are.”

Morrison is also an adjunct professor at UBC, where he created the university’s first improv course. In addition, he teaches at The Improv Centre, where classes range from Improv 101: The Fun-Damentals to Improv 201: Learning Long Form, to a free monthly Community Jam that is open to drop-ins.

The Improv Centre, which is located on Granville Island, also offers Improv for Business, which focuses on public speaking, teamwork, and creativity—all attributes that Morrison says demonstrate the core takeaways of the vocation.

“I found that for myself, improv has helped me grow personally; it’s made me much more outgoing, made me more of an extrovert. It’s been great socially,” he says. “I think it’s made me a better conversationalist. You’re training yourself in a conversation—to not only look for those little conversation hooks with people, but you’re also training yourself to lay a few hooks out there for people so that they have something to grab onto in a conversation.”

The Improv Centre has some exciting shows coming down the pipe for anyone who wants to get an idea of what improv at the professional level looks like, including the currently running Stage Fright 2: Murder at the Disco!

The 1970s disco-themed murder mystery, which debuted on September 28 and will run until October 28, pulls one member of the audience on stage to act as the daring detective who will eventually help uncover whodunnit. “Ultimately, we want them to play with us,” Morrison says of the would-be detective. “And whatever they say, we’re going to turn into gold. Whatever they say is going to be perfect.”

Other upcoming shows from The Improv Centre include the Halloween special Boo-S Day, which will take place on Halloween night only (it’s a Tuesday—get it?); Single, Not Single, the dating show held on Wednesdays that is for singles and not-so-singles alike; and to end out the year there will be Back to the Holidays, a time-travel-to-save-Christmas romp that plays off classics like A Chistmas Carol.

“That’s going to be a lot of fun,” says Morrison. “I’m really excited about that. I also really like Christmas stuff.”

Even if you don’t like Christmas stuff, The Improv Centre’s take on the holidays is sure to put you in a jolly good mood.