In 1994, Bob Kulhan was in his early 20s and on the path to becoming a marketing executive at a top ad agency. The financial stability of his blossoming career comforted his parents.
That year, he also began taking improvisational comedy classes at Second City, a renowned comedy institution based in Chicago. There, Mr. Kulhan learned from stars like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Del Close.
“Improv is what I am supposed to be doing with my life,” he said he realized after taking classes for a year. At 24, he quit his comfortable job to pursue a career in improv comedy.
To supplement the small income he earned doing comedy, he found gigs hauling Sheetrock, filled in as a substitute teacher and worked as a bartender at Wrigley Field. He also found a job dressing up as Mr. Monopoly to promote a local casino.
These odd jobs, though, weren’t enough to make ends meet, and by the end of the ’90s, Mr. Kulhan couldn’t cover his $800 monthly mortgage.
Then he discovered a more lucrative side of comedy, which was growing quickly in Chicago: corporate improv, which teaches the techniques of improv in workplaces to help employers develop employees’ so-called soft skills like effective communication. As it turned out, many companies were eager to pay comedians hundreds or thousands of dollars to run team-building workshops.
Corporate improv is an offshoot of applied improvisation, a field that explores the benefits of improv outside the theater. Research has found that improv can improve communication, trust, creativity, listening, empathy and the ability to handle uncertainty.
“We noticed 30 years ago that people were taking classes not because they wanted to be the next star at ‘Saturday Night Live’ but because they wanted to utilize improv skills at work,” said Tyler Dean Kempf, creative director at Second City Works.
As an example, Mr. Kempf, 44, said his team has worked with rookies in the National Hockey League to help them prepare for unanticipated questions during news conferences.
In 1999, Mr. Kulhan found an opportunity to become a leader in corporate improv. Professors on sabbatical from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business took an improv class in Chicago. As they exited the class, Mr. Kulhan overheard their conversation about Duke and used the opportunity to pitch them the first academic, improv-based program intended for business students.
The professors liked his pitch and introduced him to Douglas Breeden, at the time the dean of Duke’s business school dean, and the program started in 2000. After the program’s early success, Mr. Kulhan founded Business Improv in 2001 to offer his services directly to employers.
A U.S. Navy captain who took Mr. Kulhan’s training at Duke became Business Improv’s first client. His goal was to spark creativity and energy ahead of a two-day strategic planning session.
The captain, Mr. Kulhan said, commended the program’s impact on the planning session. He told Mr. Kulhan that the team usually produces seven or eight ideas for base improvements, and one of them might be workable. After the improv workshop, the group produced 52 recommendations, and 12 of them were approved on the spot.
Few improv comedians can make a living through comedy alone, but today, careers in corporate improv make that more possible. Those who start their own companies, like Mr. Kulhan, have additional moneymaking potential. Team-building sessions can cost from $500 to $3,000 each. These sessions are often compared to escape room games, bowling outings or team dinners. Long-term engagements helping executives improve skills can come with five-figure price tags and often compete with traditional sales or leadership training. Large events or speaking engagements with experienced improv professionals can start at $10,000.
For improv facilitators who run the sessions, take-home wages vary. Part-time trainers can earn $60 an hour, but they often require other income streams, like teaching comedy classes. A limited number of full-time salaried positions exist.
Today, corporate improvisers across the country provide virtual and in-person sessions intended to improve soft skills to a wide array of companies. Johnny Meeks, a senior academic director at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles, recalled being hired by a group of ministers.
“They were just as silly as other clients,” Mr. Meeks, 53, said. “One of the pastors changed the way she preached as a result of the workshop. Feeling more confident, she wrote less-intensive notes and made her sermons more conversational.”
Mr. Meeks said he had worked with eyeglasses salespeople and major fashion design companies. “The application of improv is broad,” he said.
Mr. Kempf agreed, adding that his client list is long and broad. “Second City Works has worked with over half of the Fortune 1000 companies,” he said.
John Windmueller formerly taught conflict negotiation and resolution at George Mason University and the University of Baltimore. He tried improv in 2005, looking for community and laughs. During his first year of classes, Dr. Windmueller said, he realized that improv honed his conflict resolution skills.
Dr. Windmueller brought his insights back into the classroom to engage his graduate students in improv exercises. He had them play an improv game called Switch, where each person plays a character, but when the word “switch” is shouted, they switch to playing their scene partner’s character, mimicking their partner’s mannerisms and intent. He found that this exercise improved empathy and noted that improv was a strong teaching tool.
Like Mr. Kulhan, Dr. Windmueller caught the corporate improv bug. In 2014, he left academia to lead a program called WIT@Work at the Washington Improv Theater, which provides governments, businesses and nonprofits with improv-based corporate training.
While Dr. Windmueller has a diverse range of clients, he emphasized improv’s utility in conflict resolution, an apt focus for a theater based in the District of Columbia. He has trained the F.B.I.’s crisis negotiation unit in improv techniques, he said. When it comes to difficult situations where people are unwilling to cooperate, the F.B.I. employs active listening and tactical empathy — skills strengthened by improv training.
In one exercise known as “first word, last word,” F.B.I. agents created a story, starting each sentence with the last word from the previous sentence, forcing them to listen to every word shared with one another, Dr. Windmueller said.
“We often fall into the habit of listening to respond versus listening to understand,” he said.
One challenge for corporate improvisers is that employees are often nervous to try improv in front of their colleagues. Mr. Meeks said that an employee once told him “they would rather have explosive diarrhea than do an improv workshop.”
Karen Gray, the chief administrative officer at A&E Networks in New York, participated in a company training led by Business Improv. “I had performance experience but was a notoriously bad actress, so I dreaded this session.”
During Ms. Gray’s session with Mr. Kulhan, he had the executives practice selling a robot.
“It was completely silly, but in just a few short hours, we had built enough trust to let ideas flow and not worry about acting out a robot pitch as full-grown adults,” Ms. Gray said. “The session showed how to let creativity flow.”
Erin Diehl, founder and chief executive of Improve It in Charleston, S.C., came to corporate improv after a successful career in human resources.
During her workshops, she uses a hat shaped like a chicken that keeps people’s attention and reminds them that learning comes from taking risks and getting uncomfortable, said Ms. Diehl, 41.
Arturo Corominas Tortolero, a global culture and diversity manager at Bimbo in Mexico City, recalled a training where senior executives in the company laughed while roaring at each other and making “T.-rex arms.”
“This allowed everyone to be more themselves and create meaningful long-term relationships,” Mr. Tortolero, 36, said.
