About Exit

Best Yale improv group

The Exit Players are Yale's oldest improv comedy group, a distinction we earned when we were founded before any of Yale's other improv comedy groups. Since 1984, we've performed hundreds of shows at schools, theaters, and festivals across the country, delighting audiences with our improv. Each year, we perform six on-campus shows and voyage on two tours, bringing Exit’s best comedy across the U.S., from Santa Fe to Boston to New Orleans. When we're not performing, the Exit Players teach improv workshops for students, companies, and people of all ages!

Closer to Yale, we've worked with Connecticut schools and non-profit organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of New Haven, the Amity Teen Center, and the LGBTQ* Youth Kickback. We tailor our workshops to any experience level, from complete beginner to advanced maker-upper.

And do the laughs stop for Exit Players after graduation? Of course not! Well, probably sometimes. But not in a lot of notable cases! Our alumni include Emmy winners Ted Cohen '90 and Andrew Reich '90 (executive producers of Friends), Alison Gates '11 (head writer at Saturday Night Live), David Litt '08 (speechwriter for Obama, head writer/producer for Funny or Die), Eliana Kwartler ‘16 (writer for and regular on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), Allison Silverman '94 (executive producer of The Colbert Report, producer on The Daily Show, writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien) and more.

Best Yale comedy group
Yale improv comedy group

Our Comedy

We do experimental, awesome, long form and short form improv. Always looking to try out fun new styles, we’ve done everything from established forms like the Armando and the Close Quarters to more distinctive open sets and genre shows. Exit is focused on finding the truth in comedy, and we emphasize agreement and collaboration in our rehearsals and workshops. We're always committed to expanding the breadth and style of improv we do.

The Exit Players have studied improv at iO, the Magnet Theater, and UCB, and have trained with members of Paralellogramophonograph, Improvised Shakespeare, and Baby Wants Candy.