Wasson's Improv Nation traces the American art of improvisational theater from its workshop beginnings in the Fifties through its influences on such movies as the Graduate and to the great Improv theaters of Second City in Chicago and Toronto and the Groundlings in Los Angeles. In the Seventies under the direction of Lorne Michaels, the amazing talents of John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Jane Curtin became the foundation for a new kind of television: Saturday Night Live, the one tv show that was worth staying up for. And, then with he success of Animal House, Meatballs, and Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers, the counterculture comedy went mainstream. Watson traces the lineage through Chris Farley, Tina Fey, and other modern day players. Today, many of theater games that make up Improv are well known, but at one time it was not so.

Wasson dies an absolutely amazing job of painstakingly chronicling this history. In fact, there are times when you feel fact-overload as a reader, particularly at times when what's being chronicled are actors and producers you have only a passing familiarity with. There are many different actors discussed in different generations. Overall, What a fantastic work, despite the fact that it sometimes seemed to be too thorough.

This is an exhaustive study of improv. The book begins with the the start of improv in 1940s Chicago and ends with current improv and SNL. In between there is Second City and a lot of famous names. The book does try and include everything and it can get overwhelming. Even though I was very familiar with many of the Chicago names I still learned something new. I liked it that the author included the famous, the infamous and the not so famous. The author also did a very good job of showing how improv works in everyday life not just entertainment. This is not a book to be read quickly. Enjoy

A fabulously entertaining and richly detailed dive into the history of improv.

As a comedy nerd, I was really excited about this book. I have never read a book that lays out the history of improve theater so well. It's not the most well-written book, but the information is so great that I overlooked the writing tics. Recommended for anyone who loves comedy, improve or theater.

Improv is an indigenous art form and its evolution mirrors fundamental shifts in the American cultural fabric—from the uptight fifties to the liberated sixties and beyond—this is the first book that takes it all in , lays it all out and lets it hang out. Recommended.