Friday Nite Improvs, or Friday Night Improvs (FNI), was a long-running weekly improvisational comedy show staged on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The show functioned as an improv jam, performed by improv actors who don't normally work together. FNI was unique in that, in addition to the audience's providing improv suggestions, the performers are all pulled from volunteers in the audience.[1] FNI ended in 2014. A student improv group, Ruckus, has succeeded FNI as a resident improv group on the University of Pittsburgh's campus.
Friday Nite Improvs was the longest-running theatrical/comedic production in the city of Pittsburgh.[2] The show regularly featured actors from every improv group in Pittsburgh, and alumni have gone on to act, write, and produce for television and film.
Readers of the Pittsburgh City Paper ranked Friday Nite Improvs as the 3rd best place to see comedy in Pittsburgh in the 2004 "Best of Pittsburgh" survey behind the professional stand-up clubs The Improv and The Funnybone.[3]
College Prowler ranked Friday Nite Improvs as the ninth best thing about Pitt.[4]
- ^ Leitner, Lucy (2009-10-01). "After 20 years, Friday Nite Improvs is still getting laughs -- and involving audiences". Pittsburgh City Paper. Pittsburgh, PA. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ [1] Archived 2006-11-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Best of 2004". www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws. Archived from the original on 14 October 2006. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
- ^ Jamie Cruttenden; Tim Williams (2006). Adam Burns; Meghan Dowdell (eds.). College Prowler University Of Pittsburgh: Off The Record. College Prowler. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: College Prowler. p. 152. ISBN 1-4274-0189-6. ISSN 1552-1680.