Quick Wits Comedy

Founding (1994)

Bob Bedore, Rob Bogue, and a founding group that included Eric Jensen, Russ Peacock, and Mark Probert gave the first Quick Wits performance on October 8, 1994, at The Off Broadway Theatre in Salt Lake City. The troupe created many of its own short-form games in the early years, before the internet made game sharing practical, and built an audience through consistent weekly shows.

Independent Home and Ongoing Run

Quick Wits later moved to its own venue at 695 West Center Street in Midvale. The company has performed every week since its 1994 founding, a continuous run of more than thirty years. Bedore, widely known as the Godfather of Utah Improv, has written two books on teaching improv. Nearly every subsequent improv troupe in Utah has company roots traceable to Quick Wits.

Quick Wits Comedy presents short-form improv games drawn from audience suggestions. The company's thirty-year unbroken performance record and its role as the source institution of Utah's broader improv community define its position in the state.

Quick Wits Comedy's anchor production is its weekly short-form improv show, performed continuously since October 8, 1994, using audience suggestions to generate games and scenes in the tradition of competitive panel formats; the company has performed approximately 5,000 shows across the Salt Lake Valley and several western states. Robin Hood, written by Bob Bedore and collaborator Eric Jensen nearly thirty years ago, is a scripted melodrama performed throughout the western United States featuring music, dance, and heavy improvisation from cast members drawn largely from the Quick Wits ensemble; audiences are prompted to cheer heroes and boo villains throughout. Comedy specials featuring themed long-form sets have been presented at the Midvale Performing Arts Center as periodic departures from the standard weekly show format.

Bob Bedore launched Quick Wits at The Off Broadway Theatre in Salt Lake City on October 8, 1994, after studying an A&E television special on improvisation with a group of local actors that included Rob Bogue. The performance was the first dedicated improv show in Utah, created at a moment when the state had no improv infrastructure, no resident companies, and no established audience for the form. Bedore named the company Quick Wits to suggest instant comedy, and the ensemble began building from the small library of games the founding members had been able to locate. The company moved to the Midvale Main Street Theatre, then to the community-operated Midvale Performing Arts Center at 695 West Center Street, where it has continued performing without interruption.

Bob Bedore has accumulated close to 4,000 individual show performances and is widely referred to as the Godfather of Utah Improv for his role in seeding a scene that now encompasses dozens of independent troupes, nearly all of which can trace their origins to Quick Wits alumni or direct Quick Wits influence. Notable performers to emerge from the company include Eric Jensen, Russ Peacock, Mark Probert, Cody K. Carlson, and Zac and Shawn Zumbrunnen. Rob Bogue, who joined the Quick Wits stage in 2011, has continued as a regular performer. The company's unbroken 30-plus-year performance streak, which no other Utah improv show can match, stands as the defining measure of its institutional durability.