Andrew Moskos

Boom Chicago's founding in 1993 placed American-tradition long-form improv comedy in Amsterdam at a moment when the form's institutional infrastructure barely existed outside Chicago and a few American cities. The theatre's sustained development over thirty years, from a fifty-seat back room to a multi-venue 500-seat complex, documents how the Chicago improv model could be transplanted into a non-American cultural context and thrive there at an institutional scale that few American regional improv theatres have matched.

The character of the alumni list, which includes not only major American comedy television figures but also Dutch television personality Arjen Lubach and the Ted Lasso team of Sudeikis, Hunt, and Kelly, reflects Boom Chicago's dual position as a staging ground for American performers developing international material and as a cultural bridge between American comedy and Dutch entertainment. Amber Ruffin's emergence there as, ultimately, the first Black woman writer on network late-night television in the United States represents one of Boom Chicago's most historically specific contributions.

The theatre's performed engagement with Dutch and European politics, including the Rutte speech work and the production of shows on American elections for Dutch audiences, demonstrates how an improv-tradition organization can situate itself as a civic and cultural commentator in its adopted country rather than as a foreign novelty.

Moskos's pedagogy and leadership practice emphasize the transferability of improv principles to professional and civic contexts beyond comedy performance. The Boom Chicago for Business arm, which he co-founded, applies yes-and thinking, active listening, and ensemble communication principles to corporate training for major European organizations. The InterActing nonprofit extends the ensemble principles of improv into social development work with teenagers on the autism spectrum. His executive coaching practice applies the same observational and improvisational skills he developed as a performer to the preparation of C-suite speeches and high-stakes presentations.

Boom Chicago is Moskos's primary legacy, and it is one of the most significant institutional contributions to the international spread of American-tradition improv comedy in the history of the form. The theatre launched the careers of performers who have collectively reshaped American comedy television across SNL, Jordan Peele's films, Ted Lasso, Pitch Perfect, and a dozen other major productions. Its sustained thirty-plus-year operation in Amsterdam, through multiple venue expansions, a pandemic, and a sequence of institutional elaborations into corporate training and nonprofit programming, makes it a model for what international improv institution-building can achieve.

The 2023 book, with forewords from two of the most prominent alumni of the theatre, constitutes a primary document of Boom Chicago's institutional history and places that history within a broader narrative of Dutch cultural life over thirty years. For the archive, Moskos represents the generation of Chicago-trained improvisers who carried the form internationally and built institutions outside the United States that have had disproportionate influence on American comedy through the performers they trained and launched.

Moskos was born in Chicago and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father, Charles C. Moskos, was a distinguished military sociologist and longtime Northwestern University professor described by the Wall Street Journal as the nation's most influential military sociologist. His mother, Ilca Moskos, was a foreign language teacher. He attended Evanston Township High School and graduated from Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in 1990. He and Pep Rosenfeld, who would become his co-founder, met as children in Evanston and both attended Northwestern. After graduating, Moskos trained at iO Chicago and worked as Director of Education Projects at Chicago United, a private nonprofit advocacy organization, from 1990 to 1993.

Moskos was born in Chicago and raised in Evanston, Illinois. He has been based in Amsterdam since the founding of Boom Chicago in 1993. He is married to Saskia Maas, who serves as CEO of Boom Chicago and Boom Chicago for Business. They have two sons, including one who has autism and has benefited from the InterActing program. His brother, Peter Moskos, is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.