Pep Rosenfeld

Boom Chicago's founding in 1993 represents one of the most unusual stories in improvisation history: two American college graduates transplanting Chicago-style improv to Amsterdam and building it into a theater that has influenced American comedy from across the Atlantic. The theater drew on the Northwestern University and Chicago improv traditions that Rosenfeld and Moskos had trained in, but adapted them for a European audience and an international performer base.

The theater's function as a talent incubator rivaled established American institutions. Seth Meyers performed at Boom Chicago before joining Saturday Night Live; Jordan Peele developed his skills there before creating Key and Peele and directing Get Out. The Amsterdam location attracted performers who wanted international experience, creating a unique creative environment where American improv traditions mixed with European sensibilities and a multilingual audience base.

Boom Chicago's 60 Minutes profile and the book chronicling its history have documented the theater's improbable influence on American comedy, establishing it as a case study in how improvisational theater can thrive outside its traditional geographic centers.

Rosenfeld's teaching at Boom Chicago draws on three decades of building improvisational comedy programs for English-speaking audiences in Europe, a context that has shaped his approach to making improv accessible across cultural and linguistic boundaries. His pedagogy reflects the Boom Chicago philosophy that improv is fundamentally a skill of connection and play, applicable both in theatrical performance contexts and in the organizational and professional development settings where Boom Chicago increasingly conducts its corporate programming.

His classroom approach emphasizes the basics that make ensemble improv function: genuine listening, offer acceptance, and the willingness to commit fully to whatever reality the scene establishes. These principles, which Rosenfeld has applied across performance training, corporate keynotes, and professional development workshops, translate directly from the stage to the meeting room, and his teaching consistently makes this connection explicit.

Rosenfeld's work at the intersection of theatrical improv and business training places him in the applied improv tradition that Boom Chicago has developed since the 1990s. His workshops for corporate clients use the same foundational exercises that develop performance skills, demonstrating that the underlying principles of effective improvisation (presence, support, acceptance, flexibility) describe effective professional behavior as precisely as they describe good scene work. His writing and public speaking on improv's applications to creativity and communication extends this teaching practice into broader audiences who encounter Boom Chicago's ideas through media, book publications, and public talks.

Rosenfeld's significance lies in co-creating an institution that proved improv could flourish far from Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles. Boom Chicago demonstrated that the skills and formats developed in the American improv tradition are portable and adaptable, capable of connecting with audiences across cultural and linguistic boundaries.

The theater's alumni list, which reads as a roster of major American comedy figures, confirms Boom Chicago's position as one of the most productive talent development institutions in the English-speaking comedy world. Rosenfeld's choice to remain in Amsterdam rather than pursue a permanent career in American television reflects a commitment to building an institution rather than a personal brand, prioritizing the theater's continued growth over individual career advancement.