Susan Messing

Messing's career spans the three institutions that have defined Chicago improvisation: iO Theater, The Second City, and The Annoyance Theater. Her founding role at The Annoyance places her in the generation of performers who built Chicago's alternative comedy scene in the late 1980s, alongside Mick Napier and the ensemble that created a theater defined by its irreverence and willingness to push boundaries.

Her work at iO under Charna Halpern and at Second City gave her a comprehensive understanding of both long-form improvisation and sketch comedy development. The curriculum she designed for iO's Level 2 program has shaped the training of thousands of improvisers who passed through the theater's educational pipeline during its most influential period.

Messing With A Friend, her decade-long solo show at The Annoyance, demonstrated the depth of trust and skill that sustained improvisational practice can produce: a single performer creating a complete show with a different partner each week, relying entirely on the moment. The show's longevity testified to Messing's ability to create compelling, unpredictable performance regardless of who shared the stage with her.

Her ability to move between the structured ensemble format of Second City revues, the anarchic creativity of The Annoyance, and the Harold-based long-form work at iO gave her a versatility that few Chicago performers have matched. This cross-institutional experience informed her teaching, allowing her to draw on the strengths of each tradition.

Messing's teaching is known for its directness and energy, emphasizing commitment, personal risk, and the principle that if performers are not having fun, they are the only ones not having fun in the scene. Her approach demands that students bring their full selves to the stage and take responsibility for their own enjoyment and engagement, treating improvisation as a practice of generosity and presence rather than technique alone.

Messing's significance to Chicago improvisation lies in her sustained presence across all three of the city's major improv institutions and her influence as one of the most sought-after teachers in the art form. Her awards, including Improviser of the Year from the Chicago Improv Festival, Best Improviser from the Chicago Reader, and Funniest Woman in Chicago from Chicago Magazine, reflect recognition from critics, audiences, and the improv community itself.

Her teaching at the University of Chicago brings improvisation into the academic environment of one of the world's most prestigious research universities, demonstrating the form's intellectual legitimacy and connecting the Chicago improv tradition to the university that helped give rise to it through the Compass Players in the 1950s. Her curriculum design for iO shaped the training of a generation of performers, and her continued international teaching and performance career ensures that her influence extends well beyond Chicago.

Her TEDxUofC talk "Braving the Unknown" articulated the principles that drive her teaching: that improvisation is a practice of courage, generosity, and presence that applies far beyond the stage. Her essays in The Second City Almanac of Improvisation and Art By Committee have contributed to the published literature of the form, providing practitioner perspectives that complement the theoretical and historical texts.