Marcus Sams, Founder of Moment Improv Theatre

Marcus Sams, founder of Moment Improv Theatre as well as the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Improv Festival.

Marcus has performed improv since 2001 and has been in 70+ national improv festival shows, including the “Secret Show” at the Chicago Improv Festival, where he opened for BassProv with his duo Liss n’ Sams, featuring Joe Liss of Second City. He was the “Master Teacher” at the Alaska State Improv Festival in 2017 and has been a headlining act and teacher at the KC Improv Festival, Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, and Seattle Festival of Improv, to name a few.

Marcus has also taught improv to large companies such as Google, Microsoft, Airbnb, eBay, and Electronic Arts, to name a few on a long list. Marcus believes that improv skills are life skills and that anyone can participate in this magical and transformative art form. He has a systematic and heart-centric approach to improv that breaks down improv concepts to their core units and delivers usable tools to the working player. Marcus was initially trained as a stage actor and brought this respect for stagecraft and training to the improv world. He believes that improv is not a crap-shoot and that once one learns the craft of improv, it frees them up to experience a deeper level of play.

Marcus has written over 240 hrs of curriculum for Moment Improv Theatre and currently teaches 3-5 classes per week. An interesting thing to note, Marcus is also the only African American improv theatre and training center owner on the West Coast, Yes&, he hopes to influence and help change that within his lifetime.