The Detroit Creativity Project, an organization that teaches youth crucial life skills through improv comedy, is showing how improv can be used on and off the stage. Each semester, the organization’s teaching artists lead improv classes in about a dozen schools, mostly in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, but also in neighboring cities like Hamtramck and Lincoln Park.

Actor and comedian Marc Evan Jackson founded The Detroit Creativity Project in 2011. Jackson, known for his roles in “The Good Place” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” got his start in comedy at the now-defunct Second City Detroit theater in the late 90s. He and other Second City Detroit alumni decided to start the Detroit Creativity Project as a way of giving back to the city by teaching kids life skills. 

Improv is unscripted short-form comedy theater built around prompts typically provided by the audience. The tools of improv are based around spontaneity and collaboration, skills that can also be helpful in life with academic and personal success. Jackson said people are required to improvise during their daily lives, so developing improv skills is beneficial. 

“It truly opens your life up,” Jackson said. “You realize that failure is not a lasting condition. Not everything is going to go perfectly every day. But you realize that it’s not fatal… and you fear it less, so it makes you more willing to go into the unknown.” 

Liam Cooper, a student at Bates Academy who is in the Detroit Creativity Project, said improv is an expression of freedom for him.  

“You don’t really have to follow a set of rules,” he said. “You can freely express yourself.” 

Leaders with the Detroit Creativity Project told One Detroit that participation in the program increased students’ test scores, attendance, and comprehension in other academic areas. In addition, A 2018 study by the University of Michigan followed 270 Detroit Creativity Project improv students and found that taking the improv classes reduced students’ social anxiety, as well as increased their self-confidence and social skills. 

One Detroit’s Chris Jordan attended one of the organization’s improv classes at Bates Academy in Detroit, where he sat down with educator Terrea Hall, improv teaching artist Justin Montgomery, Program Director Kelly Rossi, and several of the Bates Academy students. He also spoke to Jackson about the organization and its philosophy. 

Plus, Jordan visited Detroit Creativity Project’s spring showcase performance at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where he spoke to Executive Director Nancy Hayden, and “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Tim Meadows, a supporter of the organization.  

Other Detroit-area comedians who support the organization include Keegan-Michael Key of “Key and Peele,” Larry Joe Campbell from “According to Jim,” Nyima Funk of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, and Maribeth Monroe from “Workaholics,” among others.