Improv Wasn’t a Trend for Me ... It Was a Truth

I was into improv before anyone around me in Saudi even knew what it meant.

Graduated and finished all the Second city programs I could possibly take. Was lucky enough to learn from SC Alumni, and not just any Alumni, the big name ones. I even got to perform with them, on a first name basis with them... It was...
well it was Hollywood life.

And no, that’s not a flex. If anything, it was in a way, isolating.

In Saudi, all the buzz was around stand-up. Mic drops, punchlines, hot takes. I kept saying, “Improv is the future.” People laughed it off. Some even tried it ... and quit. Said it wasn’t funny. Said it didn’t make sense.

They didn’t get it.

And honestly, that hurt more than I admitted.

Because improv isn’t something you get by watching a few shows or parroting games. It’s not slapstick. It’s not chaos. It’s not magic pulled from thin air.

It’s built on rules. Trust. Listening. Stillness. It’s a craft that requires surrender ... not performance.

When I studied at Second City, I didn’t walk in ready to play. I was a professional actor who didn’t know how to let go. I was trying too hard. Overthinking every beat. Until Kevin McGeehan ... one of my teachers ... broke me open.

He didn’t correct me. He didn’t shame me.
He just put me in scenes with players who trusted the moment.
And when I froze, he’d ask gently, “What do you feel like doing now?”

He knew. He always knew. But he waited for me to know it, too.

One day, I stopped trying. I just said the line.

“I need to find a job.”

The room laughed ... not because it was clever, but because it was real.

Kevin fist-pumped like I’d just cracked the code. And in that moment, I felt free.

Improv didn’t make me feel powerful.
It made me feel honest.

And once you taste that kind of honesty… you don’t want it misrepresented. You don’t want it turned into a gimmick. You can’t watch it be repackaged as “silly fun” with none of the soul.

That’s why I bristle when people try to teach it without learning it. Not because I think I’m better... but because I know how easy it is to lose what makes it sacred.

In 2021, I got pulled onstage at my first Saudi improv show.

No script. No prep. Just instincts.

The audience laughed. The players fed off it. And afterward, someone came up to me and said, “That was planned, right?”

I smiled. “No. That’s just what improv is.”

Later that year, Second City came to Riyadh through Smile Entertainment and the U.S. Cultural Mission. They asked me to help as a coaching assistant and translator ... not because I applied for the role, but because I lived what they were teaching, and I was a graduate. I’d been carrying it for years.

After that, I started holding my own workshops with students who fell in love with the Second City ... for very different reasons. And through those sessions, I’ve been invited to train people in colleges and business schools: improv for pitching, presentation, even storytelling.

But it’s not just about giving tips.

People who attend know… I’m not teaching from notes. I’m teaching from experience.

Because I believe in it. Still.

Not just as entertainment. But as a language. A rhythm. A way of seeing people and letting yourself be seen.

Improv changed my life.

I don’t say that lightly. It did.

And that’s why I care when it becomes a trend. I’m not chasing credit. But when something this meaningful finally catches on... you hope people protect the core of it ... not just ride the surface wave.

Trends fade. But the truth underneath them… that’s what changes people.

That’s what changed me.