Sharing Excitement. Sharing Ideas. Sharing Community.

Welcome to Utah‘s first ever collegiate level improv festival! We are so excited to have you participate in UCIF with us! The festival was founded by UVU alumni, Hallie Purser and Tristin Jaurez-Smith. They wanted a way for their school and improv team to get more involved in the Utah improv community, to push themselves, and to get to know and learn from the other improv teams from different college campuses. The festival is held in March on a Utah campus, with professional improv performers from Utah local teams as the judges for the rounds. The college teams have the opportunity to compete in the Short Form and/or Long Form Improv rounds. Teams are not required to participate in both, but it is suggested as it affects the likelihood of receiving the year’s “Overall Best Improv Performance” award. We highly encourage teams to stay to watch the other school’s teams perform in their rounds. This assists with an atmosphere of audience participation/support, and the ability to learn from the other college’s techniques.

UCIF 2024

This year the Utah Collegiate Improv Festival will take place March 22nd from 4-10pm and March 23rd from 9am-5pm. Utah Valley University in the Noorda Center. There will be two improv workshops, one by Crowd Sourced Comedy and another by guest judge and Second City alumnus, John Hildreth.

To secure your festival spot, please complete our application by February 15th. Any teams that apply after this deadline will have to pay our $10 late fee on top of the registration fee.

Info & Schedule

Judging Rubric

Fan Favorite

REQUIREMENTS

Those able to participate in the festival are college improv teams or college improv clubs in Utah and surrounding states. There currently is not a preliminary round to participate in the festival, so a team can simply register and pay the $35 fee to enter and participate. Performers competing on the team MUST be current college students or alumni who have graduated within the last year. Teams need a college affiliation as they will be representing their University in the competition. There is a $35 participation fee. This is for the whole team, and is NOT an individual fee per team member.

FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE

There is not a minimum or maximum of members allowed to perform. During the Short Form round, teams are allowed 30 minutes to perform and during the Long Form round, teams are allowed 30 minutes. You will not be penalized for going under that time. Schools are encouraged to bring audience members to watch the rounds. We ask that if your improv performance requires audience participation, that you do not ask the judges for suggestions.

IMPROV WORKSHOPS

Students may participate in the improv workshops made available by the festival. The workshops are taught by seasoned professional improv performers. Students can participate individually and will get to interact with the students from other participating college teams. At UCIF we aim to celebrate the successes of students, but also encourage continued training and progression in the art form of improv. If a team does not wish to participate in the competition, they can still attend the workshops by paying the participation fee.

AWARDS AND JUDGING

The teams are judged based on how often and well executed various improv techniques are used. The rubrics are slightly different for each type of improv. The main awards are Best Short Form Improv Performance, Best Long Form Improv Performance, and Best Overall Improv Performance. These are based on a point system on the rubric. 1 being a beginners understanding of the improv technique, and 5 being the technique used at the level of a professional team. There are also awards for some outstanding improv performers.