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April 17, 2026

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A screenshot of an Instagram reel in which I'm speaking, overlaid by a caption of what I'm saying that reads: "Hey, everybody. John Ratliff with Mercury Improv, home of the best improv classes in town," which seems pretty arrogant unless you watch the video and realize that the whole phrase is "the best improv classes in town for nervous beginners," so I'm imagining a lot of people at other improv schools seeing this and getting pretty huffy about it and deciding that I'm too big for my britches when really I was just trying to target my likeliest students. I hate marketing.
Pictured: inflammatory online rhetoric

So I made another Instagram reel and then right after posting it I started worrying that it would make people mad, because (a) in it I am more than somewhat disrespectful of both AI and tech billionaires, and (b) Instagram’s captioning cut off the phrase “the best improv classes in town for nervous beginners” so that if you just see the above image I seem pretty full of myself. (I mean even more so than usual.) Oh well.

The Crash Course is almost upon us! (It’s April 25th, a week from Saturday.) I am busily distilling Improv for Introverts down to its most concentrated essence, so that people walking out of this will have a really solid grasp of the basic principles of improv. This class will be very challenging (for me) and very fun (for you), and is a great introduction if you can’t do weeknight classes.

And then the following week the first-ever Improv for Introverts South class starts (on Thursday April 30th), so all of you South Austinites can take, ahem, the best improv class in town for nervous beginners without having to cross the dreaded Colorado. This is going to be a blast (and is in a really cool space), so if you’re southerly you should join us!

I hope to see you in class soon.

Till then,
John

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