Meet Ethan Goldman | Program Director at the Peak Improv Theater

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ethan Goldman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ethan, how does your business help the community?
The Peak Improv Theater is a space where artists are provided with opportunities to make new and beautiful comedic performance art. In addition to live comedy shows, our theater hosts numerous improv, stand-up, and sketch writing classes. We are extremely passionate about comedy education. Improv is a skill that has helped us and everyone we know personally to overcome challenges in their lives. We and our students have found that taking improv classes taught us to be more kind, made us better listeners and communicators, helped us be more adaptable, and gave us more confidence. Since the pandemic, many people have been experiencing a sense of loneliness, and a lack of community. By laughing, playing, and learning together, The Peak Improv Theater has been building a strong network of kind and funny individuals. We opened our doors in January of 2024, and we have been honored and thrilled to see our community grow and flourish in just over one year’s time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Our comedy is based first and foremost around being kind and inclusive. We believe you don’t need to tear others down to be funny. The core of our improv and comedy philosophy is that the best performers, are those who strive to make others look good. Are we big goofy hams on stage? Yes. Would we rather help you be the star of the show? Also yes.

Between offering a selection of family-friendly comedy shows, and working to create policies that protect and support the community our theater serves as a reminder that you don’t need to punch-down to get laughs.

We are always working to oppose cruelty in comedy. Where sometimes we push up against the “old way” of doing comedy, we will still meet that with kindness, and understanding. We believe that by communicating, and continuing to practice and refine the art of improv, stand-up, and sketch comedy we can have a space that the community considers both safe and funny.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We always recommend The Peak Improv Theater. With live comedy shows on Fridays and Saturdays, and drop-in comedy classes available during the week, you can pretty much hang out there every night. Outside of shamelessly self-promoting, we love The Exchange on Tejon for brunch and lunch. We also think Colorado Springs has some amazing nature and hiking to check out. Our favorites are Bear Creek dog park, and Helen Hunt Falls.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The Peak Improv Theater would not be here without the hard work of Colorado Springs’ longest running improv team, The Stick Horses. Founded in 2004, The Stick Horses raised and saved capital by performing shows, teaching improv classes, and building up the Colorado Springs improv community for over 20 years. We also owe so much to Viola Spolin. A social worker and educator, who in her years of working with under-privileged children, developed the template and road map for what would come to be our approach to teaching and performing improv comedy.

Website: https://www.peakimprov.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/peak_improv_theater/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/peakimprov

Yelp: https://yelp.com/biz/peak-improv-theater-colorado-springs

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@PeakImprovTheater

Image Credits
Brennan McCarthy