UVU’s award-winning Improv team

The Review sat down with Alice Elsworth, the president of Utah Valley University’s Comedy Team, Hot Tea Improv. A group of students who practice and perform improv comedy as a class as well as a team. She shares her journey into the improv scene.

“Before I started improv, I was like super afraid of it and scared of it. And it was so scary to get up in front of a group of people and just say what comes to your head and hope it works out,” Elsworth said. 

“I would have a goal that I was gonna fail big and make them laugh big,” said Elsworth.“It gave me such great confidence and now I get to be president of this amazing team that I love being a part of. I love improv. It’s such a big part of me and it’s all because I was just like ‘Yeah, whatever. I’m gonna fail, I’m gonna laugh, then I’m just gonna move on.’”

Having overcome her fears and putting herself out there, Elsworth is now president of the improv team and the Emcee for their weekly shows.

Elsworth has proven to be quite successful on her improv journey and so has her team. In March of 2022 they hosted their first improv competition– Utah Collegiate Improv festival– in which they could compete in two categories; long form and short form. Elsworth explained, “Long form is like one full, continuous story… and short form you kind of jump up and do little scenes and little games.” Her and the UVU team took first place in the long form competition.

When asked about how comedy can benefit the students of UVU, Elsworth stated, “Improv shows [are] a way to come and just leave your cares behind you for an hour. And you don’t have to worry about your homework or whatever and just laugh.”

Having started as only a class in the beginning, the program has now grown into an entire team with family-friendly performances every Saturday at 8 p.m.. Students and friends can come laugh and have a good time for a low price. Shows cost $2 for students and $5 for the public in room 632 of the Gunther Trades (GT) building.

Alice and her team are confident students will have a good time, “It’s so fun. Our audiences laugh a lot. We get them laughing,” said Elsworth.
To hear about upcoming shows and news on the improv team you can follow the Hot Tea Improv Instagram page or check out their website.