Q&A with Michael Bradt, founder of Fort Wayne’s newest improv space

When asked about his start in comedy, Michael Bradt will tell you he’s kind of always been a comedian. 

“I was a good student, but then it allowed me to be a class clown because my teachers couldn’t get that mad at me because I was a good student,” he says.

Those comedy skills developed as he joined the Humor Artists during his undergraduate studies at Notre Dame, practicing sketch comedy. Upon returning to Notre Dame for his law degree, he also returned to the Humor Artists, which had evolved into improv and stand-up comedy. 

Back in the suburbs of Chicago, Bradt took classes at Second City and iO, both of which boast long lists of famous alumni. After a stint as a main stage performer at Comedy Shrine and then a move to Westside Improv, Bradt took a step into the business side of comedy, becoming part-owner of Westside Theatre.

Eventually, Bradt and his wife, Kelsey, decided to open their own theatre, The Bit, in 2021.

“We were proud of that, and it built a good community out there,” he says.

In 2024, the Bradts relocated to Fort Wayne – a move that would put them closer to some of Kelsey’s family. 

“After moving here, I kind of had a moratorium on doing anything in improv because we had basically given up our weekends, our Fridays and Saturdays, for a couple of years,” Bradt says.

But that moratorium appears to be up, as Michael officially opened Fort Wayne Improv on East State Boulevard on Jan. 31.

Input Fort Wayne sat down with Michael Bradt to learn more about diving into the comedy world in a new city, the new theatre’s history, and the therapeutic feeling improv offers. 

Input Fort Wayne: For those unfamiliar with improv, what can they expect from your new venue moving forward? 

Michael Bradt: What everyone is usually familiar with is short-form improv because of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Short form improv, we’re going to do some of that, we kind of tell you what game we’re going to play, and then we play it. 

I like to say the difference between short form improv and long form improv is that in short form improv, they’re rooting for you to fail. They’re rooting for you to screw up because it’s funny. And in long-form improv, they’re rooting for you to succeed, because they want to feel that you’re confident. There’s less audience participation, but it’s more like an improvised play. Usually, we get a suggestion at the top, and then we go for 15 or 20 minutes, and it’s all still improvised, but it’s an artistic expression, a spontaneous artistic expression usually coming from an audience suggestion. There didn’t used to be really a whole lot of examples of long form improv, but now it’s kind of starting to get a little more popular. There are all sorts of different forms that we’ll be doing. We want to keep it interesting. 

I want to start with one show a month, and then if Fort Wayne really is ravenous for more, we’re going to definitely do more. 

The shows are really a kind of proof of concept to encourage people to take classes and do corporate workshops and things like that. Especially, since we’re going to have local talent up on stage, if you see someone that you know up there that’s doing it, I think it makes it a lot more accessible to folks to give it a shot to try it out. 

IFW: You started hosting improv classes in Fort Wayne last year. What has the response been like so far? 

MB: I’m finding that there are a lot of people who want to take improv classes that don’t want to travel to take them or take them online, so it’s been great. I think my first official class was in February of 2025. I have done some jams, which are basically like open mics for improvisers at a couple of different locations around the area. Swizzle Market was very, very good to us. Wunderkammer hosted us a couple of times and was awesome. 

IFW You just hosted your first show at Fort Wayne Improv. How did it go?

MB: I honestly don’t know how it could have gone better, and I should have known from the jump that fate had my back. I was struggling a bit with our POS Saturday morning, and I got the most helpful support person I’ve ever had, who voluntarily did a bunch of stuff for me and probably saved me an hour of work. Then, one of the performers came to the theater early and cleaned and shoveled so I didn’t have to. (Thanks, Zach!) I would have literally been working up until the doors opened without his help. Then, my wife, Kelsey, showed up and fed me so I wouldn’t forget to eat and pass out halfway through the show.

As far as the show, everyone outperformed my wildest expectations by about 150%. I’m just going to shout them out. The performers– Kelsey, Khin, Nick, Nicki, Steve, Zach, and Jordan – were outstanding.

Hannah Grace, our guest monologist, was incredible. Our bartender, Nicole, was a whirlwind of activity, and she just made everything work. Our tech person, Kristin, had her timing perfectly down and kept the night moving.

The folks (18 of them!) who participated in the jam were hilarious. All the Small Things provided delicious charcuterie boxes to the audience. 18 Threads made SUCH great t-shirts.

The crowd was enthusiastic, gave us great suggestions, and was so responsive throughout the night. The weather cooperated enough to let my dad make the drive from Chicago, and it was so awesome to see him and hear his laughter.

Obviously, improv is unscripted, but I couldn’t have scripted a better night. I am filled with excitement to bring more shows to Fort Wayne, and I am so thankful that the community turned out IN FORCE for us. I am exhausted, but I am so excited that the work of getting the theater open is done, and now I can just focus on programming great classes and shows for the space! Thank you for welcoming us with such enthusiasm, Fort Wayne! Our hearts are full!

IFW: Aside from getting to perform, what are the benefits of taking an improv class? MB: We’ve had a lot of students that have taken classes specifically for social anxiety, which is great. Some of them are literally on assignment from a therapist, which is great. Hopefully it’s been helpful. I’ve gotten good feedback that it’s something that got them a little bit outside their comfort zone. Improv is not therapy, but it can be therapeutic. 

I think a lot of people are turned off from improv because a lot of classes are an eight-week class followed by a student show. Some people want to do improv and don’t necessarily want to get up on stage. If you want to take classes and don’t ever want to go on stage, that’s also a completely valid option. 

My goal is to make improv accessible. One of the coolest things about improv, I think, unless you’re a scripted actor, you’ve been improvising your entire life, so it’s not that big of a leap to learn to put some of these rules behind it. We want everyone in Fort Wayne to feel comfortable and to feel like they can come in and take a class, enjoy kind of what improv has to offer. 

IFW: What made you decide it was time to open your own space here? MB: I’m an ideas person. I had all these ideas, and it was a lot more difficult to execute ideas without having control of the space. So I kind of realized that I need to control the space. If Fort Wayne tells us that they don’t want improv or don’t like us, we at least have a building that we can lease out to somebody else. 

It just felt right to kind of pull the trigger on it. It’s, of course, more expensive than we expected. But it’s been really cool. The students who have taken classes have sort of seen the space grow into what it’s going to be. 

IFW: Your new theatre on East State Boulevard has some history to it, which you feature on your website. What have you learned about 1314 E State Blvd’s past? MB: We’re right by the Tecumseh Branch of the library. I went over, and I probably talked for an hour and a half with a librarian who has been at the Tecumseh Branch for a long time. She was giving me the history of that building. It was originally the Tecumseh Branch. It was a library way back in the day. The library had all these cool pictures that I asked to put on our website. Having been in real estate for 20 years, I’m kind of a geek about that stuff – the historical, the architectural, it’s just a cool building. 

IFW: You met your wife doing improv, and you’ve worked together on previous improv ventures. Is she also involved in Fort Wayne Improv? 

MB: Kelsey is my favorite person in the world, in general, but especially to improvise with. She’s my forever scene partner. But I put her through the wringer at our last theater, and she basically gave up her Friday and Saturday nights to allow me to pursue my dream and to make it successful. I would LOVE to have her be part of Fort Wayne Improv, and you’ll see her pretty regularly, but I don’t want her to get consumed by my wild dream. I want her to be a part of the theater, but I don’t ever want her to feel obligated to be at the theater. 

IFW: As you’ve been working on the theatre, how has it been to join East State Village Neighborhood? 

MB: There were a bunch of different places that I looked at. But here, what I’ve been blown away by is the number of vehicles a day that drive and by the walking traffic, especially in this cold weather. When I’ve been working in there getting the theater set up, I’m seeing people walking by.

I know that the Forest Park neighborhood is right there and within walking distance from us, too. The neighbors that I’ve met have just been amazing. We’re right next to a State Farm office. I’ve met a couple of the agents there who are great. Obviously, the library across the street is great. Our neighbor on the other side has been great. I met the owner of The Painted Lady across the 

street – she’s amazing. All the neighbors have been awesome and incredibly welcoming, and I want to make this area a hot spot for Fort Wayne. 

IFW: Chicago is a much larger city with a much stronger comedy scene that has produced a number of comedy legends. What will you be bringing from that atmosphere to Fort Wayne? 

MB: In the Chicago area, you could throw a rock and hit an improv theater. There were so many improv theaters. So one of the things that I found in the Chicago area was that we really had to stand out. There’s no point in being a theater unless you’re offering something different. I think I kind of found a good way of teaching improv and a good curriculum for us that I’m bringing to Fort Wayne by virtue of having to stand out. 

I was lucky enough to kind of grow up around improv, so I have, you know, 25 years of experience of being surrounded by these theaters and being surrounded by improv giants in the birthplace of improv. So I’m able to take that knowledge in conjunction with trying to stand out in that scene and do things the way I want to, instead of just doing it to stand out a little bit. I was able to kind of marry those two things together. 

IFW: According to your website, you also plan to use the space for events like writer’s rooms and sketch writing classes. Can you tell us more about that? 

MB: We’re going to do sketch writing classes at some point, and we are doing a free writer’s room every other Wednesday, just to kind of get our name out there. We just did our first writer’s room recently. It was very, very bad weather. So we had a lot of sign-ups, and about half of those showed up. But we had a really good turnout. Austin Wilson, the owner of Moss Heart Books, who is hosting the writer’s room, is very accomplished. 

Check out Fort Wayne Improv’s online schedule for other upcoming events. Shows at Fort Wayne Improv are 18+, unless noted otherwise.