Ed Cisek, longtime company member of WIMP and IMP Improv, received the news this week that every improviser dreams of: he is now a performer on a Harold Team at the iO Theater (formally ImprovOlympic) in Chicago.

He was chosen as one of 15 performers from a group of 80 who completed the iO training program. At the end of his summer teaching at IMP Camp, Ed will join an impressive list of actors such as Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Neil Flynn, Rachel Dratch, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Adam McKay and Amy Poehler, to perform at iO.

Ed was introduced to improv when IMP founder and director Donna Swift brought improv into his eighth grade classroom at the Edgartown School. When the class ended, he teamed up with Ms. Swift to create an after-school class to continue his improv training. He became a cast member of the IMPers, the company’s teen professional improv troupe, and cofounded the teen sketch troupe Sketchy Teens. During his four years with the IMPers, Ed performed at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the Chicago Improv Festival.

Ed is one of the first members of the newly reincarnated WIMP, reviving the troupe name of the highly popular adult improv troupe that performed during the nineties.

This summer audiences can see Ed perform every Wednesday night with WIMP and the IMPers at the Grange Hall Theatre in West Tisbury.