WHY THE ART OF IMPROV ENDURES

Improv scholar Randy Fertel, author of A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation and Winging It: Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump, talks with literary scholar T.R. Johnson, author of New Orleans: A Writer’s City, about the ongoing relevance of improvisation in the larger culture. Seen through Fertel’s discerning eye, improv is everywhere—from the  music of Louis Armstrong to the smash musical Hamilton, the rise of AI, and the off-the-cuff, unmediated remarks of Donald Trump, whom Fertel calls the Improviser-in-Chief. He uses neuroscience, bioevolution, and cultural texts to illuminate his subject. Johnson, who writes about the complex interactions between writers and place, adds his thoughts about improvisation in New Orleans literature.