Improv classes in Berlin: 6 schools, €0 to €335
Berlin improv runs from a free Sunday jam to a €335 course. Six schools by price per hour, language and whether you can try one class. Checked September 2026.
Improv classes in Berlin cost €0 to €335. Our pick is the CCB Training School’s Intro to Improv — €225 for eight sessions in English, €11.25 an hour, with three autumn intakes. Before you pay for anything, the Comedy Café Berlin jam is free and open to beginners most Sundays.
The short version
- You do not have to pay to try it. Comedy Café Berlin’s jams are free and beginners are explicitly welcome — you put your name on a list when you arrive. Check the calendar first: 20 September is skipped.
- Three schools sell a single class. Foxy Freestyle’s trial is €27, Act Attack’s taster €35, Die Gorillas’ four-hour Schnupperkurs €59. The CCB Training School offers no trial class at all.
- Two of the English courses cost the same; one costs far more. CCB and ImprovWorks both charge €225 for eight sessions — €11.25 an hour. Act Attack charges €335 for shorter classes, which is €18.61 an hour at best and more likely €20.94.
- German is not automatically cheaper. Die Gorillas charges the same €205 in English and in German — but a €59 taster is compulsory first, so the real outlay is €264 before your first evening class.
- Five of these websites will cost you money if you read them quickly. Four contradict themselves on venue, class count, trial price or rehearsal time, and a fifth hides that compulsory €59.
How we checked
Every price, date and address here was read on 6 September 2026 from the school’s own website, never from a listings site. Several of these pages only render their prices and dates once JavaScript has run, so each was opened in a browser rather than fetched. Where an operator publishes two figures that disagree, we say so rather than quietly picking the flattering one. Anything the operator did not publish was cut, which is why there is no fee for the student course.
Contents
- Which one to pick
- The six schools, one by one
- The free door: CCB’s Sunday jam
- Where these websites contradict themselves
- How we chose these
- Common questions
- Want to keep reading?
- Sources
Improv classes in Berlin: which one to pick
Course prices are quoted per term and the terms are different lengths, so the headline number tells you little. This table divides each one by the hours you actually get, using the school’s own published price and session length — and because the cheapest-looking row cannot be booked this term and the next-cheapest starts tomorrow, it also says when each one next starts.
| School or jam | Beginners’ course | Price | Per hour | Next start | Language | Try one class? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comedy Café Berlin (jam only) | The CCB Improv Jam, drop-in | Free | €0 | Most Sundays, 20:00 — 20 Sep is skipped | English | That is the whole point |
| Foxy Freestyle | Foxy Starter, 9 × 2h30 | €236, or €189 reduced | €10.49 / €8.40 reduced | 7 September — by email and bank transfer | German | €27 trial (€25 elsewhere on the page) |
| Die Gorillas | Evening class, 8 × 2h30 | €205 plus a compulsory €59 taster = €264 | €11.00 across all 24 taught hours | 19 October in English — register by 9 October | German or English | The €59 taster, and it is required |
| CCB Training School | Intro to Improv, 8 × 2h30 | €225 | €11.25 | 27 Sep, 17 Oct or 21 Oct | English | No — go to the free jam |
| ImprovWorks | Intro to Improv, 8 × 2h30 | €225, or €112.50 half-price | €11.25 / €5.63 half-price | No Intro course currently listed | English | Sunday open-stage jams |
| Act Attack | Acting & Improv, 8 or 9 × 2h | €335 for 9, €315 for 8 | €19.69–€20.94 (€18.61 only if 9 run) | 23 September | English | €35 taster |
| studierendenWERK | One semester, Tuesdays | Fee not published | — | Semester start | German or English | Enrolled students only |
Act Attack is the dearest per hour of the paid courses here — at least 65% more than either €225 English course. Some of that buys a group capped at 12 rather than 16. Whether that premium, €90 to €110 depending on the class count, is worth it is your call, but it should be a decision rather than an accident.
Booking a course is easier when someone else is booking it too. Improv is the rare hobby where turning up with a friend is genuinely better — the whole form is other people. Post the class as a plan on MITRA and go with someone instead of alone. Get MITRA on Google Play · Download on the App Store
The six schools, one by one
CCB Training School — our pick
Wrong for you if you want to pay for one class first. CCB states plainly that it offers neither trial classes nor auditing, and points you at its jam instead.
Intro to Improv is €225 for eight classes of two and a half hours, and there are three autumn intakes: Sundays from 27 September to 15 November, 13:00 to 15:30; Saturdays from 17 October to 5 December, same hours; and Wednesdays from 21 October to 9 December, 19:00 to 21:30. It teaches North American long form in the Del Close tradition, and unless a course says otherwise it is taught in English. Courses cap at 16, you must attend at least six of the eight sessions to pass and move up, and there are no make-up classes. You are also required to play at least one improv jam and watch at least one show during the course — both free. Every core course ends in a student showcase free to the public, and while enrolled you get free tickets to any improv show at CCB.
Check which venue your intake uses before you set off, because CCB teaches at two. The Saturday course runs at the café itself, Roseggerstraße 17 in Neukölln; the Sunday and Wednesday courses run at CCB Studios, Hasenheide 12, which is Kreuzberg. The studio is in the second courtyard, and CCB warns on its own venue page that Google Maps gives incorrect directions to it.
ImprovWorks Berlin — the one with half-price places
Wrong for you if you want to start this term. Two Intro runs began in late August and both are closed; the next listed courses are Studio-level short form from 25 October and long form from 29 October, which are not beginners’ intakes.
When Intro to Improv does run it is €225 for eight sessions of two and a half hours, ending in a class show for invited friends and family. Do not assume it is a Sunday course: the two most recent runs went out on Sundays at 16:00 and Wednesdays at 19:00. It reserves two half-price places in every class for students from under-represented groups or marginalised communities, applied for through a form on its site — at €112.50 that works out at €5.63 an hour, the cheapest taught hour in this guide, though you have to qualify and apply for it. It also runs open-stage jams on Sunday evenings for people not ready to commit to eight weeks, which is a sane order to do things in.
Act Attack — the smallest published group and the highest price here
Wrong for you if price per hour is what you are optimising. It is the dearest in this guide by a wide margin.
The beginners’ course runs on Wednesdays from 23 September to 11 November 2026, 19:00 to 21:00, at Studio Tambour, Wilhelm-Kabus-Straße 28, Haus 3, in Schöneberg. The page advertises nine classes, though that date range contains only eight Wednesdays — ask which before you pay, and ask which price applies. Nine classes cost €335, eight €315, seven €295, so eight classes is €19.69 an hour if you are charged €315 and €20.94 if you are charged €335. Its €35 taster is bookable only for the first or second session, on 23 or 30 September, and you can upgrade to a pack afterwards if places remain, though the school notes taster-then-pack works out roughly €15 to €25 more than booking outright.
Groups cap at 12, it is open to anyone 17 or over, and no experience or audition is required. Fluent English is not needed — basic understanding is, and the teachers are native speakers. You can miss at most two classes, and a cancellation is refundable only if made at least three weeks before the start. It is an acting course with improv in it rather than a pure improv syllabus, much like dance classes in Berlin, which run on the same term-and-showcase model.
A €35 taster is a much easier yes with a plus-one. That is the whole point of a taster — one evening, low stakes, no eight-week commitment. Post it on MITRA, find someone who also wants to try, and turn up together. Get MITRA on Google Play · Download on the App Store
Die Gorillas — the compulsory taster
Wrong for you if you want to go straight into a course, or you are reading this after 9 October. Die Gorillas makes a Schnupperkurs an explicit prerequisite for its beginners’ level, so nobody actually pays the advertised €205.
That taster is a single four-hour session at €59, and a two-session weekend version is €98. Add it to the course and the real outlay is €264. Because the taster is four taught hours on top of the course’s twenty, that works out at €11.00 an hour — fractionally under the €225 English courses, but €39 more cash up front for a session you cannot skip. Unusually for a German-first school, it runs classes in both languages side by side, tagged “(en)”: there is an English Taster-Saturday on 12 September with Colin Willox, and an English evening class for beginners and advanced players, both at the Europäisches Theaterinstitut on Rungestraße 20 in Mitte. That class is €205 for eight units of two and a half hours, 19:30 to 22:00. The next English intake runs from 19 October to 14 December, skipping 7 December, with an optional Open Stage at the Ratibor-Theater on 6 December — but registration closes on 9 October, so the 12 September taster is the last English one that lands in time.
Foxy Freestyle — the cheapest German course, if you qualify
Wrong for you if you need to book online, or you do not speak German. Registration is by email or phone and you confirm your place by bank transfer.
The “Foxy Starter” course, for beginners and returners, runs on nine Mondays from 7 September to 2 November 2026, 19:00 to 21:30, at the JuKuZ Gérard Philipe on Karl-Kunger-Straße 29 in Alt-Treptow, taught by Dan Richter. It costs €236, which is €10.49 an hour, or €189 reduced for pupils, students and the unemployed with proof at the first session — €8.40 an hour, the lowest German-language rate in this guide. ImprovWorks’ half-price place is lower still at €5.63, but that is by application only. The early-bird price closed on 15 August. A trial session is €27, credited against the fee if you continue, and there is a short voluntary showing expected on 6 November. Withdraw up to a week before the start and you get everything back; after that it is 50% unless someone takes your place, and nothing once the course has begun. If your German is not there yet, take one of the English schools above — or start with making friends in Berlin without German.
studierendenWERK BERLIN — the student one
Wrong for you if you are not enrolled at a Berlin university that cooperates with studierendenWERK. There is no route in for anyone else, and no fee is published even for those eligible.
If you are eligible it is worth checking before you pay anywhere else — though because studierendenWERK publishes no fee, we cannot place it against the rates in the table above. It runs three improv courses a semester and one is entirely in English. Rehearsals are on Tuesdays in the Freiraum at the Studentenhaus during term, no experience is needed, and the semester ends in a large improv show. Registration opens in its event calendar before the semester starts, which is where the dates and any fee appear.
The free door: CCB’s Sunday jam
Wrong for you if you want to be taught. Nobody coaches you at a jam — teams are drawn at random and you either play or you watch.
Comedy Café Berlin’s jams are free. Not discounted, not pay-what-you-want — the venue lists them as free and issues free tickets through its own calendar. The CCB Improv Jam runs most Sundays, 20:00 to 22:30, at the café itself on Roseggerstraße 17 in Neukölln, not the Kreuzberg studios. Put your name on the list when you arrive and teams are drawn at random until everyone has played, alongside current and former students and members of the house teams. Its own page describes it as somewhere to try long-form improv for the first time, and you can just watch instead if that is as far as you want to go. Check the calendar before setting out: 20 September is skipped.
Five other CCB jams are worth knowing. Four are free: Frei Erfunden, in German, every first Thursday; Improvylicious, every first Wednesday, which particularly encourages improvisers of colour; Jam*Jam, monthly, for women, nonbinary and trans people; and U + Me, which limits teams to two players. The fifth is the exception — the coached Jam Lab, run by the training school rather than the venue, capped at 20 and €25 for two and a half hours. Only one date is currently listed, Monday 7 September. If watching first sounds more your speed, stand-up comedy in Berlin is the lower-commitment cousin of all of this.
A free Sunday jam is the lowest-risk plan in this article. No money, no course, no eight-week commitment — the only hard part is walking in on your own, and that is exactly what MITRA is for. Set a time, post it, go with someone. Get MITRA on Google Play · Download on the App Store
Where these websites contradict themselves
- Act Attack advertises nine classes across eight Wednesdays. Its page gives 23 September to 11 November and “9 Classes” in the same box. Only eight Wednesdays fall in that range, and paying €335 for eight is nearly €21 an hour.
- Die Gorillas buries a compulsory cost. The beginners’ course is listed at €205, but a €59 Schnupperkurs is a stated prerequisite, so the real figure is €264.
- ImprovWorks gives two course locations. Its courses page says Haus Zwingli in Friedrichshain; the Intro course’s booking page lists Rudolfstraße, which is also its postal address.
- Foxy Freestyle prices its trial twice. €27 against each course, €25 in the general notes lower down the same page. Ask when you email.
- studierendenWERK’s English and German pages differ. The English version gives rehearsal times of 16:00 to 18:00; the German version gives only the weekday. Treat the time as needing confirmation.
How we chose these
A school is included only if it publishes a real price and a real date on its own site for a course a beginner can join, or runs an open jam anyone can walk into. That excluded several names on other Berlin improv lists with no bookable beginners’ offer we could verify this month. Our pick went to CCB on a rate nobody has to qualify for, three autumn intakes to choose from and a free jam you can sample first. The close alternatives each carry a condition: Die Gorillas works out fractionally cheaper per hour, but only after a €59 taster you cannot skip and a 9 October registration deadline; Foxy Freestyle is cheaper still but German-only and starts the day after this was published; ImprovWorks is cheapest of all by application, and currently has no Intro course listed. We have not assessed teaching quality anywhere — price, language, group size and start dates are checkable, and whether a teacher suits you is not.
Common questions
Are there improv classes in Berlin in English?
Yes, and they are the majority of what is on offer. The CCB Training School, ImprovWorks Berlin and Act Attack all teach in English, Die Gorillas runs English classes tagged (en) alongside its German ones, and studierendenWERK runs one fully English course each semester for enrolled students.
What is the cheapest way to try improv in Berlin?
A jam at Comedy Café Berlin, which the venue lists as free. For something coached, CCB’s Jam Lab is €25 for a single two-and-a-half-hour evening, though only one date is currently listed. The cheapest trial attached to a course is Foxy Freestyle’s, priced at €27 on one part of its page and €25 on another, then Act Attack’s €35 taster, then Die Gorillas’ four-hour Schnupperkurs at €59.
Do I need any experience to join an improv class in Berlin?
No. Act Attack states that no experience and no audition is required, and studierendenWERK says the same. The others are sold as beginners’ courses and none advertises an audition — but Die Gorillas does require you to sit a paid four-hour taster before its beginners’ class. The CCB Improv Jam is open to complete beginners, and its own page describes it as a place to try long-form improv for the first time.
What happens if I miss a class?
It varies and it matters. CCB requires you to attend at least six of eight sessions to pass and progress to the next level, and offers no make-up classes. Act Attack allows two absences, gives no refund for missed sessions, and refunds cancellations only if made at least three weeks before the start. Foxy Freestyle refunds in full up to a week before the course begins, half after that, and nothing once it has started.
Is improv cheaper in German than in English in Berlin?
Not reliably. Die Gorillas charges the same €205 for its evening class whether you take it in German or English. Foxy Freestyle’s German course drops to €8.40 an hour reduced, but only if you are a pupil, student or unemployed — and the cheapest taught hour in this guide is not German at all: ImprovWorks’ half-price place is €5.63 an hour and is taught in English. The free jam is cheaper than all of them.
When do the autumn 2026 improv courses start?
Foxy Freestyle’s Starter starts on 7 September, Act Attack’s beginners’ course on 23 September, and the CCB Training School runs Intro to Improv from 27 September, 17 October and 21 October. Die Gorillas’ next English evening class starts on 19 October, with registration closing on 9 October. ImprovWorks’ next listed courses are Studio-level, from 25 and 29 October, so they are not beginners’ intakes.
Want to keep reading?
- Stand-up comedy in Berlin — the watching version of the same scene
- Dance classes in Berlin — the other course where turning up alone is the hard part
- Choirs in Berlin — seven open to new singers, €20 to €39
- Meeting people in Berlin without drinking
- Making friends in Berlin without German
- Things to do alone in Berlin
Improv classes in Berlin work best when you are not the only person you know in the room. Improv cannot be done alone — the form depends on other people. Pick one from the table, set a time, post it on MITRA, and go with someone. Berlin first, other EU cities on the roadmap. Get MITRA on Google Play · Download on the App Store
Sources
All checked 6 September 2026.
- https://training.comedycafeberlin.com/
- https://training.comedycafeberlin.com/programs/improv/level-1-improv/intro-to-improv/
- https://training.comedycafeberlin.com/faq/
- https://training.comedycafeberlin.com/venue/ccb-studios/
- https://www.comedycafeberlin.com/improv-jams/
- https://www.improvworksberlin.com/book-online
- https://www.improvworksberlin.com/service-page/intro-to-improv-presence-spontaneity-17
- https://actattacktheater.com/berlin/
- https://actattacktheater.com/berlin/shop/acting-improv/
- https://www.die-gorillas.de/kursplan.html
- https://www.die-gorillas.de/improschule/preise.html
- https://foxy-freestyle.de/improtheater-workshops-berlin-impro-kurse-fuer-anfaenger-fortgeschrittene/
- https://www.stw.berlin/kultur/buehne-und-musik/improtheater.html
- https://www.stw.berlin/en/culture/stage-music/improvisational-theatre.html
