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The Committee (improv group)

American improv group (1963–1972)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ7726993 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Committee was a San Francisco-based improvisational comedy group founded by Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson (born as Irene Ryan and performing as Irene Riordan, later known as Latifah Taormina). The Myersons were alumni of The Second City in Chicago.

Founding

The Committee, named in reference to the House Un-American Activities Committee, opened on April 10, 1963, at 622 Broadway in a 300-seat Cabaret theater that used to be an indoor bocce ball court in San Francisco's North Beach.

Garry Goodrow, Hamilton Camp, Larry Hankin, Kathryn Ish, Scott Beach and Ellsworth Milburn were the original cast. Jessica Myerson (billed as Irene Riordan) joined the company in May. Alan Myerson was the troupe's director, Jerry Mander handled the group's PR, and Richard Stahl (who in very short order joined the improv troupe) was its first company manager.

1964 New York

Arthur Cantor took the company (now an octet with the addition of Stahl) to Broadway in New York in 1964 for a limited engagement at the Henry Miller Theater. This occasioned a second group to hold the fort in San Francisco: Morgan Upton, Peter Lane, Leigh French, Chris Ross, Howard Hesseman (who was then using the name Don Sturdy), Nancy Fish, Peter Bonerz and Carl Gottlieb became the mainstays of the San Francisco troupe. Roger Bowen, a founding member of both The Compass Players and The Second City, joined in 1966. John Brent, co-creator with Del Close of the How to Speak Hip album and a bit player in many movies (Catch-22, American Graffiti, More American Graffiti, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Steelyard Blues, Porklips Now), was also a member.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Committee (improv group)” as american improv group (1963–1972). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1963, 1964, 1966—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Committee, improv and group can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american improv group (1963–1972). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7726993. The Library of Congress control number is n94095366. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963, 1964 and 1966.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow The Committee (improv group) primary sources, The Committee (improv group) archive and Committee research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Committee (improv group)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.