As the countdown begins, the improv team look forward to which popular places will receive the honorable title of “Best of 2016.”

Orange County HOT LIST is an online contest where the public votes for its favorite places that help make Orange County great.

For the past three years, ImprovCity has been nominated and won OC HOT LIST as the Best Comedy Club.

Improv students have been practicing how to improve their performances through countless hours of practice each week.

“[Our advisers] give us scenes to prepare. We get notes and work on the scenes, and after they fix some things, we work on more improv,” sophomore Abigail Steinberg said.

Improv students meet every Tuesday after school to practice scenarios, revising and adjusting their characters with the help of their instructors. Students immerse themselves into the parts while also working to support the rest of their team. Even on stage, behind all the excitement and anxiety, students perform as though they have been preparing for many years.

“The fact that the friendships you make are lifelong, I love that,” Steinberg said.

With emphasis on having fun, students learn about team bonding as well as public speaking, building their confidence.

“What I love about improv is that you learn to be a presence. If it wasn’t for improv, I probably would have been like the kid in the back of the room,” sophomore Rowan Biggs said.

Improv also gives students a chance to get their minds away from stressful classes and learn how to make school life more meaningful.

“For someone who has a lot of hard classes and worries about messing up because of it, it’s nice to have a place where I could do whatever and you’re not supposed to care about messing up,” sophomore Jen Siino said.

Just as there are benefits of doing improv, there are challenges that students face as well, some of them including public speaking, trust, and accepting mistakes.

“I think that’s the biggest obstacle- for people to laugh at themselves [and] be ok with failing. And not only that, but after failing, being willing to get back up on their feet and do it again,” adviser Devin Dugan said.