Comedy is difficult enough. Comedy without a script can trip up even the most gifted performers.

Members of the Coeur d’Alene/Spokane-area improvisational comedy troupe, The Improv Co-Op, say cast chemistry can be the difference between a good show and onstage disaster.

“We’ve had it where it just doesn’t feel right, but after we get the right people together, and the more time we spend with each other, we pick up on each other’s eccentricities,” said member Nick Kittilstved.

The Improv Co-Op began a little more than a year ago with Kittilstved and Lucas Hutson after another Spokane-area improv group disbanded. The group now consists of Kittilstved, Hutson, Carissa Hober, Peter Miley and Hayden Sheldon.

The troupe performed at the Liberty Lake Community Theater before moving over to the Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d’Alene for recurring shows, including a Valentine’s-themed show last month. They’re set to return to the Playhouse in April.

Improv comedy consists of various performance games where audience members are often asked for ideas, details or even on-stage participation. Famous examples include The Second City, the Upright Citizens Brigade and the television series, “Whose Line is it Anyway?”

Hutson said their shows incorporate some games people will know from watching “Whose Line,” but without the time constraints of a half-hour television show. The troupe tries to form a series of games around a particular show theme, for example, last month’s Playhouse performance was an adults-only show focused on romantic relationships.

“We get together and we do a lot of bouncing around of ideas that might work, what games the audience might respond to and how the audience can participate,” Hutson said.

The group alternates all-ages, family-friendly shows with ages 21 and over performances (with alcohol served for good measure). One such show is “Improv Against Humanity,” which is based on the popular adults-only party game, “Cards Against Humanity.” The cards in the deck serve as suggestions for game details or characters.

“As a gimmick, we would get a new pack, and we would open them the night of so people knew we were getting suggestions we’d never seen before,” Kittilstved said.

The group gets together every week for rehearsal, though much of that process is less about practicing specific improv games and more about cast interaction.

“If we’re just doing the games every single week, we kinda bore ourselves,” Hutson said. “A lot of what we’ll do is the fundamental work - focusing on characters and really just trying to get tighter as a troupe.”

Hayden Sheldon is the primary singer for the group’s music-themed games (think Wayne Brady on “Whose Line”). He didn’t have much stage experience outside of singing in choir, but he discovered a new passion when he was brought onstage for a game during an Improv Co-Op performance at Liberty Lake Theatre.

“I reached out to Nick (about joining), and he said no,” Sheldon said. “But they invited me to rehearsals and then they just never made me leave.”

Kittilstved said “hanging out” is a key aspect of establishing that group chemistry.

“The audition process is really just seeing if someone can get along with the group,” he said.

It was the same for Carissa Hober. She attended an all-ages Halloween show and struck up a conversation with Hutson’s wife.

“She was like, ‘Just talk to the guys and see how you get along,” Hober said. “I went to a practice, and then they kept letting me come back to practice, then it was, ‘We need to use your home for practice.’”

Hober also didn’t have much theater or comedy experience before joining the group.

“I’ve always wanted to do it, and I enjoy it. I have four kids and I’m a pharmacist, so here was this opportunity to have fun with friends,” Hober said. “You just jump in and you play. In the beginning they had me play this game, “Yes, and…” which helps you understand how to keep a scene going.”

She also enjoys how the group isn’t rigid about gender norms in games.

“They don’t always make me play the female,” Hober said. “It is often even funnier for them to play the female, and we’re not falling into stereotypes.”

Like the rest of the group, Peter Miley uses The Improv Co-Op as an outlet for creative expression, or at least a different kind of creative outlet compared to his day job as an elementary school teacher.

“It really puts my ego in check. Out in the real world, I’m pretty superficially charismatic, but here I am the low man on the totem pole,” Miley said. “I don’t get 99 percent of the references they make. They don’t care how I dress. They don’t care about my general demeanor. They only care about my substance.”

Miley made a point of mentioning he was the last person “allowed to speak” during this interview. Still, he said his time with the group has helped him grow in performance proficiency.

“That raise in proficiency has not raised my status on said totem pole,” Miley said, as the rest of the group cuts him off with an outburst of laughter.

The chemistry is certainly there for The Improv Co-Op, but the group is always working toward building a better show for the audience, and that often means studying other improv.

“We’ve seen a lot of good people… my wife and I saw a really great improv troupe in Washington D.C.,” Kittilstved said.“The biggest thing we pick up on is not so much how they do comedy. It’s more like how do they make their show more entertaining. We’re watching how they manage their show - that’s what I take away more.”

The Improv Co-Op will return to the Lake City Playhouse for a performance scheduled for April 20. Follow them on Instagram (improv_cda) and find them on Facebook by searching Improv Co-Op.