History The current incarnation of Cafe Improv began when John Irving contacted Robin Middleman of the Arts Council in 1990, and inquired whether the Arts Council would host a show along the lines of an open stage he played at at Good Time Charlie's restaurant in Kingston. Robin accepted the idea of a cabaret and envisioned it as a resurrection of a program that had existed as a weekly musical jam in the late 1980s. She kept "Cafe Improv" as the name. John enlisted Thomas P Florek and Beth Bacon from Charlie's and they began running the event monthly using borrowed microphones and speakers in a small Cafe room in April 1990. The price was one dollar, which went toward coffee, tea, soda, and popcorn for the performances. After a short time it became apparent that Cafe Improve had out-grown the room. It was turning people away for lack of space. Thus in January 1991 it moved to the Loft upstairs where it has remained since (except for a period of renovations to the Arts Council building from 2005 to 2008, when the show moved to Princeton Shopping Center). The show now broadcasts from the Solley Theatre on the second floor of the Arts Council's Paul Robeson Center.