Jittery Citizens
Jittery Citizens is a Johannesburg-based improvisational comedy troupe founded in 2012 by Claudine Ullman, a Wits University graduate in comedy performance and physical theatre who later trained at Second City in Chicago and the Magnet Theatre in New York. The company has performed sold-out shows at Sandton Theatre on the Square, the Barnyard Theatre, and the Market Theatre's Kippies venue, and offers a corporate workshop programme serving clients including Ogilvy and Mather, Standard Bank, and Mercedes.
History
Claudine Ullman formed Jittery Citizens in late 2012 following her international training, assembling an ensemble that included performers James Cairns, Nicholas Pule Welch, Mpho Osei-Tutu, and musician Tony Bentel. The company quickly performed sold-out shows at Sandton Theatre on the Square and the Barnyard Theatre at Monte Casino, and appeared at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in 2013. Ullman studied the Armando long-form format under its originator Armando Diaz at the Magnet Theatre in New York, and Jittery Citizens subsequently instituted monthly Armando Nights at Kippies in the Market Theatre. Ullman's one-woman show Artificially Infeminated toured nationally and internationally from 2019.
Artistic Identity
Jittery Citizens works across both short-form games and long-form narrative improv, with a performance philosophy Ullman summarises as '80 percent truth, 20 percent exaggeration', drawing characters and scenarios from real-life experience. The company's Armando Nights format, adapted from Armando Diaz's New York model, anchors its long-form programming in personal monologue. The ensemble's commitment to multilingual and culturally grounded work reflects Johannesburg's diverse urban identity.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Jittery Citizens. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/companies/jittery-citizens
The Improv Archive. "Jittery Citizens." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/companies/jittery-citizens.
The Improv Archive. "Jittery Citizens." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/companies/jittery-citizens. Accessed March 17, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.