IMPROV-OFF Game List
Actor`s Nightmare
This one is played by 2 players, one of which gets their lines on paper (like a script). The other player should justify whatever the scripted player says.
Notes
Whoever gets the script should not forget to play/act - only her lines are defined, not what she does, or how she does the lines.
Also known as Playbook.
Hat Continuation
Start a scene, and identify each of the characters by means of a hat. The MC will interrupt (freeze) the game from time to time, and switch the players` hats. After the switch each player becomes the character that previously wore his or her hat. The story needs to continue and should make sense.
Also known as Bermuda Triangle.
Asides
An improvized scene is played, which any player can stop at any time by yelling freeze. At that point, the player steps out of the scene, and tells the audience what his character is really thinking, after which the scene continues. The other characters of course are not supposed to know what players are thinking, but the players do, and should use this.
Notes
Players can use this to reveal their hidden motives. Other players can play into this, or purposely ignore this knowledge.
Gimmick
Characters may actually have other things on their minds than what`s going on in the scene. E.g. a driver stopped by a cop may be thinking about the groceries his wife told him to get at the supermarket.
Variations
The thoughts of the players can also be provided by players off-stage. Also known as Alter Ego. Also known as Consciences.
Before or After
A short scene is improvised. After that the host asks the audience whether they want to see what happened before this scene, or what happens after this scene. This is a variation on the Fast Forward improv game.
Commercial
Ask for a product (existing or non-existing). Then play a commerical for that product.
Communal Monologue
All improvisors in a circle. One player in the middle, and that player starts improvising a monologue. At any point in time, any other player may step (or rather glide) in and take the middle's player's place, and continue the monologue. The transitions should be smooth of course.
Story Story Die
Players form a line on the stage. A title for a story, and a story genre is obtained from the audience. The MC starts the game by pointing to a player, who needs to start telling the story. At any point in time the MC can switch to another player, who needs to continue the story flawlessly, even if the switch happened in the middle of a sentence or even in the middle of a word.
Players that hesitate, or whose sentences are not grammatically correct or don`t make sense, are boo-ed out of the game, by the audience yelling `Die`. The last player left nends the story.
Also known as Conducted Story. .
Scene Replay
Ask 2 players to play a short scene. One could limit the scene to 8 lines of dialog per player. Then ask the players to replay the scene, based on some audience suggestions for:
· a particular emotion. Also known as Emotion Replay.
· an era. Also known as Through the Ages. Also known as Historical Replay.
· a different location
· a film / TV / literature style. Also known as Style Replay.
· in Gibberish
· backwards. Also known as Backwards Scene.
Variations
You can time the scene to 1 minute, and then replay in 30 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds and 3 seconds.
This variation is Also known as Countdown. and Also known as Half Life. .
Other Variations
· have the scene replayed by 2 other players
· insist that the dialog remains exactly the same
Day in the Life
The MC picks a member of the audience and interviews this person about their average (work) day. Questions asked may include `What is your job?", "Where do you live, with who?", "What are your hobbies?", "How do you get to work?", "Who are your colleagues?", and more. The players then improvise a day in the life of this audience member, based on the elements provided by the interview.
Variations
Instead of playing a real day, play a nightmare - Also known as Nightmare. . Host can ask what the audience member is afraid of or does not like.
Director`s Cut
A normal improvized scene is played. At any moment a player not in the scene (or a player dedicated to this particular role) stops the scene and has the actors replay the scene with different emotions, characters, roles. Like a director instructing actors on how to play.
Evil Twin
You need 4 players for this improv game. 2 will improvize a scene. The other players are the other`s evil twins. At any point, the `twins` can shout `freeze` after which they tag out their twin, and continue the scene and do something evil. After that, they move out again, and the original twin brother needs to justify the evil, correct or repair the damage done and continue the scene.
Notes
Great setups for this game are things like first dates, or meeting your in-laws for the very first time.
Walkout
You need at least 3 players for this one. Give each player a word. Start playing a scene with 2 players. As soon as a player hears her word, she has to leave the scene. As soon as she hears her word again, she needs to walk into the scene again. Walkouts and re-entrances need to be justified.
Also known as Exit Game.
Freeze Tag
2 actors start an improvized scene. At any point in time another player can call Freeze. This player then tags out one of the 2 actors, and takes his place. Both players then start a new scene, justifying their positions.
Notes
The way this improv game is played quite often goes a bit against good improv, as many groups hardly take the time to develop a story line. If played this way, it`s more a game of wit, and you would probably use it early in a show as an audience (and player) warm-up.
Alternatively, you can take your time and play every scene for several minutes, see what develops, and only at the end of each scene tag into another scene.
Hitch Hiker
Use 4 chairs to build the interior of a car. One player starts driving the car, and another player becomes a hitch hiker, hitching a ride. The hitch hiker character has a particular character tick or particular emotion, which the driver takes over.
Other hitch hikers join in, each with their own characteristics or emotions, taken over by the driver and the passengers in the car as the hiker joins. When the car is full, one of the players leaves the car to make room for the new guest.
Notes
Don`t forget to justify leaving the car.
Horoscope
Take a magazine with a horoscope. Ask an audience member for their birthday, read their horoscope and then improvise a scene based on that horoscope.
Call from Ray
A scene is begun. At some point in the scene an onstage player has to receive a "Call from Ray" (or any other name agreed upon). The call can come in any form, like phone call, SMS, smoke signals, telepathy or whatever, and Ray himself may not appear in the scene.
Variations
You can come up with any sentence that needs to come up. A variation would be to use "I`ll have a coke" - Also known as I`ll have a coke. .
Location
Get a location (say the Post Office). The whole long form is played in one and the same Post Office. Different characters wander in and out, you can even do time shifts and playbacks, but the environment of the scene is limited to the location given.
One Line Scene
Play a one or two minute scene, where only one line of dialog can be spoken. Indicate to the players when they have, say, 20 seconds left.
This exercise teaches players what can be communicated using non-verbal communication. Things like, `thank you`, `I love you`, `I appreciate this`, `I`m sorry" and so forth can all be communicated non-verbally.
Ding
A scene is played. Whenever the MC ring a bell (or yells `Ding`), the player that is doing something/saying something needs to say/do something else.
Notes
Doing `something else` is quite often interpreted as doing/saying the opposite of what you did before. One can be more creative, e.g. repeat what was said in a different emotion.
Also known as Other Choice
Diamond
4 players in a square; 2 in front, 2 behind them. The MC or host asks for an audience suggestion for the 2 players in front. Then the host asks the players to turn the square (to the right or to the left). So now we have a different combination of players in front. These 2 get an audience suggestion. Turn again and ask for suggestion again and do this once more. Then have players take their original position.
The game is played as follows: the 2 players in front start improvising a scene. Players play until the MC calls Right or Left, and square turns accordingly. The 2 players in front start playing a scene based on their suggestion until MC calls again.
This is repeated. When 2 players are up front for the second or third time, they continue their previously played scene. They can either plainly continue it, or continue at some time in the future (a day later, a year later, a century later). Can be played with 3 players as well. Also known as Revolver. Also known as Pan Left Pan Right. Also known as Turntable.
Pop-up Storybook
On stage actors "pop up" from a lying position as a narrator tells the story, or introduces the next scene. The narrator may "pull the tab" or "turn the wheel" to put some action in the page. Justification should be placed on both the narrator and the pop-up actors at various times throughout the story.
You can either have the whole story "told" by the narrator, or use the flip-of-the-page as your edit mechanism. In the latter case, once the whole scene has popped-up, a player may start playing, talking, walking around.
Variations
Remember that players may as well pop up as props; this may be a good way to do some object work
Reverse Chair Dance
You will need music for this exercise, and a bunch of chairs.
Start by placing chairs in a circle, one chair less than the number of players. Play music, and have the players dance around the chairs. When the music stops, everyone should find a chair to sit on. The player that doesn`t find a chair needs to find some other way to get his/her feet off the ground.
Remove a chair and repeat. In the end, all players will have to find a way to not to touch the ground, by climbing and clinging on to each other. Make sure you got sturdy chairs; we`ve known chairs to collapse under the weight of 10 players ...
It`s important not to side coach - the group needs to figure out themselves how to solve the problem.
Sitting Standing Lying
Silly game to teach fast acting.
3 players play a scene. At any point in time, there should always be one player standing, one player sitting and one player lying down. As soon as a sitter stands up, the stander needs to sit down.
Try to justify the moves !
Variations
Improv troupe Icebox called in with the following variation: Glad Sad Mad. Same handle.
SloMo Tag
Play tag, but in slow motion. Immensely entertaining if played well; players are not to escape the tagger by making a sudden movement, and the tagger cannot lash out to tag another player. Tell players to breathe, scream and groan in slow motion.
You may want to have the players exercise walking in slow motion first, to make sure they are aware of how they (naturally) move, and learn how to stick with that in slow motion.
Six Episodes
Excellent game to teach group storytelling. Give a big task, like `The launch of a new flavor of coke`, or `Building a new clubhouse for the girl scouts`. The players get 1 minute to prepare 6 scenes, in which the given task needs to be completed. After 1 minute there is no more discussing, they just play the 6 scenes.
Time it and see if they can make their minds up. Quarreling will just slow them down, so this will only work if players agree; they should be immediately Accepting any usable ides.
Survivor
Four to six players play a scene. Then the audience chooses one of the players to get "voted off the island." The remaining players do the scene again, covering everything that happened the first time. Then another person gets voted out, and so on until one person has to act out the scene all by themselves.
There are various ways of re-playing the original scene, even when only one player left: player can do a monologue, can play all original characters herself, you name it ...
You can play this for an audience, but it`s also a great listening and paying-attention exercise.
This one is played by 2 players, one of which gets their lines on paper (like a script). The other player should justify whatever the scripted player says.
Notes
Whoever gets the script should not forget to play/act - only her lines are defined, not what she does, or how she does the lines.
Also known as Playbook.
Hat Continuation
Start a scene, and identify each of the characters by means of a hat. The MC will interrupt (freeze) the game from time to time, and switch the players` hats. After the switch each player becomes the character that previously wore his or her hat. The story needs to continue and should make sense.
Also known as Bermuda Triangle.
Asides
An improvized scene is played, which any player can stop at any time by yelling freeze. At that point, the player steps out of the scene, and tells the audience what his character is really thinking, after which the scene continues. The other characters of course are not supposed to know what players are thinking, but the players do, and should use this.
Notes
Players can use this to reveal their hidden motives. Other players can play into this, or purposely ignore this knowledge.
Gimmick
Characters may actually have other things on their minds than what`s going on in the scene. E.g. a driver stopped by a cop may be thinking about the groceries his wife told him to get at the supermarket.
Variations
The thoughts of the players can also be provided by players off-stage. Also known as Alter Ego. Also known as Consciences.
Before or After
A short scene is improvised. After that the host asks the audience whether they want to see what happened before this scene, or what happens after this scene. This is a variation on the Fast Forward improv game.
Commercial
Ask for a product (existing or non-existing). Then play a commerical for that product.
Communal Monologue
All improvisors in a circle. One player in the middle, and that player starts improvising a monologue. At any point in time, any other player may step (or rather glide) in and take the middle's player's place, and continue the monologue. The transitions should be smooth of course.
Story Story Die
Players form a line on the stage. A title for a story, and a story genre is obtained from the audience. The MC starts the game by pointing to a player, who needs to start telling the story. At any point in time the MC can switch to another player, who needs to continue the story flawlessly, even if the switch happened in the middle of a sentence or even in the middle of a word.
Players that hesitate, or whose sentences are not grammatically correct or don`t make sense, are boo-ed out of the game, by the audience yelling `Die`. The last player left nends the story.
Also known as Conducted Story. .
Scene Replay
Ask 2 players to play a short scene. One could limit the scene to 8 lines of dialog per player. Then ask the players to replay the scene, based on some audience suggestions for:
· a particular emotion. Also known as Emotion Replay.
· an era. Also known as Through the Ages. Also known as Historical Replay.
· a different location
· a film / TV / literature style. Also known as Style Replay.
· in Gibberish
· backwards. Also known as Backwards Scene.
Variations
You can time the scene to 1 minute, and then replay in 30 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds and 3 seconds.
This variation is Also known as Countdown. and Also known as Half Life. .
Other Variations
· have the scene replayed by 2 other players
· insist that the dialog remains exactly the same
Day in the Life
The MC picks a member of the audience and interviews this person about their average (work) day. Questions asked may include `What is your job?", "Where do you live, with who?", "What are your hobbies?", "How do you get to work?", "Who are your colleagues?", and more. The players then improvise a day in the life of this audience member, based on the elements provided by the interview.
Variations
Instead of playing a real day, play a nightmare - Also known as Nightmare. . Host can ask what the audience member is afraid of or does not like.
Director`s Cut
A normal improvized scene is played. At any moment a player not in the scene (or a player dedicated to this particular role) stops the scene and has the actors replay the scene with different emotions, characters, roles. Like a director instructing actors on how to play.
Evil Twin
You need 4 players for this improv game. 2 will improvize a scene. The other players are the other`s evil twins. At any point, the `twins` can shout `freeze` after which they tag out their twin, and continue the scene and do something evil. After that, they move out again, and the original twin brother needs to justify the evil, correct or repair the damage done and continue the scene.
Notes
Great setups for this game are things like first dates, or meeting your in-laws for the very first time.
Walkout
You need at least 3 players for this one. Give each player a word. Start playing a scene with 2 players. As soon as a player hears her word, she has to leave the scene. As soon as she hears her word again, she needs to walk into the scene again. Walkouts and re-entrances need to be justified.
Also known as Exit Game.
Freeze Tag
2 actors start an improvized scene. At any point in time another player can call Freeze. This player then tags out one of the 2 actors, and takes his place. Both players then start a new scene, justifying their positions.
Notes
The way this improv game is played quite often goes a bit against good improv, as many groups hardly take the time to develop a story line. If played this way, it`s more a game of wit, and you would probably use it early in a show as an audience (and player) warm-up.
Alternatively, you can take your time and play every scene for several minutes, see what develops, and only at the end of each scene tag into another scene.
Hitch Hiker
Use 4 chairs to build the interior of a car. One player starts driving the car, and another player becomes a hitch hiker, hitching a ride. The hitch hiker character has a particular character tick or particular emotion, which the driver takes over.
Other hitch hikers join in, each with their own characteristics or emotions, taken over by the driver and the passengers in the car as the hiker joins. When the car is full, one of the players leaves the car to make room for the new guest.
Notes
Don`t forget to justify leaving the car.
Horoscope
Take a magazine with a horoscope. Ask an audience member for their birthday, read their horoscope and then improvise a scene based on that horoscope.
Call from Ray
A scene is begun. At some point in the scene an onstage player has to receive a "Call from Ray" (or any other name agreed upon). The call can come in any form, like phone call, SMS, smoke signals, telepathy or whatever, and Ray himself may not appear in the scene.
Variations
You can come up with any sentence that needs to come up. A variation would be to use "I`ll have a coke" - Also known as I`ll have a coke. .
Location
Get a location (say the Post Office). The whole long form is played in one and the same Post Office. Different characters wander in and out, you can even do time shifts and playbacks, but the environment of the scene is limited to the location given.
One Line Scene
Play a one or two minute scene, where only one line of dialog can be spoken. Indicate to the players when they have, say, 20 seconds left.
This exercise teaches players what can be communicated using non-verbal communication. Things like, `thank you`, `I love you`, `I appreciate this`, `I`m sorry" and so forth can all be communicated non-verbally.
Ding
A scene is played. Whenever the MC ring a bell (or yells `Ding`), the player that is doing something/saying something needs to say/do something else.
Notes
Doing `something else` is quite often interpreted as doing/saying the opposite of what you did before. One can be more creative, e.g. repeat what was said in a different emotion.
Also known as Other Choice
Diamond
4 players in a square; 2 in front, 2 behind them. The MC or host asks for an audience suggestion for the 2 players in front. Then the host asks the players to turn the square (to the right or to the left). So now we have a different combination of players in front. These 2 get an audience suggestion. Turn again and ask for suggestion again and do this once more. Then have players take their original position.
The game is played as follows: the 2 players in front start improvising a scene. Players play until the MC calls Right or Left, and square turns accordingly. The 2 players in front start playing a scene based on their suggestion until MC calls again.
This is repeated. When 2 players are up front for the second or third time, they continue their previously played scene. They can either plainly continue it, or continue at some time in the future (a day later, a year later, a century later). Can be played with 3 players as well. Also known as Revolver. Also known as Pan Left Pan Right. Also known as Turntable.
Pop-up Storybook
On stage actors "pop up" from a lying position as a narrator tells the story, or introduces the next scene. The narrator may "pull the tab" or "turn the wheel" to put some action in the page. Justification should be placed on both the narrator and the pop-up actors at various times throughout the story.
You can either have the whole story "told" by the narrator, or use the flip-of-the-page as your edit mechanism. In the latter case, once the whole scene has popped-up, a player may start playing, talking, walking around.
Variations
Remember that players may as well pop up as props; this may be a good way to do some object work
Reverse Chair Dance
You will need music for this exercise, and a bunch of chairs.
Start by placing chairs in a circle, one chair less than the number of players. Play music, and have the players dance around the chairs. When the music stops, everyone should find a chair to sit on. The player that doesn`t find a chair needs to find some other way to get his/her feet off the ground.
Remove a chair and repeat. In the end, all players will have to find a way to not to touch the ground, by climbing and clinging on to each other. Make sure you got sturdy chairs; we`ve known chairs to collapse under the weight of 10 players ...
It`s important not to side coach - the group needs to figure out themselves how to solve the problem.
Sitting Standing Lying
Silly game to teach fast acting.
3 players play a scene. At any point in time, there should always be one player standing, one player sitting and one player lying down. As soon as a sitter stands up, the stander needs to sit down.
Try to justify the moves !
Variations
Improv troupe Icebox called in with the following variation: Glad Sad Mad. Same handle.
SloMo Tag
Play tag, but in slow motion. Immensely entertaining if played well; players are not to escape the tagger by making a sudden movement, and the tagger cannot lash out to tag another player. Tell players to breathe, scream and groan in slow motion.
You may want to have the players exercise walking in slow motion first, to make sure they are aware of how they (naturally) move, and learn how to stick with that in slow motion.
Six Episodes
Excellent game to teach group storytelling. Give a big task, like `The launch of a new flavor of coke`, or `Building a new clubhouse for the girl scouts`. The players get 1 minute to prepare 6 scenes, in which the given task needs to be completed. After 1 minute there is no more discussing, they just play the 6 scenes.
Time it and see if they can make their minds up. Quarreling will just slow them down, so this will only work if players agree; they should be immediately Accepting any usable ides.
Survivor
Four to six players play a scene. Then the audience chooses one of the players to get "voted off the island." The remaining players do the scene again, covering everything that happened the first time. Then another person gets voted out, and so on until one person has to act out the scene all by themselves.
There are various ways of re-playing the original scene, even when only one player left: player can do a monologue, can play all original characters herself, you name it ...
You can play this for an audience, but it`s also a great listening and paying-attention exercise.
