Improv Games & Forms

These are just a small sampling of the games & forms we use for our classes, shows. We’re updating these all the time. Enjoy what’s here and come back for more as we continue to update.

Warm Up Exercises

Clap — Everybody in a circle. Start with two people facing toward each other. They clap at the same time. One of the clappers turns to their neighbor and they both clap at the same time. This continues as the clap is passed around the circle. Synchronicity is more important than speed.

Crazy Eights — Players form a circle. In unison, everyone lifts the right hand, shakes it quickly, and counts to 8. They repeat this with the left hand, then the right foot (kicking it in the air while balancing on the left) and finally with the left foot. Everyone immediately repeats the pattern, except this time the players only count up to 7. In each round, the players count up to one less number, until everyone is quickly waving their entire body shouting "1! 1! 1! 1!" Then everybody cheers. Players are (often) encouraged to make and momentarily hold eye contact with each other during the course of the exercise. (IRCW)

Seven Things — Everyone stands in a circle. Start with two people facing toward each other. Person One says to the next, “Hey [Name], give me seven [category, i.e. types of clothing, cars, sayings, pointless holidays, etc.].” After each one, the rest of the group enthusiastically claps and counts toward seven. On seven, the entire group says, “Seven…things, seven things, seven things … seven things!” Important, the things don’t need to be correct, they could be unrelated or imaginary. The object of the game is for each person to deliver the “things” with steady consistency. Remember, confidence is valued over perfection here. (IB)

Whoosh — Everybody in a circle. Start with one person, who waves both hands to his/her neighbor, saying `Whoosh`. The next person passes the Whoosh to his neighbor, and that way the Whoosh is passed around the circle. (IE)

Scene Work & Character Exercises

Three Line Scenes — People go pair by pair and improvise scenes with three lines in total. Either actor says the first line, then there is a response, then a response to that. Whatever is said is then wildly applauded. There are endless variations to three line scenes and they are very helpful for teaching different things. We tend to work on just one thing at a time, so might do one round of emotional 3 line scenes, then one round of everything starts with Yes And etc. Other variations may include: Just Say Anything, Gibberish Scenes, Establishing Who-What-Where, Identifying & Naming, Reacting Emotionally, Status. (HI)

Three & 1/2 Line Scenes (Object Work + Discover-Announce-Heighten) — Same as three-line scenes. Except line-one begins with (silent) object work; line-two initiates dialogue — discovering, and then announcing what they see. The players work to heighten the scene with remaining two lines. (SIC)

Object & Space Work Exercises

Cosmic Kitchen

Booby Traps

Loser Ball — Here's a simple 'pass-the-ball' game, but with 2 twists: 1) no-one can catch the ball and 2) the group must be unbelievably supportive of the catcher's inability to catch the ball. The ball is thrown to a person, preferably by naming that person ("here John") or some other way to focus the group on the catcher. He catcher misses the ball, drops it, fumbles, or whatever, as long as he fails. The rest of the group does not boo, but finds something praiseworthy about what the catcher did. E.g. "Good move!", "Great energy!" etc. (IE)

Formats — Short-Form Games

Dubbing + Switch — Two players do a scene, but cannot speak. Two of the other players provide their voices from off-stage by lip-synching with the mouths of the two players on stage. If the players on stage mouth words the players off stage provide their voices, and if the players off-stage start speaking the players on stage mouth along. There isn’t one leader, all players are making offers and sharing the scene. As the scene goes for 30-45 seconds, a caller may announce, “Switch!” Upon which, those doing the voices will jump in to continue the scene as the same characters. (SIC)

Expert Interview — One improviser plays the part of a television host and two more play experts. The audience suggests their field of expertise (asking for an animal then a sport is great; ants who play tennis). Ask the experts to agree with and back each other up. The host can ask anything; remind them of helpful questions like, “How did you start in this field?” “What do you think is the future of [suggestion]?” “Why did you start working together?” You can also suggest to the interviewer that the experts wrote a book, that it’s okay to get questions from the audience or that there might be a demonstration their guest could do. (HI)

Four Corners — Get four improvisers and have them form a square, with the two people in front playing as the current performers. At any point, the caller/MC can call “left” or “right”, indicating that the square should rotate in the respective direction. So when the square rotates, the new side of the square is an entirely different scene, though one person will always remain the same from the old scene (acting in an entirely different character and situation). The specifics aren’t imperative, but for this game, get the following suggestions in order: Location, Occupation, Relationship, and Wild Card. Upon each side of the square being assigned, commence play allowing each side to first get in enough of the who/ where/ what/ before switching the scenes up, left and right. (MB)

Game-O-Matic — Get the initials of someone in the audience. The players suggest titles of games using those initials. The audience votes for the title they like best, and the winning player has to invent the rules on the spot. The cast then play the game.

Household Olympics — The players get a suggestion of a household task. Two of the players act out that activity as if it were an Olympic sport, in extreme slow motion. The other two players commentate on the action. Can involve cheating and sabotage. Two players stand centre stage and start warming up. The other players commentate: “Welcome to the final of the vacuuming Olympics, it’s a very exciting day here in the arena. On the left we have Mitch Heiselberg, the American competitor who has come back to defend his medal.” Followed by something like, “That’s right Bob, but he’ll be facing stiff competition from the new kid on the block, Sandra Smith from Yorkshire. She’s had a strong start in the competition, and she’s looking determined to win.” Proceed to a made-up event, such as, “The starting pistol has just gone off, and our competitors are reaching for their vacuums!” The two players mime competitive vacuuming while the commentators comment on the action. A winner can be declared after 1-2 events. (HI)

Instruction Manual — Players get a a suggestion of an object that wouldn’t normally come with an instruction manual. One player gives the chapter title (e.g. The History of OBJECT), and points at the players in the line. When pointed at, the players must continue what the previous player was saying. If they mess up or stutter, the audience shouts “die!” They then continue with the next chapter. Pointer can also introduce further challenges such as accents or doing the instructional manual in rhyme. (HI)

Movie Director — A world famous movie director (made up name given by audience) is interviewed on a movie based chat show by an interview about their recent movie, previous work and student films and trailers. At any point the movie director or the interview can ask for a clip of a film to be played, and they can also ask for clips to be paused, rewound or fast forwarded. They cover multiple clips during the interview. 2-3 improvisers play the actors in the movie clips, on the other side of the stage from the interview, and they do the dialogue, action sequences, CGI and all. Tip: To get director’s name, ask audience for a quirky first name, and common last name. Combine. (HI/SIC)

Oracle — Oracle involves four people, set behind each other. One at the front sitting on the floor, one behind sat on a chair, the one behind that standing and the last one stood on a chair. That way we can see all their faces. Oracle is a brilliant low stakes word at a time short form game. The host simply takes big life questions from the audience, like ‘Is there a God?’ and ‘Why are we here?’ or ‘Will England win the World Cup’ and then asks the Oracle, who answers it a word at a time (per person). When Oracle is in action everyone’s arms wave to the side. When Oracle is in silent contemplation everyone’s hands are together in a kind of ‘prayer’ pose. It’s funny, simple and daft. And being word at a time you can guess how wise oracle sounds. (HI)

Party Quirks — One player is the host of a party. They exit the room while the other players (the guests) are given character quirks by the audience, for instance a physical quirk, a person from history, a celebrity or an action they have to do whenever a certain thing happens. The host then comes back to the stage once and the guests ring the doorbell and enter the party one by one. The host has to guess the quirks while playing the scene of hosting the party. (HI)

Take That Back — Players begin a scene using a suggestion (location, relationship, historical era). At any point in the scene, the caller will stop the action and force the player who just spoke to “take back” the previous line and substitute a new choice or several choices. The scene must continue with all players justifying the final choice. (SC)

Formats — Long-Form

Armando — The Armando is a popular and well known long-form improv format used around the world. A guest monologist, or one of the cast, is given a one word inspiration from the audience. They then tell a true life story or improvised monologue inspired by that word. The cast are listening and remembering bits of the monologue and various themes and patterns and fun things. After the monologue the cast improvise the rest of the cast improvise various scenes inspired by the monologue. Some scenes directly recreating stories from the monologue, some tangential, some exploring games, themes and patterns from the monologue, and some scenes using locations or characters from the monologue as starting points for new scenes. Every couple of scenes there may be a new monologue, either inspired by the original word or by something that happened in the scene, or it can just continue straight through from the opening monologue. The scenes don’t have to connect together but they often do, with themes and patterns emerging as the show goes on and call backs to earlier scenes. Monologues are kept to 60-seconds, and tend to be true stories from the person’s life. Video example, here. (HI)

Harold — A long-form improvised form developed by Del Close. It is a collage of scenes inspired by a single suggestion which are interwoven and connected. When the Harold was first conceived by The Committee, the structure was very loose. Over time, Del experimented with the form. In the 1980's, while teaching at the ImprovOlympic in Chicago, the structure became more codified and became the 3x3 format (also known as the training wheels Harold) that is described in Truth in Comedy. Del Close allowed for and encouraged much variation within the structure of the Harold and saw it as a malleable and organic form with which to explore themes and ideas. The beats and games need not appear in the order or number described. Harolds are typically anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes long. The structure as described in Truth in Comedy can be broken down in following way: Opening, Scenes A1-B1-C1, Group Game 1, Scenes A2-B2-C2, Group Game 2, Scenes A3, B3, C3. Note: In the final set of scenes, not all three will always return. Players are encouraged to call back the most interesting scenes and characters from the Harold, and also to intertwine them (IRCW)

LaRonde — A character-based improv structure, used as both an exercise and a longform. The form works like a circle of two person scenes typically. Let's say you are going to have five players to a La Ronde, Mike, Tara, Julie, Steve and Jed. And let's also say that Tara and Jed start the first scene. The scenes would look like this: Tara & Jed, Jed & Steve, Steve & Julie, Julie & Mike, Mike & Tara. Each scene gets edited by one player replacing another. The person who remains on stage remains the character they were in the previous scene and the new player chooses a new character to play and a new location and situation for the scene. In a simple La Ronde like this, each player plays one character and only one character. (IRCW)

Monoscene — an improv form that takes place in a single location in a single span of time, with no external edits of any kind. It is frequently referred to as an improvised one act play.

Long-form Group Games

I Am A Tree — From the backline, one player strikes a pose center-stage and says who or what they represent. For example, they lift their arms over their head and say, "I am a tree." A second player immediately moves to add to the scene (in relation to the previous object), and also says who or what they are, “I am a park bench!” All remaining players on the back line, one by one, come out in the same fashion to complete the visual discovery of the scene. As the last element is added, all players hold the pose for a moment — then collapse back to the back line, together. Tip: make the first object be something loosely associated with the overall theme of your show. If there are astronauts in your scenes, maybe the first player comes out to say, “I am a rocket!” (SIC)

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Source(s):
Hoopla! Improv Theatre, London (HI)
Improv Boulder (IB)
Improv Encyclopedia (IE)
Improv Resource Center Wiki (IRCW)
Monkey Butler (MB)
The Second City (SC)
Superior Improv Co. (SIC)