#improvgame

Pledge:

Two players onstage; a chair serving as a fence/wall/table/??? between them.

Ask for a relationship and a point of disagreement.

Go.

Go back and forth in time.

Explore with other (related) characters at the fence/wall/table/???

Ask about emotions, motivations, and reasons why they are here at the fence.

Turn:

Physical barrier prevents "contact", positioning, isolating each player to their own body for expression.communication.

This game is pure communication -- verbal largely, but physical as well.

Having a lot of fun with variations of freeze tag at @TheSecondCity 3-day improv intensive:

Classic - Two players start a scene.  Another player says "freeze", taps out one of the first two players, gets into the same position and initiates a new scene.

Props - Same as Classic Freeze Tag, but the players incorporate an object and pretend it's something else.  For example, in one of our scenes, an umbrella became a rope for Britney and Charity to pull during the Greek Week tug-of-war.  Once a player is tagged out, the object becomes something different.

Mimed Objects - Same as Props Freeze Tag except the object is imaginary.  The player who initiates the scene names the object.

Big Pimpin' - Same as Classic Freeze Tag except one of the players on the back line chooses (pimps out) another player who then tags out one of the players on stage.  Hopefully makes you pay attention and act without thinking.

Relationship - The way we did it, players on the back line paired up and took on some sort of relationship (husband-wife, boss-employee, teacher-student, etc.).  Two players step forward to do a scene.  One of the back line players says "freeze" and another pair steps forward, tags out the first duo, assumes the same physical positions as the first two, then starts a scene of their own.  If a duo makes it back on stage a second or third time, they keep the same character and relationship but continue the next episode in the life of these two characters.

As a bonus, our teacher @JohnnieHildreth also added a little "Should Have Said" to the above games.  Two players start a scene.  Sometime during the scene, when one player says a line, the teacher rings the bell and the same player says a different line.  

A simple way to play is to either change one word or say the opposite.  For example:

Line 1: Jesus, Mom this lasagne is disgusting!

Line 2: Jesus, Mom this puppy is disgusting!

Line 3: Jesus, Mom this puppy is delicious!

Anyone out there have any other variations they'd like to share?

At @ImprovBoston in my 401 class, we're really diving deep into The Harold.  

We're learning that the Opening and First Beat scenes are really important for building a strong foundation to get your troupe in synch for the rest of the show.  In the Opening, you simply get a suggestion from the audience and use it in a game to generate ideas for a theme.  

While there are lots of games you could play, pattern games are especially popular.  And most of us have heard about the Rule of Threes, the minimum number needed to create a patterns (which our human audience monkey brains LOVE).  In pattern games, ImprovBoston teaches us an important concept called "Freedom. Power. Responsibility."

The idea is that the first player has the freedom to choose anything.  The second player has the power to choose a direction.  The third person has the responsibility to follow or further the pattern we are creating.

Here's how it might work for a Word Association game:

Audience Suggestion: Football

Player 1: Coach

Player 2: Quarterback

Player 3: Cheerleader

If player 3 had instead said, "Ostrich" he would be negating the game - a big no-no.  

It's not about what you think would be funny or what you wanted to say two or three words ago.  It's about us and this game in this moment.

Some Opening games I like to play...

Monologues - Each person tells a true story, inspired by the suggestion or the previous monologue(s).  Most of the time, Harold teams will sweep and start the beat one scenes after three monologues which should last around 30-60 seconds each.

Clover - Clover is a pattern game which starts with the audience suggestion.  One at a time players do word association until they legitimately find their way back to the original suggestion.  For example, football - field - farmer - tractor - pull - rope - gym - class - teacher - apple - computer - game - football.  Most Harold teams will do three rounds of Clover in an Opening.

Scene Paint - One by one, players will walk on stage and describe things that exist in this particular location, "painting" the scene so that the players and audience can visualize this world.  The players should be inspired by the initial suggestion and the "brushstrokes" of the other players.  When asking for a suggestion, players can also ask more specifically for a "location that would fit on this stage."  Here's an example taken from an actual class of mine:

Player 1 - Over here underneath the bench is a pair of sneakers and a used, sweaty pair of 1970s style tube socks

Player 2 - Over her on the wall is a poster that says, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Player 3 - Over her is a laundry bin with 20 used towels on the floor next to it.  There are no towels inside the bin.

etc.

We See Eight - One by one, players step out from the back line and say a few lines inspired by the theme or other players.  The idea is to find the theme by building on the statements of the other players and heightening the game.  For example:

Player 1 - I've been coaching for 20 years, but no matter how loud I yell, I just can't get these boys to practice like champions.

Player 2 - I try and help Susie with her homework, but this "new math" is confusing.  She failed a quiz because I confused the Pythagorean Theorum with the Quadratic Equation.

Player 3 - You're damn right I told W. to invade Iraq.  Americans need their oil.  Halliburton needs the work.  And I need my "blind" trust to grow so I can pay for 10 more heart surgeries.

etc.

Maybe the theme of this Harold is "ineffective mentors."

Tag-Out-but-Continue-the-Story/Theme/Scene - I don't know the exact name of this game, but @GinsburgImprov did this at @HaroldNight as an opening.  First player steps out to start a scene inspired by the suggestion.  After 2-3 lines, the next player steps out to continue the story/theme/scene.  The idea is to make it flow seamlessly from one person to the next while still trying to find the theme.  For example,

Player 1 - My dad used to take me to Patriots games when I was a little kid.  I loved the games, but hated the traffic.  But my Dad would always tell me, "Son..."

Player 2 - "...Son, I think you should get a job and stop mooching off me and your mother."  You see, I was a newly graduated English major with dreams...

Player 3 - ...dreams of never having to work.  I would buy lottery tickets every day so I could quit my job as a janitor and lie on a beach the rest of my days.  (scratches a ticket)  Damn.  Another loser.  I really wish I had studied a lot more and smoked a lot less pot.  

Maybe the theme of this Harold is "poor life choices" or "regrets."

Anyway, hope you can use these in your next Harold.

Had my first Improv 401 class at @ImprovBoston with @RachelKlein yesterday.

Rachel taught us a technique called "Name the Game."  

Here's how it works:

Start a scene as you normally would (strong offers, emotions, relationships, names, object work, etc.)

After 2-3 beats, simply say what the game of the scene is

For example:

Sally: (Opening her eyes and looking at her finger) Oh, Tom! You shouldn't have.

Tom: (Gushing) After 20 years, you deserve it, honey.

Sally: I mean, you REALLY shouldn't have.  I'm severely allergic to gold!  Look!  I'm already getting gangrene!

Tom: (Tearing up) Oh, honey.  It totally matches your eyes.

Sally: Jesus, Tom!  I know you mean well, but you don't know me AT ALL!

But won't the audience think this is cheesy?  Aren't we being too obvious?

No.

Rachel says the technique makes the audience's "monkey" brains happy because we simply named the pattern that they already recognized.  The audience feels smart.

Just name the game.  Keep playing it.  Heighten it to it's natural conclusion.  The audience will love it.

If you liked this post, check out Games and Relationship Dynamics.

Check out Rachel at @HaroldNight and other IB shows and read her blog The House That Del Built.

Last Thursday at @ImprovBoston @HaroldNight I was part of an awesome improv game.

Not sure what the official name is, but I'm calling it the Interview Game.

Here's how it worked:

1. Players from @Maxitor and @IB_PlanB asked for a volunteer from the audience to take a seat at center stage.  Since it was my birthday, my wife screamed at the top of her lungs and volunteered me.  Thanks, honey.

2. The players asked me questions like, What do you do for work?  Any exciting news recently?  Any vacations planned?

3. Then they created a whole mini-show of scenes about our life using things they learned about me and things I said.

The show was soooo awesome.  

Thinking about why it worked so well...

The interviewers asked very simple questions that resulted in memorable ideas they could use later.  They also kept it factual, asking who, what, when, where, how follow-up questions.  Some good topics include career, love relationships, family, home town, hobbies, etc.

They were super nice.  It would've been easy to make fun of me while I was up on stage, but they didn't.  They simply accepted what I told them.

The players REALLY listened.  As a result, they were able to use the info to make connections that had the audience howling with delight.  Audiences love it when players listen and make connections.

And personally, it was really really fun for me and my wife to see the players use the personal details of our life to create comedy on stage.  

I've seen some variations of this game too:

Day in the Life - use the info to act out a 'typical' day

E! True Hollywood Story - use the info to act out key moments in the life of the interviewee in chronological order using techniques like re-enactments and interviews

I think this would also be a really fun game to play in rehearsals and classes to help people get to know each other better too.

Anyway, if you're in Boston on a Thursday night, you absolutely must see Harold Night.  For me, it's the best night of the week.

"Just because you are a character doesn't mean that you have character." -- The Wolf

Really fun @ImprovBostonYAP yesterday with teacher Lindsay Gonzales who runs @IBComedyJam on Sunday nights at 7pm.

Creating a character was the theme of yesterday's YAP. 

Not sure of the exact names, but here are some games we played with Lindsay to help create better characters that also have character:

Character Intros - (Round 1) Two players walk on stage, greet each other, state their name, occupation and passion.  (Round 2) Two players walk on stage and do a scene, revealing their names, occupations and passions naturally as part of the conversation and progression of the scene.  

Character Roll Call - Five players stand on the back line.  The audience suggests a world for these characters to inhabit (e.g., a Country Club, Post-Apocalyptic Stronghold, etc.).  Each player steps forward and introduces himself in 20-30 seconds (e.g., name, role, relationship to others, occupation, likes/dislikes, back story, etc.).  We didn't do this, but you can also imagine going one more step and actually doing a scene or series of scenes with these characters.

Rapid Character Change - A player starts the game by portraying a character in the middle of a scene.  After about 5 seconds, the teacher rings a bell and the player immediately portrays a different character in a different scene, ideally changing physicality, emotion, voice, desires, attitude, gender, etc.  The game lasts for 30-60 seconds. 

It was a lot of fun to see how all the YAP participants developed fuller characters simply by playing these games.

Recently, I played a fun game called story structure which teaches you to create stories using a classic seven-part structure.

Players stand in a circle and each person says a line according to the following structure:

Player 1: Once upon a time...(the beginning)

Player 2: Every day...(the routine)

Player 3: Until one day...(why this day is different)

Player 4: And because of that...(something happens)

Player 5: And because of that...(something else happens)

Player 6: Until finally...(the climax)

Player 7: And ever since then...(the new routine)

For example:

Once upon a time there was son of a very powerful gangster family

Every day he tried to live a normal life

Until one day a rival gangster shot his father

And because of that he kills the people who did it

And because of that the rival gang kills his older brother

Until finally he kills all his family's enemies and solidifies his power

And ever since then he's been the head gangster

This game also teaches you to pay attention and listen to what the other players are saying.  The idea is to make the story flow as if one person was telling it without pauses and without thinking.

Come to think of it, this structure looks like a good way to pitch an idea for a book, skit, movie, etc.