Top 5 improv games for first time performers

Hoopla Teacher Liam Brennan shares his favourite games for first time performers and why they are good to play. 

1. Story Director

Story Director is a good shout for first-time performers as they can focus on the pure act of improvising. The performers simply have to listen to the ongoing story and take over when it’s their turn.

First off, you need the title of your story. I like getting an animal and a word from the audience and combining that into one title, such classics include ‘The Cat’s Pyjamas’ and ‘Giraffes and Ladders’.

Once you have your title, the performers stand in a horseshoe shape while one of them kneels in front of the others as the Story Director. When the Story Director points at a performer they tell the story and as soon as the Story Director points to another performer, they take over the telling of the story from where the last person left off.

At the end of each chapter, the Story Director swaps roles with one of the Story Tellers. At this stage, I like to get a suggestion from the audience as to what to add to the story in this chapter (genre, famous fictional character, an object) but do whatever feels most fun.

Tips for fun:

• As Story Director, play around with how much you swap the story between players.
• Sound effects are always welcome.
• This story is unlikely to be published, having fun is considerably more important than having a ‘good’ story. However, if it does get published, send me the Amazon link and I will buy 10 copies.

2. Columns

I’ve loved playing this game ever since I learned improv was a thing as I always had so much fun playing it. It’s a great chance to work with playing with the big offers presented by the columns who join the performers on stage.

Have two performers in the middle of the stage (or rehearsal room, living room, park, shopping centre, foyer of the Barbican or anything else, hereinafter called “the stage). Have two extra performers playing the columns, one on each side of the stage. Get a suggestion from your audience to inspire a scene for the two performers and you're ready to play.

As the two performers play the scene, at any point they can tap either one of the columns who will give them a word or two to fill in a blank left in their sentence.

Ted: Gee Maude, I sure hope that you like my… (taps column)

Column 1: Face!

Ted: Face. I’ve been to the plastic surgeon recently.

Maude: I noticed Ted, I really like what they added a… (taps column)

Column 2: Rhino Horn!

Maude: Rhino Horn to your face. It makes you look a lot tougher.

Ted and Maude did a great job here incorporating the columns’ suggestions and the columns’ did a great job just saying the first thing that popped into their minds. Go team! I think these guys are going to be just fine.

Tips for fun:

• Columns can feel free to be as random or as obvious as they like. Everyone on stage will support and appreciate what they bring to the scene.
• The performers can feel free to use either column at any time, it’ll also help you not get penned in by the improv obelisks.
• Play around with different scene styles to see how it will impact the game. Try a mixture of high octane action and humdrum home scenes.

3. Complaint Letter

I’ve only recently learned this game and it’s so fun I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self to play it at improv gigs (and while I’m there, I’d also tell my younger self to learn Mandarin so I could get a head start in communicating professionally in the largest market in the world). It’s similar to Story Director in that the performers only need to focus in on listening but it also adds in some fun additional elements.

Have two pairs of performers on stage. One pair will be writing a complaint letter and the other pair will be playing the complaints department of a real-life company (Google, Anne Summers, McDonald's, etc) which you will get from the audience.

The complaining pair will then write a complaint letter between the two of them, each player only being able to say one word before the other player also says one word. They alternate between each other saying one word each until they finish the letter.

After the complaining pair has finished, the complaints department will reply in the same way. Have the correspondence go back and forth a number of times.

Tips for fun:

• Keeping the letters relatively short you can get to the exchange between the complainers and the complainees, which for some people is the best bit of the game.
• If you’re the complainer, try playing ridiculously angry and see what happens.
• If you’re the complainee, use the company you get as a suggestion to inspire a character. What might someone who works at Google, Anne Summers or McDonalds sound and act like?

4. Pan Left

Similarly to Columns, this is a game I’ve loved since I first started improvising. It’s a great game for first timer performers as they get to lots of short and fun scenes.

Four performers get into a square formation, two at the front and two at the back, all four facing towards the audience. A fifth player acts as the host and every so often will ask the players to “Pan Left”. When this happens, the players will take the position of the performer that is anti-clockwise to them, so everyone ends up in a different position. There will be four different pairings of front performers and all four pairings will get a different suggestion.

The front pair of players will perform their scene until told to “Pan Left” and then the next pairing will take over by performing their scene and this will continue until the end of the game.

When a scene returns, the performers keep the same characters but can feel free to take these characters to anywhere they want! It’s also fine to just continue the scene where they left off, it depends on what the performers will find most enjoyable.

Tips for fun:

• As the host, feel free to play around with the length of the scenes. You may choose to let some scenes run for a while and others to run on only for a line.
• As a performer, making big physical choices can be brilliant fun for when you return to a scene or if the scenes really short. For example: seeing two performers lie down for a beach scene to be immediately Pan Lefted can be amazingly funny.
• Occasionally people end up in the wrong scene but mistakes don’t ruin the game they make them more fun! There’s no need to apologise if this happens and it might be more playful to stay in the scene and see what happens.

5. Freeze Tag

This game is particularly great for big groups of first time performers. It encourages spontaneity and just doing what feels fun in the moment. It has been scientifically proven that this game encourages more yoga scenes than any other improv game in history.

Two performers get on stage and strike a pose based on an audience suggestion. This could be trying to recreate a number with your body or a household chore but really it could be anything that inspires a pose. These two players then use their physicality to inspire a scene.

At any point, any of the offstage performers can yell “Freeze!” When this happens, the two performers onstage freeze on the spot holding their physicality in place. The person who yelled freeze then taps one of the performers on the shoulder and takes their place. The performer who was tapped on the shoulder goes offstage and then a new scene starts inspired by the performers’ physicalities.

Tips for fun:

• Look for interesting and inspiring physicality when you shout freeze as it’s easier than trying to think of what a ‘good’ next scene might be. Then just use the other performers' interesting physicality to inspire a scene.
• Lots of big physicality will not only make the scenes more fun and silly but will also inspire the offstage players.
• Because there will probably be loads of players, feel free to do lots of multi-person scenes! If the number of players on stage is getting massive, when you yell “Freeze” feel free to tap a bunch of people on the shoulder, so that they leave the stage and you return to just two performers again for a while.

Remember, you can’t get any of these games wrong! If you change any of the rules you haven’t broken the game, you’ve actually invented a new one and you’re actually an improv super genius!

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Liam teaches the Beginners, Performance and Long Form courses at Hoopla. Next courses starting in September.  He also performs on the Hoopla stage as part of improv troupes The Science of Living Things and Fright Club.  www.hooplaimpro.com

Hoopla teacher Rhiannon Vivian's Top Five Short Form Games for Beginners

Fun Short Form Games for Beginners

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 director 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. Sometimes very. Sometimes just plain ridiculous!

Pointing Story

Otherwise known as Storyteller Die. You can play this without the 'die' part for super beginners (cos let's face it, an audience yelling die at your first gig isn't the most positive experience!) About 5 people get up, stand in a line and tell a story between them, only speaking when the director is pointing at them. The title for the made up story is taken from the audience then it's up to the players to tell the story continuously, so even if someone is in the middle of a word and the director's finger points elsewhere, that next person should try and finish the half spoken word to make it seamless. Adding in different chapters with extra tasks for the players is also fun, like getting them to do Chapter 2 in a regional accent, or Chapter 3 in rhyming couplets, or Chapter 4 while dancing.

Twin Pillars

Easy! Two people are up playing a scene, with two audience members either side. The role of the audience members is simply to provide one word when tapped on the shoulder. While in the scene the players will conveniently 'forget' their words at intervals and then tap the audience (or the pillar) for a word to finish the sentence. The audience can say helpful words or if the word that pops into their head is weird or left-field that's part of the fun. The player then has to incorporate and justify this peculiar offer. A real example from some of my talented newbies recently was a scene set on a date. One of the players said, 'I don't kiss on a first date I...' then tapped the player playing the pillar who said, 'juggle!' So, I don't kiss on a first date, I juggle! I just love the new reality that gets created by one random word.

Word at a time expert

Three players stand next to each other shoulder to shoulder to play one entire person (or in this case an expert in something), who speaks one word at at time. Then another player plays the interviewer. All you need from the audience is something for someone to be an expert in (like rollerskating fish, or dancing plants) and you're away! The interviewer treats the game as if we've just zoned in on a TV channel all about that expertise and proceeds to interview our expert, who given that it's a word at a time answer, often makes sense in the funniest and weirdest of ways. Getting them to read an extract from their imaginary autobiography always goes down well.

Slideshow

Slideshow is perfect for players who just want to find their feet on stage. All it is, is players on the back line creating pictures or tableaus of holiday photos that two players in the front have to justify. Essentially it's like someone showing you their holiday snaps. Except the ones presenting have no idea what the back line will do. And vice versa. Both have to justify the offers each other make. So there are 3 or 4 players are on the back line and it's their task to just make tableaus that look like holiday photographs. Then two players at the front of the stage have to make sense of that tableau in relation to their fictional holiday. They can 'click' to a new photo by simple coming together on stage and pretending to use a slideshow clicker to move the image to the next one. It's tons of fun and really good for people who want to get up but not necessarily do much talking. And those presenting get a real fun time making sense of their team mates offers, and then creating scenarios right back at them to create.

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Rhiannon regularly teaches for Hoopla and is part of The Maydays, Dreamweaver Quartet & Bumper Blyton who all perform on the Hoopla stage at The Miller.  Next improv courses starting in September. www.hooplaimpro.com

Top Five Beginners exercises from Hoopla teacher James Witt.

James Witt shares his favourite exercises from his beginners improv course and how they help his students. 

Shared Holiday 

Talking about a shared holiday in pairs and starting every new sentence with ‘Yes And’.    This really gets the players on the same page in a fun and inventive low-pressure way.    I find it a good bonding exercise too and often my students have big smiles on their faces conjuring up these false memories.   

Written Lines 

I usually get my Beginners students to play this in the second week of their course.   I get them all to write three random quotes from film / tv / historical speech / literature.   They then do scenes in pairs and pull these out at random points.   I make sure they focus on the meaning and content of each line for at least 30 seconds before moving on.    I feel that it’s quite a challenging exercise early on, the curve balls you get given in this game are huge, but it teaches acceptance and super yes-anding.   The audience always loves it so it’s very rewarding too.    

Beyoncé 

I get my students to line up in Rolodex formation and do short scenes with varying restrictions.    

First of all, we play “Who, Where, What” three line scenes.    If the players fail to name both characters in the scene then the other players in the Rolodex sing “Say My Name Say My Name”. 

This is to drill the importance of giving each other names early in every scene.   But played with a sense of fun. 

In the next round, we play “No Questions” whenever the awaiting players hear a question in a scene they sing “Question” in the style of the lyric in the Destiny’s Child song “Independent Women”.       Once three Questions have been asked the scene is over.   The Rolodex then sing “Let us see your Halo, Halo”  or if the players make it through a three-minute scene without asking more than two questions the Rolodex sings “You’re a Survivor”.    I feel it’s important to drill no questions really early on in a beginners course because once players start making statements and not asking questions then their scenes really take off.   I find it also means that fewer scenes become confrontational and more flow more naturally.   I find that often when asking lots of questions in a scene its because we are looking to our scene partner to guide the scene when it should be a collaborative journey.     It also applies a lot of pressure on your scene partner.    

  

The final rounds of Beyoncé feature “no negative words” such as No, Don’t, Can’t, Won’t, Not, Shouldn’t and Couldn’t.    When we hear any of these we sing the debut Destiny’s Child song “No, No, No, No, No” and the final rule is no “Meh Words” this includes any non commital words such as “But, Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly etc..” and we sing the “uh oh oh uh oh oh oh” bit from “All the Single Ladies” if we hear any of these non-committal words.    Three in a scene and the players move to the back of the Rolodex.     These type of “meh” words are often defence mechanisms from the players scared to latch onto certain themes and story arcs in case they’re “not good enough”, but I try and drill that every idea should be embraced.

We then impose all of these rules on the final round of scenes.   Which turns into a mini Beyoncé concert.   

Character Study

In most of my courses, I will get my students to observe a person in the wild.    I ask them to observe a random stranger, who is significantly different to them.   Can be age / gender / physical build.    I ask them to imagine a backstory for that person.   I then guide them in a meditative type visualisation exercise.   They close their eyes and imagine they are the person they studied at home looking in the mirror.   I ask them to get ready for work, make breakfast and walk to work in character.    I get them to focus on both the inner and outer life on the character.   Their physicality and voice.  I then hot seat them by asking a range of questions about their hopes, dreams, fears, family, friends, hobbies, relationships etc..   I feel this Stanislavskian approach to initial character development helps bring depth across all future ones too.   

Genre Cauldron

The first thing I do before working on Genre with my students is to get them into small groups and visualise a cauldron in front of them.    I then call out a genre of play / tv / film and they imagine they’re throwing tropes from that style into a giant cauldron. 

For example if I say “Horror Movie” they could throw into the cauldron ‘Jump scares, high school jock, Phone disconnected / no coverage, red herring suspects, abandoned place, revenge, shadows, lights cutting out, tension music, blood and gore etc...’.    This really gets their neural pathways working in the right way for genre-based games such as Storyteller Die, Pan Left, Film Show and Genre Rollercoaster.   This also helps people who are more unfamiliar with certain styles and gets them thinking about the cliches of certain genres which is where much of the comedy comes from in those games. 

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James regularly teaches at Hoopla, his next course starts in September. You can also see him in improv action on the Hoopla stage as part of Dreamweaver Quartet.  www.hooplaimpro.com

Hoopla teacher Jinni Lyons talks about how to create a Solo Improv Show.

Jinni Lyons created her solo improv show, Jinni Lyons is an Only Child, in 2013, which she has toured nationally and internationally, including a headlining slot at the Women in Comedy Festival in Boston, USA.  I spoke to hear this week to find out what adivce she had for solo performers. 

Hi Jinni, I’ve seen your solo show so many times and always loved it! And wondered do you have any tips for improvisers wanting to create their own solo show? 

Jinni: Gosh, this is an oddly tricky question, but I will try to answer it:

1) Ask yourself why you want to do a solo improv show.  You need to know that there's a solid reason for doing it - whether it's because you think it looks like fun, because you want the challenge, because you have a great idea you want to try out...  Doing it because you feel like you should do one to tick that particular performance box won't support you as you develop the show.

2) Get an outside eye.  Even more so than when working in a group, you need someone to tell you how your show looks, what's working, what isn't, what needs to improve. It's hard to assess your own performance, and much easier to have someone else direct a rehearsal so you don't just eat biscuits and stare out of the window, telling yourself that you're 'thinking about it'... You don't necessarily need to ask a solo performer,

but do ask someone who improvises in a way that you like!

3) Use a notebook.  I don't have anyone to debrief with after shows, so I make notes the next day - what I did, what I liked, what I want to work on.  I also write down nice things that people said, to look at when I'm feeling insecure and wondering why the hell I'm putting myself through this!

4) If you're going to be playing multiple characters, you need to work on characters. All the time.  Work on how to create believable, individual characters that are obviously different from one another - whether vocally, physically, or emotionally.  Preferably all three.

5) On the other side of that coin, if you're going to be moving between multiple characters, you need to have a good 'neutral'.  Use that neutral to move between characters, so the audience just sees the characters, not you moving between them - if you're dashing from one end of the stage to the other, it'll look like one big mess, without clear distinctions.

6) Listen to yourself and keep it simple.  I don't need to say any more on that, because I'm keeping it simple!

7) Play! It's your show, and you can do what you goddamn like with it.  You can change it in rehearsal, just as you're about to go on, or even when you're on stage if you want to.  It's YOURS. Enjoy it, enjoy yourself.

Thanks Jinni, this is great!!  See you on the Hoopla stage again soon x 

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You can see Jinni in improv action in Jinni Lyons Is An Only Child, Bumper Blyton and hear on Destination podcast. 

She regularly teachers the Long-Form Improv Course at Hoopla. http://www.hooplaimpro.com/long-form-improv-course.html

Blog created by Angela, Hoopla Production Assistant.