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 Rory Vieyra share his favourite warmup games.

Here are Hoopla teacher Rory Vieyra's favourite improv warm-up games and what they help with. 

Mimic

Everyone stands in a circle and someone says something. It can be a movie quote, song lyric or something from real life. The next person in the circle observes the person saying the quote and then mimics exactly what they saw to the next person in circle. Over time it will change and get weird. They key is to copy the person next to you and not anyone previous.

Good for being silly, listening and getting physical.

Mind Meld

The goal is for two people to say things together until they reach the same word. It begins by one person saying "one," the second person saying "two," and then both people counting to three together. They then say anything at all - a person, place, idea, concept, phrase: anything. Then we think what the thing between those two things or associated with those two things would be. We repeat the one, two, three and try to use the two previously stated things to arrive at a third, common one. You free associate together, attempting to reach the same word, then everyone shouts Mind Meld and does a dance.

Good for forming a group mind, listening and building on others ideas.

Two Penises

Is a fun game where everyone in a circle starts chants 'Two Penises, two penises, what would you do with 2 penises?' The first person says 'The first one i would XYZ.' then the next person tries to rhyme with the final bit of the previous statement with the second penis 'The second one I would XYZ.'

E.G. 'The first one I would throw in the fire, The second one I would give to a liar.'

Then everyone chants 'Two Penises, two penises, what would you do with 2 penises?' together before repeating the game with the next people until you get bored or everyone has had a turn.

It's good for being silly, listening to the other person and embracing the failure.

8 Things

Can be done in pairs or as a group. Someone jumps into the circle and then someone on the outside says '8 Types of X.' It can be anything Dogs, Cheese, space pirates it doesn't matter. Then the person in the centre lists 8 things in the category while the people on the outside count them off.

Good for getting your mind in the zone, positivity and support

I'm a whisk

The players stand on the stage/around the room. Player A goes to the middle, strikes a pose and says who or what they represent. For example, he lifts his arms over his head and says 'I am a tree.' A second player arrives, adds to the picture, and also says who or what he is. A third player enters the scene and completes the suggestions from A and B.

Now that the scene is finished, player A leaves the stage taking one of the other players with them. The other player stays on the stage and repeats their sentence (without changing their pose) As a result he offers a suggestion for a new scene.

This exercise can take place with any number of players.

Good for physicality, supporting and Yes And-ing

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Rory regularly teaches at hoopla as well as performing.  You can see him in improv action in Music Box.  www.hooplaimpro.com

Hoopla teacher Rhiannon Vivian’s Top 5 Tips for Beginners & warm up games.

Rhiannon Vivian’s Top 5 Tips for Beginners

So I think the best advice has to come from your own experience. Despite having done improv for ten years now, I still remember my first class as clear as day. With that in mind, here’s my top 5 tips for beginners:

1.    Don’t worry about what other people think of you. I remember going to class thinking people would think I wasn’t well versed in things, good enough at accents, didn’t stand up straight enough, good enough in general…The list goes on. First of all, you’re awesome for just showing up! Second of all, everyone else will be so preoccupied with themselves that no offence, they probably won’t notice any of the stuff you’ll be worrying about - real or imagined!

2.    Be as present as possible. Don’t plan what you’re going to say or try and second guess the game or what your teammate might say. You won’t be able to. And that’s part of the joy. It’s one of the few times in your life you’re actively asked to be underprepared. Celebrate that freedom! 

3.    Be kind and open and listen. Listen to what people say in scenes. Not just a bit, but right to the end of their sentences. That’s often where the gold is.

4.    You might be nervous. That’s cool. Imagine your nerves as a big wave you’re gonna ride. Don’t try and get rid of them or get cross with yourself for having them. They’re totally normal. It’s just a question of getting used to that tidal wave of mild, brief (or maybe in some cases strong) feeling of nausea. Imagine your nausea as a regular, normal if slightly annoying next-door neighbour, that you say good morning to. Normalise it!

5.    Make the other person look good. Give people gifts. If your teammate loves sci-fi maybe drop some into a scene. If they love doing accents maybe endow them with one and watch them light up with joy. Make them look epic and you’ll look epic in the process. Use your intuition and try to avoid deliberately wrong-footing people or endowing them with something you know they’ll hate. For example, I can’t think of a single female improviser who is glad to be endowed with being a prostitute. Just so y’know. Maybe don’t go there ;) 

Rhiannon Vivian’s Top 5 Warm-up Games

I love surreal stuff, wordy stuff and character games. They can really get you out of your sensible brain which is what we want:

1.    What’s on your stupid T-shirt. I love this warm up because it’s so daft and so simple. There’s a chant of ‘what’s on your stupid T-shirt,’ then in a circle, players endow someone next to them by describing what’s on their imaginary T-shirt. The player who owns that T-shirt then has to caption it. Simple as! Puns are fun, but the best ones are the bonkers ones that make no sense at all.

2.    Character dial-up. Taking a small character quirk and line of dialogue and passing it across the circle, each time cranking up the affectations by 1%. By the end, when you’ve got 4 or 5 going, it looks like an absolute nonsense mess and is extremely funny.

3.    Mind Meld. I love words and this is a simple game where you say a word at the same time as someone else. Then all the players have to do is try and find a word in the middle of those two words, that encompasses both and say it at the same time as another player. Mind Meld!

4.    Not gonna lie, the best time to make up new improv games is after a few beers. If they still stand up in the morning, they’re going to get released into the improv universe. I made up a game with Lloydie from the Maydays that is a verbal version of Dutch Clapping (the cool clapping game where if you both put your hands in the same direction you celebrate with a high ten). You’re In The Army Now is just that, but with words! You’ve got four options: Left Tennant, Down Tennant, Up Tennant and Right Tennant. Just say them at each other at the same time. If you accidentally say the same one at the same time, then you celebrate by shouting ‘You’re in the Army Now!’ Easy! I implore everyone to make up at least one new improv game during their lifetime. 

5.    This one is from Chicago. Thanks Chicago! Ever wanted to make a remix machine out of humans? Yeah you do! Using clapping at the same time, different sets of words that would suit a rap or dance track (yeah! Woo! Alright!) are said by players in a circle simultaneously. Reverse the circle by double clapping. Soon enough you get a very limited but super cool human remix machine!

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