WHISPERING ANGELS & DEMONS

INTRO: Whispering Angels and Demons

Years ago at the great Wuerzburg Improvisation festival in Germany, I was asked to do a warmup exercise for about 200 improvisers.

Warm up exercises should serve a purpose. Since most people had never met before, an exercise to help people introduce themselves in a fun way might be useful.

When we are told to introduce ourselves we usually give cold, textbook introductions – Names, years of improvising, identification numbers. No play. No fun. Little real connection.

I suggested that before actual introductions, people should walk around and whisper into each other’s ears, giving each other gifts of superpowers, cool imaginary objects, extraordinary attitudes and behaviours. THEN, when they sat in the circle and introduced themselves they could include these extra gifts that others gave to them (as if they were a part of their true reality)

Another workshop teacher,  said that in normal introductions with groups, he recognized how some people would disconnect and “check out” after they had talked about themselves. In this exercise, he found that everyone would listen more because they were interested if one of their suggestions would be mentioned and how the superpower fit into their real life.

Eventually, the warm up exercise evolved into a character exercise.
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GAME: WHISPERING ANGELS  

ORIGIN: Shawn in Wuerzburg, Germany

BENEFITS: The Introduction version of the game creates a quick connection and playful interaction. It introduces a concept called SUPER DEFINITION. Variation 2 creates hidden agendas for people to play with in scenes and gives permission to play villains when people are reluctant to step into the dark side.

# PEOPLE: Groups  

PROCEDURE:  Feel free to keep the procedure as loose or narrow as you find suits your situation. Here is the WHISPERING ANGEL VARIATION.  I use it when I have a new group that I suspect are nervous or guarded about revealing information about themselves to each other.   

1. – Have everyone stand up and raise one hand in the air. 
2. – Tell them that the first objective is to try to get everyone’s hands down.  They lower their hand when someone whispers* a suggestion for a superpower that the person could possibly have.   For example – Fitz has his hand up and is mingling in the group. Kitty sees him and goes over and whispers into his ear that his superpower is Reading the minds of people around him.
   (*Whispering gives us a feeling of sharing secrets and having complicity with another person.)
3. When you have your superpower your hand comes down. (If you have a little more time, you can suggest that their hand comes down when two or three people whispers superpowers to them. That gives people some choice in the next section and it allows for more playful contact between more combinations of people.)
4. Where possible – give someone a power that comes out of behaviour or qualities that are already apparent. Kitty noticed that Fitz had distinctive glasses. She amplified the glasses to give Fitz SUPER SIGHT which allows him to see more than normal- through people and into their minds.
5. Sit down together as a group and introduce yourselves briefly. Include your superpower. If possible, include where you think that superpower might exist in your life. “My name is Fitz, and my superpower is I can see the future… which might have some truth because I finish everyone’s sentences!”

Later on, you can mention that the technique of amplifying an existing quality of a person, or behaviour is called Super Definition* (see the end of this article for more). You see Super Definition in most superhero movies where a person has a power that is usually just a magnified version of something in their life. (The American TV Series HEROES or the British series, MISFITS are good examples)