Games You CAN NOT Play Anymore

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GAMES YOU CAN'T PLAY ANYMORE...

“CAN’T PLAY?!?!?! But I’m an Improviser!!!
I can do anything I want!! I’m free to be ME and do whatever I want to do!”

Yeah… sure.

You CAN do ANYTHING you want… And then deal with the negative fall-out of your audience, sponsors and other cast members.

The artistic director says you can’t swear on stage. Your particular commitment to morality prevents you from certain religious or sexual topics. Sensitivity to political correctness means avoiding talk about divisive issues, politicians or topics. There are some games and exercises that you are less likely to play and some that you simply can’t.

Most of the games below can be manipulated to work just fine in your culture and company if tweaked a bit. I’ve made some suggestions with each exercise.

There will always be people who will accuse you of being wrong, offensive or insensitive. The best you can do is to move forward with the best intentions.

So, Express yourself in a way that makes you feel comfortable and deal with the feedback that will arise. Take a look and feel free to mention the games and exercises I’ve missed which you’ve decided to take out of your repertoire.

A Keith Johnstone game originally created to highlight the importance of “PASSENGERS” onstage.

A waiter and customer in a restaurant unknowingly share the same speech impediment. Believing that the other person is making fun of them, they each are indignant and try to bring the passenger (another customer) into a difficult discussion.

Many people feel a growing discomfort playing characters who speaks differently than they do.

Played as intended, it highlights an interesting attitude reflected in society about those who are different than what is considered normal.

Alterations & Suggestions

This is a difficult one. If you make the speech impediment "absurd" (speak like birds with tiny beaks) your cast might see no issues.
Keith's suggestion was to stick your tongue into the side of your cheek so that it is almost impossible to talk. Understanding each other becomes very difficult and leads to more truthful misunderstandings. (a valuable gift) BUT some people have commented that the players sound like they are mocking individuals with recognizable disorders.
Try it in rehearsal and see how you feel about it. Open the discussion and see what you discover.

As a warm up before before the first scene this game has been played as a silly, warm up, awareness game.

A cast of improvisers participate in a group scene. They must leave the scene if another improviser tags them on their bottom.

The last time I played it, a director set this up with men and women aged 15 – 60. Not a good look for an older man to slap a younger girl.

I slapped my own ass and left the scene.

Meant as an exercise in spontaneity and encouraging players to break their self judgement, this exercise offends some people by it’s apparent use of violence.

One character is being interrogated by an authority who asks questions, attempting to pull a spontaneous story from them. When the interrogator believes that the answers are delayed, contrived or avoiding the actual question, they “hit” the other player – WITH A LONG BALLOON, FOAM SWIMMING NOODLE, or something equally non-violent or pain inducing.

Some people express that it triggers bad feelings or “seems wrong”.

I would agree the optics makes this one look wrong IF the interrogator is a man and the person being questioned is a woman. And I would respect those who want to avoid it for their own triggering reasons. It is however one of the most effective exercises to get people out of their head and stop pre-planning

Alterations & Suggestions

This is a difficult one to alter. Those who complain about being in their head LOVE this game.
The visceral experience of an object in contact (even if it is just a balloon) creates a feeling of immediacy and interferes with the ability to control the scene or to pre-plan.
A Keith Johnstone alternative called the BORIS game involves an imaginary torturer who might "pluck all of your nose hairs". The commitment to the illusion helps some improvisers, but leaves others in their heads as usual.
Avoid Interrogation with audience members or when there are gender sensitivities.

Not necessarily linked to any particular game, the use of accents has become a hot button topic for some who see it as ‘making fun of a particular race or culture’.

I was in Singapore when Derek Flores played a character with a strong East Indian accent. Our audience was 1/3 Indian.

After the show, the overwhelming reaction from those who approached us (50 people at least) was how much they enjoyed Derek’s attempt at the accent which sounded like everyone’s Uncle.

There’s no clear cut rule here except to say that playing above stereotypes is a must and knowing your audience and stage partners sensitivities.

Sometimes the attempt is a gift to the audience.

Alterations & Suggestions

As I mentioned, this content falls in grey territory. As a white man, I have never encountered issues playing Norwegian, Irish, British or Aussie accents (as poorly done as my accents are) but I worry about non "white" associated accents in my case.
One suggestion here is to manufacture NEW accents. Ryan Bellville would play a generic east European accent from a made up country Istovania.
There's actually an accent game where two accents are mixed which can help you find non-definable accents.
You could also ask permission to play the character. Just be sensitive and respectful.

Here’s a warm-up game that works on name recall, reaction, and awareness.

Standing in a circle a person’s name is called out. They must duck down to avoid the instant shootout between the players on either side of them.

The problem for some people in this game is the guns. Especially with younger groups or American groups, there is a hesitation to use weapons.

A Keith Johnstone game originally created to train Status and being obvious. This one falls into a grey zone often because of who teaches it and where the emphasis is placed.

I emphasize the element of learning to fail and taking Risk as well as being obvious in this game.

The King/Queen sits on the throne. People approach and try to be good servants. If the Monarch sees a problem (the servant touches the King or fails to respond to requests, etc) the King/Queen claps their hands killing the Servant.

The next servant should do better having learned what DOESN’T work.

Of course, some people don’t like the end result of killing.

Alterations & Suggestions

I love the depth of what is learned in this game. I keep the killing but don't emphasize it. It's immediate and most people enjoy the dramatic death.
If you feel it won't work for your group, the Monarch could clap their hands and "fire" the person. (Keith even has a method of removing servants where guards come in and drag the servant off as they beg to be given another chance.)You could have the "clapping" trigger a trap door and they go flying out of the castle (or into a dungeon unless that offends)

Few of you have probably ever heard of this training method.

The concern raised by some in this master/servant training comes from the insensitivity of the master whose servant is in a wheelchair.

The good natured servant repeatedly apologizes for the delay in bringing the book from the top shelf of the bookshelf or the ‘fumbling around’ when carrying the master to bed.

The master remains insensitive to any difficulty the servant has. He demands efficiency and the seemingly impossible.

Those who demonize this training scenario cite the mistreatment of the servant in the wheelchair. Those who enjoy this scenario understand that this relationship is absurd. When the outcome plays out justifiably, it is a great metaphor pointing out the insensitivity part of society has for those with less ability.

If you are uncertain about the place that this scenario has on stage explore it in practice and incorporate the suggestions below.

Alterations & Suggestions

This is a difficult one to alter. The strong impact of the scenario comes from what offends people.

I might make a suggestion that if you want to explore this, REMEMBER to keep the servant in a POSITIVE state.
At his core, the Master should very much care for the servant even though he is frustrated by some of the outcomes of their relationship.
A positive relationship solves many issues. You'll never be able to change how audience members handle their own biases to what's implied in this scene.

Hands on Knees is a performance and practice game that works on performer reactions and comedy timing/pacing.

In a restricted movement scenario (airplane, bus, etc) the person in the middle seat makes physical contact with the knees of the strangers on either side. The character has no understanding that they are doing it and deny it when accused of making contact.

It’s fun to watch and enjoyably emotional to play. For some people, there is an awkward connection to inappropriate contact, and denying a ‘victim’s claims’.

Again, the intention of the exercise is innocent and falls into the comedy category of the audience knowing what the performer doesn’t.

“Fixing” this game for those who are sensitive to it is almost impossible without destroying the comedic elements and the practical teaching elements.

Alterations & Suggestions

Don't play it if you feel your group is sensitive to the contact.
Avoid the game if the person in the middle is a man and the women are the other characters, especially if their legs are exposed (shorts, dresses).
With that said... Play it like all of these games if you can set your cast and the audience at ease that all of the performers are enthusiastically willing.
This game doesn't work by "touching shoulders" or other body parts. The mechanics are wrong when sitting side by side.

Clap Stomp is a warm up exercise that works on play with rhythm and change.

I find it difficult to play (so it’s probably a good one for me to do more of) but others find the gender association problematic.

Standing in a circle, you focus on each person briefly. If the person is “a man”, everyone claps. If the person is “a woman”, everyone stomps. The action goes around and around in a rhythm. Clap Clap Stomp Clap Stomp Stomp Stomp.
Anyone can step back and their spot in the rhythm is exchanged for a pause in the timing. Clap Clap (pause if that person has stepped back)

The issue some people have is that the game assigns two genders and ignores a person who identifies as neither.

Easily fixed…

Alterations & Suggestions

In this situation all you need to do is have recognizable markers that everyone chooses (or hats, or scarves)
Instead of gender triggering the action, people wearing a hat or red arm band or whatever you use will indicate the group's reaction.
This solution creates other possibilities. Having another 'marker' of some sort could allow for another behaviour- STOMP YOUR FEET (for people wearing hat), CLAP HANDS (for people with a scarf). Raise your hands and yell (if the person has neither)

YOU CAN’T SING ANYMORE!
No, that’s not what I wrote. SIGN-ing.

This one has been fading away from use for many years. It involved an improviser giving a speech while another improviser stands behind the first one while SIGNing for “the hearing impaired”.

The physical interpretations of the translation hold the comedy as the quick, physical gestures try to make sense of the speakers words. The return of previously used signs illicits laughs of recognition as previous parts of the speech are reincorporated.

BUT… For those sensitive to offending viewers you might need to change how you package the exercise.

Alterations & Suggestions

The 'offensive' quality for some people might lay in the way an element of a disability is treated. The way around it again could just be in packaging it. Announce that you would like to have a mime translation of the speech for the rest of the arts community and Phillip just happens to be the best Mime translator you have. This MIGHT help if you still want to play a version of the game. You could switch to being more inclusive and add an emotion translator for those who need to feel the speech more... you could add operatic, and other forms. Careful though... it already is a "Hoop Game" and doesn't offer much to a show. (maybe use it once a year if you like it).

This warm up exercise is a rhythm and response game. People stand in a circle and are assigned a number based on where they stand in the circle.

When mistakes are made, your location and number change and you have to remember to respond to the new number if it comes up.

The point of contention people are having with this warm up game is in the use of the term “BIG BOOTY”.

Some people find it offensive to what appears to be the sexualization of a female body part (even though there is no explicit mention of a woman). Others find some offense in the term “Big Booty” as a term taken from Black culture.

Personally I’m not a fan of the game. If you are a fan and offended… look below.

Keith Johnstone used insults as a training tool to get people to react. The insults didn’t even have to make sense as long as the person receiving the insult had a strong reaction.

The exercise has its roots as far back as Shakespeare. Probably earlier.

Because of the uncertainty of what could be said, some people complain that the exercise could lead to truly offending someone.

…I have to say at this point that if the possible consequences of spontaneity might offend you then improvisation is probably not for you.

OBVIOUSLY, There are no games that can’t be played. Someone will criticized anything you can offer. We live in a time where being offended is seen as a badge of awareness or a show of superiority by some people.

Improvisation, by it’s nature, is a dangerous, risky wonderful playground where we can step back and forth across lines, exploring the rough and raw edges of our cultures. It’s a chance to hold a mirror up to society and ask why are we so scared of “THIS” behaviour or “THAT”?

You choose what you do. Be brave. Have a reasonable amount of sensitivity to those in your audience who think differently than you do but don’t be caught up in burning a book before you read it or virtue signaling a behaviour because everyone else is doing it. Think for yourself, adapt and Improvise.

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GAMES YOU CAN'T PLAY ANYMORE...

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GAMES YOU CAN'T PLAY