games and lessons
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 Read more
LOOK AWAY! DAY TO DAY IMPROVISATION is a collection of exercises anyone can do almost anywhere to practice their improvisation skills every day. Improvisers often miss the obvious. A common note after the show revolves around the fact that everyone in the audience saw the offer that the improviser ignored. Read more
STAGE DIRECTIONS He said / She said The misconception that improvisation should always be effortless leads many people to avoid useful exercises that might take some effort to learn. “He said / She said” or “Stage Directions” is one of those exceptional games that benefit improvisers who play the game Read more
POPCORN Ages ago I was looking at impro resource sites on the web and found a warm-up exercise called POPCORN. It seemed pointless at first but quickly proved to be a useful tool in the right situations. GAME: POPCORN ORIGIN: Unknown BENEFITS: Dealing with Failure Partnership Reaction Awareness # PEOPLE: Read more
EYELID THEATRE DAY TO DAY IMPROVISATION is a collection of exercise anyone can do almost anywhere to practice their improvisation skills every day. Here’s a practice technique for seeing stories without aggressively forcing them. Improvisers who work too hard to create strong Narrative work rarely do. They push so hard Read more
Curse of the PHARAOHS A game of unpredictable death I’ve just been in Egypt and had the great fortune to be hosted by Improviser Ramsi Lehner whose father just happens to be Mark Lehner, one of the most revered Egyptologists in the world. As we moved around the Read more
DOSE OF DESTRUCTION, PINCH OF POISON “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” Pablo Picasso When Improvisers protect every rule, idea and philosophy they’ve learned, they risk creating an unbreakable box that they cannot imagine their way out of. This is a great danger for fear-filled improvisers Read more
TERRIFIC TORMENT Playful torment is the cornerstone of humorous interaction. I used to perform at children’s festivals where I would interact with families as one of the characters I had developed. One of my favourite characters was a loudmouth masked character with big lips and googly eyes. He was good-natured, Read more
GHOST IMPROVISER Hints and suggestions can excite an audience’s imagination more than all the blatant words and images we forcefully create. Build the outline of a character and the audience will fill in the rest. (usually with the elements of their own lives). Here’s a “solo” exercise that mixes, impro, Read more
DRESS REHEARSAL – the game – I got into the car with my friend Lee. We were off to Impro class. Lee asked what we were going to do in the class: “Didn’t you get the script?” I joked. “I did but I’m a bit confused about page 23.” Of Read more